This game features content from the following Cartoon Network shows (an asterisk labels characters and series introduced in XL):
- Dexter's Laboratory: Dexter, Monkey
- Johnny Bravo: Johnny Bravo*
- The Powerpuff Girls (1998): Blossom, Bubbles, Buttercup, Mojo Jojo, HIM*
- Samurai Jack: Jack, Aku*, Scotsman*
- The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: Billy & Mandy, Grim, Hoss Delgado*
- Codename: Kids Next Door: Numbuh One, Father, Toiletnator*
- Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Mac & Bloo
- Ben 10: Young Ben Tennyson*
- Ben 10: Ultimate Alien: Ben Tennyson, Vilgax, Kevin Levin*
- Chowder: Chowder & Kimchi
- The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack: Flapjack, Captain K'nuckles
- Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Captain Planet
Compare with Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, another fighting game with a similar concept. See also Multi Versus, Warner Bros.' later attempt at a crossover platform fighter that features Cartoon Network characters (among others).
This game features the following tropes:
- 11th-Hour Ranger:
- Captain Planet joins the party at the very end of the story mode, freeing everyone from the imminent doom the final boss.
- Samurai Jack joins the group in the final chapter, and is treated in-universe as one of the stronger heroes. Bloo complains that they should have gone to recruit Jack first.
- All Your Powers Combined: Captain Planet is summoned by Ben's Swampfire form, all of the heroes' hearts that got them that far, Mac and Bloo's experiences on the dimension most Earth-like, Captain K'nuckles' experiences on the waters of Stormalong Harbor, and Chowder breaking wind.
- And the Adventure Continues:
- Teenage Ben's arcade ending has him immediately enter another portal to seek tougher competition after defeating HIM.
- In Hoss Delgado's arcade ending, he resolves to continue travelling through the worlds and keep destroying demons.
- Artificial Stupidity:
- During the Cheese protection mission, sometimes Cheese will simply walk off the stage and die, yet the game will penalize the player for not protecting him anyway.
- The computer players will occasionally use their recovery move when they're at the top of the screen, resulting in their own self-destructs.
- Ascended Extra: Aku, Him, Johnny Bravo, and Kevin Levin were all Assist Characters in the 3DS version. They are all fully playable in XL.
- Ascended Meme:
- Billy and Mandy's Synergy attack has Billy scream his infamous "DESTROY US ALL" line from "Attack of the Clowns".
- By getting 9001+ points in XL, you get the achievement/trophy "It's Over 9000!". Appropriate, because the English dub of Dragon Ball Z has actually aired on the network.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Vilgax, HIM and Aku's arcade endings each have them succeed in conquering every dimension. Father also gets a good ending despite him failing to encounter Numbuh One; he manages to defeat every child he comes across and even manages to defeat the adults of each dimension.
- Big Bad: It is, believe it or not, The Narrator's remote control.
- Bittersweet Ending: Parodied; while the villain has been defeated and the heroes have saved their dimensions, the narrator complains it's not a completely happy ending because now he has to get up and change the channels by hand.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Many of the good Cartoon Network characters were brainwashed into becoming violent and attacking anything at a moment's notice, even those that are normally pacifistic and towards friends and family.
- Camera Abuse: Occasionally, launching an opponent off the top of the screen will have them hit the screen. The animation for this is very sudden and rough.
- Chainsaw Good: Hoss Delgado's PTE in the XL version has him shoot chainsaws all over the screen.
- Deus ex Machina: Captain Planet's summoning is completely out of the blue; as this is his primary role in his series, it borders on parody as the narrator stretches logic to match the heroes to the elements required to summon him.
- Developer's Foresight: On most stages, HIM's PTE has him grow large, teleport to the top of the screen as a giant and move around, attacking enemies with his claws. However, on smaller stages where HIM wouldn't have enough room to properly move, the attack is changed to become a rapid-fire claw attack that hits multiple times in a single area around HIM.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Aku can only be defeated by the sword Jack wields in the show he hails from. In this game, he can be harmed by any other playable character and a laser in Dexter's lab, which can defeat him in one hit.
