When Super Smash Bros. burst onto the scene thirteen years ago it seemingly did the impossible. It took the loveable and normally friendly characters of the various Nintendo franchises, threw them together and got them to battle each other. It seems like it shouldn't have worked but somehow it did. While there were many great fighters before it Super Smash Bros. felt like something fresh and many titles have tried to replicate it's charm.

The rather longwindedly named Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion is the latest contender to try their hand at capturing the Super Smash Bros. magic, this time aiming it at a younger audience. The inclusion of characters from beloved 90's cartoons such as The Powerpuff Girls and Dexter's Laboratory (and Johnny Bravo, although unfortunately only in the home console versions) seemingly tries to draw in a nostalgic audience who probably wouldn't know Ben 10 from The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. Nostalgia aside however, this game isn't made for anyone past their teens.

Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion features a single player mode similar to The Subspace Emissary in Brawl; you start as one character (Ben 10's Ben Tennyson) and make your way through some platform levels to collect new characters. The characters all move like ragdolls in the wind and navigating your way across gaps can become a tedious repetition of death, meaning that you can become bored of the single player mode quite quickly.

In total 18 characters can be unlocked in Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion, although the only real difference between them is their special move. Aside from that they all feel the same and it seems the choice is for purely comsetic reasons. It's a shame because the characters should be the shining element of this title, but in reality there is plenty of variation but little reason to choose between them. Considering the characters are so fleshed out and vivid in the original shows they translate badly in this game, appearing bland and undistinguishable. The action-packed nature of this genre should add some life but for the most part the game just seems like an exercise in pressing buttons, with very little effect on the gameplay.

The controls in the game are easy to get to grips with and come in four flavours to suit your preferences. The default one assigns movement to the d-pad and circle pad, blocking with L and R and the four face buttons to attack, jump, perform a signature attack and grab others and weapons. There is a giant button on the touch screen that, once filled, allows you to unleash the titular Punch Time Explosion. While your opponents have health percentages it seemingly means nothing, you just bash until they happen to fall off the edge.

Multiplayer contains a few options to either play locally or against the computer, but even when you put the computer difficulty on it's highest setting it feels like the most challenging aspect is the interactive scenery, and only because you might slide off the edge without any effort. The levels capture the design of the original shows well and there are quite a lot to choose from, but ultimately they feel small and restrictive.

Judging this clearly child-orientated game from an adult perspective may not be fair but it is all I have and, as an adult, it doesn't hold up. Comparing it to the Super Smash Bros. series probably isn't particualrly fair but anyone who has played both, or even one of many other fine beat 'em ups, is likely to. Younger generations may get more of a kick out of Punch Time Explosion but adults are likely to find it more boring than an opponent who just uses block.