Notice how it's
SpongeBob who's mugging for the camera?
A series of multiconsole video games
combining multiple cartoons featured on the children's TV network
Nickelodeon. Actually, only the first game in this series goes by the title
Nicktoons Unite!, but considering all the games are about Nicktoons characters joining forces, we might as well consider it the name of the series as well.
Nicktoons Unite!:
Professor Calamitous joins forces with
Plankton,
Mr. Crocker, and
Vlad Plasmius to form an
Evil Syndicate. They start stealing energy from their respective worlds in order to power a
Doomsday Device to
blow up the multiverse. To counter this,
Jimmy Neutron recruits
SpongeBob SquarePants,
Timmy Turner (who is of course accompanied by Cosmo and Wanda), and
Danny Phantom to help him venture into their worlds to stop the villains.
Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island: Spongebob, Timmy, and Danny reunite, accompanied by co-stars
Patrick, Sandy, and
Sam Manson, having been picked by a
Wise Old Crab to save Volcano Island from a new villain named the Mawgu. Jimmy notably sits this one out and communicates with the heroes behind the scenes.
Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots: Professor Calamitous returns, this time planning to
take over the multiverse with his army of Toybots, fueled by Ghost energy combined with the fart gas of fairies having been fed Krabby Patties. Spongebob, Patrick, Jimmy, Timmy, Danny, Sam, and newcomer
Tak team up to collect master models (collectibles said to hold data that Calamitous scanned from character around the multiverse that he kidnapped and then dumped (most of them) back to keep his plan secret) for the Chadbot, a robot servant of Calamitous' who claims he will help them. Along the way, they rescue starring characters from other Nicktoons, including
Stimpy and
Rocko in the console versions,
Invader Zim,
Mr. Blik, and
El Tigre in the
Nintendo DS version, and
Jenny Wakeman and
GIR in both.
Spongebob Squarepants featuring Nicktoons: Globs of Doom: A slimy cyclops alien race known as the Morphoids and their strange orange goo envelops over the Nicktoons' worlds, enslaving all innocent bystanders, so the heroes (Jimmy, Spongebob, Patrick, Danny, and Tak) join forces with the Evil Syndicate (now made up of
Technus,
Beautiful Gorgeous, and
Traloc, with Plankton the only "veteran" member) to get to the bottom of it. In addition,
Invader Zim lies his way onto the heroes' side (claiming he's "just curious"), prompting his nemesis Dib to join the Evil Syndicate. They eventually find out the cause of it all as a result of the
Big Bad, an alien named Globulous, continually
body snatching Spongebob because he's sick of his life. In spite of having a new main character to accompany them, the
Fairly Oddparents characters are oddly absent from this one.
It killed the series.This series has been "succeeded" in 2011 by
Nicktoons MLB.
These games contain examples of:
- Be Yourself: How SpongeBob got Globulous to do a Heel Face Turn. And then he shapeshifted into a giant, slimy cyclops SpongeBob. Uh huh.
- Blow You Away: Jimmy's main weapon in Nicktoons Unite is a tornado blaster, which shoots bursts of air.
- Continuity Nod: When Timmy flirts with her in the first game, Cindy replies, "Hi Timmy. I didn't know you were back in Retroville." She's of course referring to their encounters in the three Jimmy Timmy Power Hours (Judging from her reaction, one could presume that Nicktoons Unite takes place after the third one.).
- Additionally, Globs of Doom features a boss fight with Bubble Bass, a SpongeBob character not seen since the first season.
- And that game's hub is a gigantic nod to Battle for Volcano Island.
- Crisis Crossover
- Dual Boss: The DS version of Globs of Doom has the infected Almighty Tallest as the penultimate bosses.
- Dueling Games: Compare the plot of Globs of Doom to that of rival Cartoon Network's MMORPG FusionFall (which was released three months later).
- Enemy Mine: Globs of Doom.
- Eternal Engine: The near-entirety of Attack of the Toybots, Plankton's Jellyfish Factory in Nicktoons Unite.
- Everything's Better with Spinning: Rocko attacks by spinning.
- Fantastic Voyage: The final level of Nicktoons Unite is outright called "Fantyastic Voyage of Goddard"; there, the party shrink themselves to hunt down a giant fleabot inside Goddard that spies for and holds the coordinates to Calamitous' secret hideout.
- Also, the battle against the Girl-Eating Plant in Globs of Doom has you trying find a way to get swallowed by it so that you can beat up its innards.