- Downer Ending: Played for Laughs with Toiletnator's arcade ending; despite defeating everyone he comes across, he still fails to get the respect he wanted. He keeps his head held high, but the narration reveals he's utterly broken inside.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Grim's arcade mode ends with him finally escaping from Billy, Mandy, Mac and Bloo after the latter two dragged him through a portal and forced him through several fights for his life. He proceeds to enjoy his newfound peace.
- Escort Mission: At multiple points, you'll be tasked with defeating a number of enemies while keeping an NPC alive, like Mung Daal or Cheese.
- Final Boss: In the story mode, the last boss faced is the Narrator's remote. In the Arcade Mode of the Updated Re Release, Him becomes the final opponent faced.
- Game-Breaking Bug:
- If you lose a life at the same time you fail a protection mission, the entire 3DS will freeze. The Wii version of XL is also prone to random crashes, which require a hard reset.
- KOing an opponent in Arcade Mode on the Ben 10 city stage right when you're transported to the alien dimension will leave you unable to finish the level. You can jump off the platforms, but you'll fall forever, forcing a quit.
- Gangplank Galleon: Stormalong Harbor, a set of docks and ships in the middle of the ocean.
- Gang Up on the Human: During the 1 Vs. 3 level of Arcade mode, the computer players will all team up against the player character.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The Narrator's Remote Control has little to no foreshadowing toward its status as the game's final boss.
- Guest Fighter: Captain Planet is the only character who isn't a Cartoon Network original - his show having predated the network by two years - although the show did air as reruns on said channel.
- Heart Beat-Down: Captain Planet's Punch Time Explosion attack has him use all of the elements (earth, fire, wind, and water) and end it with an explosion of heart energy, proving that Heart Is an Awesome Power.
- Home Stage: For all of the series represented in the game with playable characters, listed above, there are three stages (two for The Powerpuff Girls and Ben 10 series) based on locations from their original shows. The exceptions are the Johnny Bravo and Captain Planet series, which have no stages at all.
- Lemony Narrator: Though never seen, the narrator is heavily implied to be Space Ghost (in his Coast to Coast incarnation) given his occasional snark, him being voiced by George Lowe, his less than subtle reference to Moltar in the ending, and the fact that he opens up the story by saying "Greetings, citizens!"
- Lethal Joke Character:
- Toiletnator may seem like a joke, but his toilet attacks provide him awesome range, and his Punch Time Explosion summons a giant toilet with powerful whirlpools that can trap anyone with ease.
- Flapjack is a small 7-year-old in a fighting game with only little pieces of candy, a lollipop, and a candy cane boomerang. He can still duke it out with everyone else just fine.
- Let's You and Him Fight: To determine who's going to fight Mojo Jojo, the characters fight each other to prove who's strong enough for the task.
- Mascot Fighter: A platform fighter featuring many of Cartoon Network's series.
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Again, it's a fighting game, but features at least ten different Cartoon Network properties crossing over.
- Mistaken Identity: In his story mode, Kevin Levin mistakes Blossom for his girlfriend Gwen due to them sharing red hair and energy powers.
- Moveset Clone: The Powerpuff Girls share models and a few attacks. They are the fastest in the game alongside Monkey, however:
- Blossom is the most balanced out of the three girls and most of the characters in the game, with an amazing air recovery, decent power and range in her attacks, and strong knockback with her freeze breath and lightning bolt attacks. Her PTE is one of the hardest to use in the game, but once mastered, she can KO anyone with timing and precision.
- Bubbles has a lot of fast attacks in the game, and is one of the few characters that can jump more than once, but she is the weakest character in the game, with only two potential KO attacks (three counting her PTE), and has the lowest range in the game. Her speed and combos are basically her asset.
- Buttercup is one of the few characters with fast speed and above-average strength and rivals Aku and Ben in the power department. She's small so she can't be harmed with certain attacks, and she has a powerful PTE. Her only weakness is that her air abilities aren't that great, and she's more of a close-range fighter.
- Mythology Gag:
- Johnny Bravo's entrance animation, as well as his Synergy animation with Dracula, are a reference to him showing off how studly he is in the season 1 intro of his show. Likewise, when he's dancing with Dracula, he's doing the monkey, just like at the end of the opening.
