Recently I wrote a review of Nicktoons MLB, a new baseball game featuring real MLB players and Nicktoons stars. But since I like cartoons so much, I wanted to write a separate blog featuring all the Nickelodeon characters found in MLB, as well as some of my favorite Nicktoons. Kind of like what I did with Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion. So get your peanuts and hot dogs ready as we look at all the characters in Nicktoons MLB. At least the toons anyway, I’m not going into all the real MLB players in the game!

Aang

There are quite a few characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender in this game. Aang is the main character. You know, the one with the arrow on his head, making him look like a walking human “You Are Here” directory. I never really got into Avatar, but some of my brothers love it. I do have respect for the show, however, because there aren’t very many action/adventure cartoons anymore, especially on Nickelodeon. Most of the toons they show are ones with stupid, goofy humor like SpongeBob. Since I grew up in the 80’s where adventure cartoons were the staple (He-Man, Transformers, G.I. Joe, etc.), it’s nice to see they still make cartoons like that now. I never bothered watching the live action The Last Airbender movie because of how awful I heard it was.

Katara

Another Avatar character, this is a girl who can control water, apparently. She does little water tricks in the game, so that’s how I know.

Toph Bel Fong

This Avatar character is a girl who is blind. She probably has some sort of special power that allows her to play baseball, though. You can’t really tell she’s a girl in the game, however. I had to have one of my brothers tell me that. I will say that I think it’s cool they put a character with a disability in the cartoon and in the game, though. As someone who has been blind in my left eye since birth, I can respect and appreciate that. Makes for a good role model for kids, too, I bet.

Prince Zuko

The last Avatar character in the baseball game can control fire, as he conjures up a small fireball in his hand before getting up to bat. I do kind of wish they wouldn’t have put so many characters from one show in the game, so they could have made room for other Nicktoon stars missing from the lineup.

Fanboy

You know, I never have even watched this new CG animated cartoon called Fanboy and Chum Chum, so I really can’t tell you about the characters in it. One of the disadvantages of being an adult is you don’t have as much time to watch cartoons anymore.

Chum Chum

And here’s the other title character from Fanboy and Chum Chum. Fanboy is the skinny one while Chum Chum is more, well, husky shall we say.

Danny Phantom

Considering that I like ghost movies and TV shows, and Ghostbusters is one of my all-time favorite movies, you’d think I’d really like this cartoon. But I never really got into it. It just seemed like a version of The Fairly Oddparents for older kids.

Dudley Puppy

TUFF Puppy is another cartoon I’ve never seen, so it must be relatively new. So I really can’t tell you anything about these characters except Dudley is a dog and the show is made by the same people who did Oddparents.

Kitty Katswell

And this TUFF Puppy character is a girl cat, and that’s all I can tell you.

Invader ZIM

FINALLY! We get to a Nicktoon that I really like. Invader ZIM is probably my favorite Nicktoon, both on TV and in the game. It’s hard to believe that this cartoon was actually on a kids’ cable TV channel, especially when you consider what the creator of the show did before that. My favorite ZIM character isn’t playable, but he’s still in the game, but more on that later. Did you know the voice actor for ZIM was also the voice of the main character in Psychonauts?

Gaz

She’s the little sister of the character in Invader ZIM who is always trying to stop ZIM from taking over Earth. Gaz is the typical stereotype of a hardcore gamer. Antisocial, irritable, and a little creepy. Hey, us hardcore gamers can take a joke every now and then, right? She’s a pretty funny character in the show, because of how they use her to make fun of the gamer stereotype. Not sure why they picked her to be in the game, though, instead of another ZIM character. I guess they needed more girl characters in the game.

Spongebob

He looks absolutely huge in the game. Surprisingly, I’ve never been a big fan of SpongeBob. I don’t HATE the show, I can tolerate it. But I won’t watch it voluntarily if I’m flipping channels. I think it’s probably Nickelodeon’s most successful cartoon, and I think it’s been on longer than most other Nicktoons out there. I just find it a little annoying.

Patrick

I don’t like SpongeBob, but I do like Patrick. He’s my favorite character in the cartoon, and I think he’s the only character who is truly funny. Sometimes when Nick shows have been around for a while, they make a spinoff show about it. I’m surprised they haven’t done that with SpongeBob yet. But if they did make a spinoff show, I hope it would star Patrick. I wish in the baseball game they fleshed out their personalities more into the game. Like they could have Patrick hold the bat upside down or something. I think my favorite SpongeBob episode was the one where SpongeBob and Patrick sold candy bars. I loved it when Patrick ‘pooped’ his pants and chocolate bars fell out from his shorts, and then a little Hershey’s Kiss came out after that!

Larry the Lobster

Seriously? He’s such a minor SpongeBob character that I can’t understand why they’d pick him over Mr. Krabs or someone else. I think it would be funny to have Plankton play baseball since he’s so small.

The Flying Dutchman

Another minor SpongeBob character. Like I said before, I wish they could’ve had less characters from one show so they could spread the love around a bit and have other Nicktoons characters in the game.

Sandy Cheeks

I would’ve been mad if they had all those minor SpongeBob characters in the game, and not put in Sandy. In the baseball game she wears her “Kill Bill” outfit from one of the episodes. She’s a cool character because she’s from Texas, and anything from Texas is cool, right? (I hope you say ‘yes’ since the writer of the blog lives in Texas).