- Five-Bad Band:
Globs of Doom
- Five-Man Band:
- Flunky Boss: Everyone in Nicktoons Unite, and everyone but the final boss in Globs of Doom. Crocker even shouts out for mooks to appear.
- Franchise Killer: Globs of Doom
- Fridge Brilliance: "Why in the hell is Zim siding with the heroes? And why is Dib willing to team up with the villains, and no one cares when he rambles about not being a bad guy?" Then you remember that Zim sees himself as the only one worthy of taking over the world and that Dib is the Butt Monkey.
- Giant Enemy Crab: Plankton's mecha in Nicktoons Unite.
- Goofy Print Underwear: Knock off the skirtlike casing of one particular type of robotic enemy in Atack of The Toybots, and they'll be revealed to be wearing what looks like polka-dot underwear.
- Improbable Weapon User: A bunch in Globs of Doom.
- King Mook: The giant fleabot in Nicktoons Unite, which led the flea robots populating the stage you find it in.
- Large Ham: Globulous.
- Legion of Doom
- Lethal Joke Character: The unlockable Mr. Huggles in Attack of the Toyboys; he can kill all enemies in one hit.
- Living Toys: Attack of the Toybots, duh.
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover
- Market-Based Title: The first three games were named in Europe as SpongeBob SquarePants and Friends rather than Nicktoons.
- Original Generation: Every NPC except Tucker, Squidward and Jimmy in Battle for Volcano Island, and Globulous.
- Power Creep, Power Seep: Not only does Danny get screwed big time by this trope but Calamitous, mostly an ineffectual Jimmy Neutron villain, gets bumped on the Sorting Algorithm Of Villain Threat to a Multiuniversal Threat (At first with his Evil Syndicate, and then by himself, with an army of living toys. Really.)
- Puzzle Boss: Calamitous and his pseudo-Boss Rush in Nicktoons Unite, Cujo the Ghost Dog and the mutated Girl-Eating Plant in Globs of Doom.
- Rewarding Vandalism: Lampshaded in Globs of Doom by the character you're controlling when you do such things.
- Roofhopping: The second Amity Park stage in Globs of Doom is set entirely atop roofs.
- Spotlight Stealing Title: The series is titled SpongeBob SquarePants and Friends in Europe.
- Additionally, Spongebob gets top billing for the fourth game, which is justified by him being a focal point of the game's story rather than a part of an ensemble cast.
- Shout Out:
- Attack of the Toybots contains "off-screen" cameo appearances by characters from almost all Nicktoons, including those that no longer air regularly (with the exception of Doug (due to legal issues with Disney) and KaBlam! (which will always get the short end of the stick with Nick)), in the form of Master Models (in layman's terms, collectible items. In-universe, they're the data Calamitous has gathered from his multiversal scannings.).
- Patrick being the character necessary to claim the Aang master model might be a nod to the famous "sea sponge" line in the Avatar: The Last Airbender episode "Siege of the North, Part 1".
- Kablam! may actually be hidden in there somewhere, this troper just played the GBA version of the game and saw Kablam listed in the copyright messages. I also saw a character resembling Loopy's older brother Larry. (I may be wrong, though.)
- GIR: "All your data are belong to MEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!"
- Rocko: "A wallaby's gotta do what a wallaby's gotta do... Whatever that is."
- Timmy compares Volcano Island to Lost at one point.
- Zim: "Welcome to your doom!"
- Spiritual Successor: To Nicktoons: Freeze Frame Frenzy (plot-wise, at least).
- Take Your Time: The Evil Syndicate starts up their Doomsday Machine in the pre-boss cutscene of Unite!, but no timer is ever present during the fight that follows.
- Teamwork Puzzle Game: Each version of Unite is one in its own different way. Also, the GBA version of Battle for Volcano Island and the DS version of Globs of Doom.
- Tim Curry: The voice of Calamitous.
- Token Evil Teammate: Zim in Globs of Doom. And inverted with Dib on the evil team.
- An interesting variation of this occurs in Attack of the Toybots. An unlockable feature allows you to play as Dark Danny (Dan Phantom). Yes, that Dark Danny instead of Danny Phantom. It's presented as an alternate costume. But, still, why would Dan be helping... Oh, never mind...
- Under the Sea: All levels set in Bikini Bottom.
- Voices Are Mental: In the case of Globulous!SpongeBob, first averted and then played straight after Zim's Town.
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