- Dexter's entrance animation has him trying to activate a remote control. Apparently, he never got that fixed from his cartoon's intro.
- Jack's quote upon dying is "Forgive me, father. I have failed you.", referencing the climax of the episode "Jack and the Zombies" where he said the same thing when Aku tried to kill him with his own sword.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Father breaks into Dexter's lab and sets it aflame to sabotage the heroes, unknowingly sending Ben, Chowder, and Buttercup to the Powerpuff Girls' dimension where they immediately run into and free Blossom and Bubbles.
- Photo Montage: The credits feature photos of the playable characters randomly spread out across the various worlds.
- Pirates vs. Ninjas: One trophy/achievement in the PS3/Xbox 360 versions requires Jack to beat Flapjack and K'nuckles in his ninja costume.
- Platform Fighter: Players can fight and move freely along the stages.
- Power Creep, Power Seep: Due to Cartoon Network's staple shows going from Slice of Life Shows to Adventure Series With superheroes and supervillains, the likes of Mac & Bloo can battle Flying Bricks, Galactic Conquerors, and Master Swordsmen on an equal level. Quite egregious in the case of Ben Tennyson, who, instead of having a Stance System with a select few of his most popular forms as one would expect, fights primarily in human form, transforming briefly for a special attack. And he's powerful, too.
- The Power of Rock: For Mac and Bloo's Punch Time Explosion attack, Bloo transforms into The Bloo Superdude and destroys his opponents with epic riffs.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: In addition to the usual red and black villains like Father, Aku and HIM being playable, corrupted characters in the story mode are depicted as being varying shades of red and black and are much more vicious and willing to work with villains. Every character also has a "corrupted" Palette Swap, even if they weren't taken over in the story mode.
- Required Party Member:
- Numbuh One is locked in as the first party member for the K.N.D. Treehouse in Story Mode, since his candy guns are necessary to activate the door switches scattered throughout the level.
- For the first Powerpuff Girls level in Story Mode, Bubbles is locked in for the first Fighter slot, as she flies through Townsville in the Unexpected Shmup Level segment.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Chowder's arcade mode story involves him gathering food from different dimensions for Mung. Although he actually manages to obtain said food, Chowder ends up eating it all.
- Shout-Out:
- If Jack wins, he may say "You must defeat my Dragon Punch to stand a chance."
- Captain Planet borrows Captain Falcon's Falcon Kick and his front aerial attack (or Knee of Justice attack).
- Going through the Endsville Cemetery without dying while playing as Hoss Delgado in XL gets you the achievement/trophy "Like a Hoss".
- Billy and Mandy's PTE sees them transform into Super Saiyans, itself a reference to the Grim Adventures episode "Chicken Ball Z".
- Sword Beam: One of Grim's special moves has him fire a beam of energy out of his scythe.
- Tactical Suicide Boss: Ultimate Kevin repeatedly slams his arms into the ground to use two of his attacks and occasionally will get them stuck, giving you free hit time. Averted in XL, where Gwen uses her powers to restrain Kevin's arms instead.
- Teleport Spam: Aku will teleport to the area closest to you during his boss fight.
- Updated Re-release: Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion XL for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii. Aside from fixing some problems with the original version, several new game modes have been added (Training, Arcade, PTE Mode, Fight The Drones and Survival) and most of the original voice actors returned. Also, eight new characters have been added to the game, those being Johnny Bravo, HIM, Aku and The Scotsman, Kevin Levin and Young Ben, The Toiletnator, and Hoss Delgado.
- Villainous Breakdown: When the remote is close to losing, it stops trying to beat you through minions and Teleport Spam and comes after you with no shields and two melee attacks.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Kevin 11 has high knockback, moves all over the place, and after getting his health to a certain point he goes into a temper tantrum that will more than likely hit the player.
- Wolverine Publicity: Ben 10: Ultimate Alien was the only represented show still running at the time of the game's release.
- Womb Level: There's a Flapjack stage that takes place on some floating debris. After a while, Bubbie swallows you and the fight continues in her mouth. XL just skips the floating debris and starts the fight in her mouth.
- Your Size May Vary: In his home series Aku is several stories high. In this game, he's only slightly taller than Jack himself.
