The 1990’s cartoon nostalgia continues: Ren and Stimpy (from the The Ren & Stimpy Show) will be added to Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, developers Ludosity and Fair Play Labs announced on Tuesday.
The chihuahua-and-cat duo’s knack for darkly comic hijinks — especially Ren’s tendency to aggressively vent his rage — make them a no-brainer to add to this Smash-like platform fighter. The duo will function as a tag-team that works as a single playable brawler. Basically, they’ll be using each other as weapons, according to a PlayStation Blog. They’ll be joining a growing cast of iconic characters from the network, including those from SpongeBob Squarepants, Danny Phantom, and Avatar: The Last Airbender among others.
The tag-team will have moves and attacks that reference iconic moments in the original 1990’s cartoon, Ludosity project manager Joel Nyström and Fair Play Labs Game Designer Matías R. Singer announced in the post. These include references to the Log from the Blammo advertisement and the ‘Happy Happy Joy Joy’ song. Ren and Stimpy will also move a little more slowly but have a larger attack range, in order to be “welcoming to even novice players” according to the developers.
This seems to continue the theme of developers trying to capture the spirit of the animated shows these characters came from — particularly any memorable moments that have taken off as memes. The developers noted, in the announcement, that “each of Ren & Stimpy’s moves is inspired by a particular scene of the show, but we’ll leave it up to the players to find all the references.”
The Ren & Stimpy Show was so beloved for its classic feel — especially compared to other fan-favorites of the 1990s, like Rugrats, which largely departed from the heightened, mischievous tone of older cartoons. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl seems to be aiming a portal back into those halcyon days.
Source: Polygon
