Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion XL

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List Price: $39.99
Sale Price: $38.99
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One day, I was thinking to myself...

What would it be like to put other characters in a super smash brothers style fighter. Here, I got my answer. Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion XL is a very good take on the subject. With characters from my childhood, leading to the shows i like today, just playing the game with friends is just amazing.

THE GAME ITSELF:

The game plays alot like Super Smash Bros. Brawl but with different gimmick's such as;

+The Damage gimmick is still in this game, but if a player hits more then 300% damage in story mode, they will automatically die without warning.

+The final smash (re-named Punch Time Explosion in this game) can be used at anytime, as long as the player has enough energy cubes to do it. but, the PTE button takes up a certain button, whereas smash bros brawl uses its neutral B/1 (special attack) to use a final smash. to sum it all up, the final smash system is pretty good, but the fact that it uses one button and that one button isn't used at all but that one thing is pretty useless to me.

PROS:

+ This game features an "unlock shop", were the player can buy extra character's (only character's that were featured in the 3DS version as assist are available to purchase) more costumes for your favorite character, more stages to fight on, and even hilarious memorable clips from my favorite CN shows!

+ The game takes alot of arena's from different CN shows, to be exact, each CN show in the game gets 2 to 3 arena's to play on.

+ The RowdyRuff Boy's are playable

+ Very catchy theme song.

CONS:

The game is Ed, Edd, and Eddy less... (I have read that Cartoon Network sold the rights of the Edd's to a different company after "big picture show").

The Assist character's harm the summoner as well (only General Scar and Madam Foster are the only known assist characters that don't hard the summoner).

The UI in game could be re-sized to the point were I don't have to squint my eyes to see my damage percent.

A chunk of the character roster needs to be unlocked by completing story mode (you only start with 9 characters).

Some CPU players walk on air at times.

synergy attacks is a 1 in 28 chance to land on the right character (to preform a synergy attack, the player has to collect a summon cube. However, the character that comes out has to be the one that matches your character in some way. (ex: Fred Fred Burger and Ben, Gwen and Blossom, Edwardo and Bubbles, and Numbah 2 and Scotsman)).

STORY MODE:

The story mode could use some work. I was expecting character voice overs, not blossom yelling "I'm blossom!" with subtitles stating something completely different. Pretty much the only character that actually speaks outside of subtitles is the narrator, and he's no fun to listen to on some occasions. Sometimes you run into stuff that can be easily avoided, but you HAVE to do so to continue on.

PROS:

+4 player story mode co-op, were as Super Smash Bros. Brawl only has 2.

+Very funny dialogue.

+bubbles always makes the game more fun to play, because she mistakenly makes fun of almost everyone she comes across.

CONS:

-platforming is not a challenge here

-the Dexter's FPS challenge works terrible with the Wiimote+Numchuck/Wiimote alone controllers.

-Mini games within the level can get repetitive.

-the story mode is too short in my opinion, Even on hard, i managed to make it though the entire game without getting a game over once.

REPLAY VALUE:

6/10

Gets Boring alone after awhile, only appeals to fellow CN fan's.

OVERALL SCORE: 4/5

I love how Cartoon Network gave me my childhood back with a mix of my favor ate fighting game, if your looking for a inexpensive Wii Fighter, this is the game to buy for the holiday's!

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This game is pretty much a straight clone of super smash bros. for those that arent familiar with smash bros. it is essentially a 2 d fighting game with the roster consisting of nintendo characters and arenas inspired by nintendo games. Now take that concept and replace nintendo with cartoon network and you have this game and thats not a bad thing, for me anyway. I have enjoyed smash bros and i think its very entertaining, i just prefer to play as samurai jack or johhny bravo instead of link or wario. Just my preference thats all. Now for this game itself, its surprisingly well done. You can tell the people working on the game definately had an appreciation of the source material. A generous roster of Characters that all have unique moves that suit them, tons of assist characters and a good amount of modes and unlockables keep this entertaining. My only real gripe with this game is the overall lack of polish. I own the 360 version and the graphics arent great wich is sad because the menus and some of the animation during certain story segments look crisp and vibrant in hd, then you start playing the game and i guess considering these are all cartoon characters i was hoping more for an interactive cartoon but instead its kind of bland. The sound could have been more punchy. It sometimes doesent feel like your hits connect because the sound is kind of weak. Lastly, more characters please. This isnt really a complaint because like i said before, the roster is pretty generous. 26 total playable characters and some of the them have costume variants that give the illusion of more characters such as the powerpuff girls can be replaced as the rowdy ruff boys. Its just bound to happen in this fan service type of game where you end up thinking, i wish this character or that character was in here. So to sum this review up, this is an enjoyable game. If you like smash bros and cartoon network you will like this. Fingers crossed for a sequel with more everything, mostly polish.

