Update 9:30 BST 30/07/23: Although Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 has now been revealed, it's been largely accepted by the community that the El Tigre leak is fake.
An alleged leak showing El Tigre as one of the newcomers in the long-rumoured Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 has promoted a response from both the show's creator and one of the lead developers of the first game, all but confirming the sequel's existence.
Despite causing a ton of buzz when it was first announced, it's fair to say that Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl didn't quite live up to expectations, which saw most players dropping it shortly after launched due to a lack of content. The bones of a great fighting game were there, though, which made the prospect of a sequel that rights all the first game's wrongs quite exciting.
Well, good news - there's even more evidence that a sequel is on the way. Earlier this year, leaked screenshots showed a new move for Patrick, a new model for Danny Phantom that seems to use 2D facial expressions, and suggested that Squidward would be joining the roster. Then, last month, a leaked image claimed to show the game's box art, which also confirmed that Vlad Plasmius, Jimmy Neutron, and TMNT's Raphael would become playable.
All of that was reasonable evidence for a sequel, but the latest leak has all but confirmed it. Over on the Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl subreddit, Redditor Own_Philosopher_2008 shared an image showing El Tigre fighting Garfield in what appears to be a test map, along with the caption, "The cats in the roof at 3 AM".
Not only does El Tigre's model look legitimate, but it also lines up with the previous leaks we've had of Danny, Squidward, and Patrick, as they all took place on the same map. If that wasn't enough for you to start considering that Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 is happening, then the responses from El Tigre's creator and a key developer on the first game might do it.
After the leak was posted on Reddit, El Tigre's creator Jorge R. Gutierrez shared an image of the leak on his Instagram saying, "Here comes a new challenger!". Gutierrez also shared the same leak on Twitter saying, "Guess who's back!". This isn't the first time that Gutierrez has mentioned it either, as he suggested that several El Tigre characters would be joining a "certain fighting Nick game" in an Instagram Q&A last week.
To make things even more concrete, Thaddeus Crews, one of the lead developers involved with the first Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, shared the "this is fine" meme on Twitter after the leak. In a later tweet, he said, "Nevermind this is awesome I get to fuck with people again", seemingly confirming the sequel once and for all. We'll just have to wait for the official announcement now, which doesn't seem that far off now that we all know about the game.