A developer working on Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 has hinted that it might not feature the full roster from the first game, which has fans scrambling to find evidence for their favourites.
After months of leaks and rumours, Ludosity and Fair Play Labs finally decided to get ahead of it all and reveal that Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 is not only real but that it's coming out later this year. The highlight of the reveal trailer was getting to see a bunch of new characters, including Squidward, Jimmy Neutron, Donatello, and Raphael, but we also saw a bunch of veterans returning to brawl with upgraded looks.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate normalised the idea of fighting game sequels having every single character return for the next big game, but it looks like that might not be the case with All-Star Brawl 2. While talking to Polygon about the sequel, Fair Play Labs studio director Diego Rodriguez was asked about the sequel's roster and if there's anyone from the first game that isn't coming back for round two. In response, Rodriguez was cagey and seemed to imply that at least a few characters wouldn't be making it back.
Rodriguez said, "This is probably one of the hardest decisions we made when we started to design the game — a lot of thought came into it. We looked a lot at the reaction on the roster of the first game, what were the more requested characters by the community and also what we can achieve with the vast list of amazing Nick characters, and of course we had Nick input as well... Just wait a bit and you will know who made it and who didn’t!"
If that's the case, then who's not going to make the cut? Well, we won't know for sure until it's confirmed by Ludosity, but fans have already compiled a list of characters who haven't been seen in the reveal trailer or subsequent screenshots, giving us a decent idea of who we've got to keep an eye out for. The unconfirmed veterans who are currently expected to make a return include Leonardo, Lincoln, and Powered Toast Man, who all have stages confirmed in the game or were spotted in the trailer on a remade version of Wild Waterfall.
Then there are some veterans who have no evidence of returning so far, including Helga, Sandy, Toph, Hugh, Oblina, and Shredder, who don't have any remade stages shown off and haven't been spotted anywhere in promotional material so far. Aside from Oblina, who was never very popular to begin with, it doesn't seem like any of those characters have any reason for being removed, so it's not easy to pick out who might not make it back.