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I used to have so much trouble deciding what to get for the men and boys in my life for the holidays. I've now learned that you can't go wrong with a video game. My nephew is obsessed with the Wii and I cannot believe how good he is at it! He is constantly correcting me while we play, which is good because I get really frustrated when I get stuck. We had a lot of fun playing Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion XL for Wii.

There are 26 playable characters and 26 battle arenas. My favorite thing about this game is that once you beat a character, you can then play as them. Up to four people can play at a time and there is also a pretty cool story mode. Punch Time Explosion XL is rated Everyone 10+ by the ESRB. This is a really fun game for both kids and adults. Beware though, if you are anything like me, you are going to need a little help from the kids. I really like that though because adults are always teaching kids how to do things and it's really neat to see a child's face after they have taught you something. I love it!

Read Best Reviews of Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion XL Here

I caught this game on a Christmas Deal, so I payed fairly under regular price for it.'

If you're familiar with video games, this one plays just like Super Smash Bros., from it's story mode to the Battle Mode which is really the meat of the game.

It clones the gameplay pretty well, though there are a lot of balancing issues between the various characters, so don't expect play sessions to get as competitive as they do with most other fighting games out there.

Most of the characters are LOCKED before beating the Story Mode, same as SSM, and the Story Mode will take an hour to two hours to complete, depending on how thorough you are (a friend and I literally ran through it whenever we could on Co-Op Mode) One thing I have to note is that while there is a CO-OP Mode to the Story Mode in the game, there are SEVERAL portions that are ONE PLAYER ONLY, so your friend is left twiddling the thumbs at least one a level. Also note that while you will not unlock all the characters through STORY mode, you'll be able to earn enough credits with one play through to unlock the rest in the game's SHOP section.

Another thing to note is that none of the original voice actors actually do any work for this game, so only expect some of the characters to sound like they should, and expect others to sound WAY off (Father from KND is nowhere close)

My final complaint is that the Save Data in not transferrable. You can copy it to and from a memory stick or flash drive, but it's locked to the User account it was created on and there's no way around this, so if you want to bring it to a friends' house with all the unlockable characters, you'll need to bring your PS3 as well.

Overall, this is a cool game to say you own, and to show friends when they come over, but that's it. You won't get hooked in like other fighting games, and you'll probably want to play something else after about a half hour to an hour.

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Compared with this "enhanced" version of "Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion", the 3DS version is merely a prototype !

It's basically the same game but with new stuff added to it. It's got the original 18 characters (Yes, even Captain Planet. Go get the Season 1 DVD set from Shout Factory for Gaia's sake !) plus 8 new playable characters. The first half of newbies are Johnny Bravo, Kevin Leven, Aku and Him, who have been "promoted" from their previous appearances as player assists. The other four are new to the scene: Hoss Delgado (spectral exterminator from "The Grim Adventures"), The Toiletnator (pathetic KND villain), The Scotsman (friend/rival of Samurai Jack) and even a young Ben Tennyson (from when he found the Omnitrix device for the very first time).

The story mode is pretty much the same, but up to four players can play together as well as take on each other in different battle modes like PTE Mode to see who can collect the most energy cubes and Drones Mode where you take on numerous enemies. Also, you can earn points to buy new levels (such as the KND Moon Base and Candy Island from "Flapjack"), the aforementioned characters, alternate costumes, and even 30 TV show clips starring your favorite characters ! Another thing, aside from using PTE super attacks and assist characters, you can also use the brand-new special "Synergy Attack" with certain player assists. There are many different combinations of characters and player assists, so you'd better grab that question-marked cube when it appears so you can try them all out !

Well, overall, I have to say it's good, but still, it's not good enough. No sign of any Ed boys no matter how much we demand it (ideas for alternate costumes for the Eds: Ed Lothar the Viking, Edd The Masked Mumbler, Eddy Professor Scam) as does current hits like "Generator Rex", "Adventure Time with Finn and Jake", and "The Amazing World of Gumball". At least some of the voices have been improved and the animation in the gameplay and cutscenes have better flow.

No matter, it'll at least buy me some time until the next "Super Smash Bros." game or perhaps a Nicktoons-themed fighting game. Other games that will satiate my skills include "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy" a similar brawler game and "Cartoon Network Racing" featuring other characters from shows like "Cow and Chicken" and "Courage the Cowardly Dog". Still, it is kind of fun to see which character will prove who's the best.