Ren

I’m a little surprised they got Ren & Stimpy characters in the baseball game, since the cartoons weren’t really for kids. When I was a young teenager, this cartoon was new and I thought it was cool. But I quickly grew out of it. That happens sometimes. I think the only good episodes were the first six.

Stimpy

He picks his nose and then wipes his finger on the bat! Too bad they couldn’t get Billy West to do his voice, although the imitator did a good job in the game, I guess.

Yak

It’s the Shaven Yak from one of the Ren & Stimpy skits. Another case of a minor character getting into the game. Personally, I would’ve rather had Mr. Horse from Ren & Stimpy instead. That way, if he struck out, he would just say, “No sir, I didn’t like it.”

Powdered Toast Man

I am kind of glad PTM made it in the game, though. He cracks me up in the baseball game! Did you know that a long time ago, Marvel had the rights to do Ren & Stimpy comics, and they made one called Spiderman vs. Powdered Toast Man? It was pretty funny, I had it. Guess who wins?

Sheen

He’s Jimmy Neutron’s friend, the one who is obsessed with Ultralord, a fictitious action figure toy line. Recently they made a spinoff show where Sheen goes to outer space. It’s pretty horrible. I think the Sheen in this game is based off the outer space cartoon.

Nesmith

He’s a talking intelligent monkey and Sheen’s friend in the Planet Sheen show.

Ultralord

Wait, he’s real? I bet Sheen would have a heart attack if he saw him on the field.

Announcers

And those are all the characters you can play as. What’s nice is that they are all available from the get-go; you don’t have to unlock them or anything. But the Nicktoons cameos don’t end with playable characters. The announcers are also from Nicktoons shows. Perch Perkins is the fish TV news anchorman from SpongeBob. At first I thought he was that talking photorealistic fish you sometimes see on SpongeBob’s TV or in the intro, but instead he’s just a cartoon fish. I’m happy to say that the other announcer is GIR, the crazy robot from Invader ZIM, and my favorite character. He’s not near as cool in the game, though. I did like it when GIR said, “Baseball is America’s favorite bedtime.”

Stadiums

You can choose real life baseball fields to play on (like The Ballpark at Arlington), but you can also play on stadiums from Nicktoons like an underwater SpongeBob stadium, or an outer space ZIM stadium. Other stadiums are form Avatar, Fanboy & Chum Chum, Danny Phantom, and Planet Sheen.

Loading Screens

So let’s say that some of your favorite Nicktoons didn’t make it into the game. But don’t think they’ve been forgotten, as there are still pictures of other Nicktoons during the loading screens doing baseball stuff, like singing the National Anthem or cheering in the stands. I’ve seen pictures of other toons like Squidward, Jimmy Neutron, Rocko, Heifer, CatDog, Rugrats, Mighty B., AHHH, Real Monsters, and more!

Cary’s Other Nicktoon Favorites

I thought I’d conclude this blog by talking about some of my other favorite Nicktoon shows that didn’t make it into the game. You already know that Invader ZIM is my favorite, as well as Patrick and the early Ren & Stimpy shows. So here are other ones that I liked, too.

Rugrats

Actually, Rugrats is a good example of a cartoon I don’t really like, but I do have respect for. The first few seasons were fairly good, but things started to suck after the first movie. The art style was also pretty ugly, and it was even worse when Nickelodeon used that animation studio for several awful cartoons after that. And everything Rugrats did, Muppet Babies did better five years earlier. But as a fan of giant monster movies, I did like how the babies in Rugrats were fascinated with Reptar!

Rugrats also has the honor of being one of the very few cartoons to actually make me almost cry. You see, they had a special Mother’s Day episode one time. One of the main characters, the toddler Chuckie, lives with his dad. In the episode, the babies are thinking about their moms, but Chuckie only has a faint memory of his mother. They question that for a bit, and by the end of the episode, one of the other parents puts his hand on Chuckie’s dad’s shoulder and tell him that it’s time to tell Chuckie about his mom. His dad was reluctant to do that because he thought Chuckie was too young. But they concluded the episode with Chuckie and his dad looking at a photo album with pictures of his mom, who passed away when Chuckie was very young. So know I’ve probably lost a bit of my manliness now that you all know that Rugrats made me almost cry!

Doug

This was one of the earlier Nicktoons, along with Rugrats and Ren & Stimpy. Doug is another good example of a cartoon I don’t particularly like, but I have respect for. Not a whole lot of cartoons deal with the trials and tribulations of being a preteen, but Doug pulled it off pretty well. And it was a nice change of pace from the more edgy cartoons Nick was putting out. It’s a shame Doug characters didn’t make it into the baseball game, as one of the better episodes revolved around baseball. But I bet they couldn’t get Doug characters since Disney bought the rights to it, and the new episodes of Doug they showed on Disney sucked. And Doug’s dog Pork Chop was just a Snoopy rip-off anyway.

Rocko’s Modern Life

I loved this show as a kid. I’m surprised with some of the stuff they got away with in it! It’s too bad Rocko and Heifer didn’t make it into the baseball game, as there was a baseball episode of it on TV, too. It’s also a shame that the creator of Rocko’s Modern Life went on to do a show on Cartoon Network that really sucked (Camp Lazlo).

The Angry Beavers

Some episodes of this show were also pretty funny. Did you know that the voice actor of one of the beavers does the voice of ZIM, too?

The Penguins of Madagascar

This is a pretty recent Nicktoon, based on the militant penguin characters from the Madagascar movies. Personally I think this cartoon is hilarious and I try to watch it whenever it’s on. You should give it a try, too. I bet the Penguins didn’t make it into the game probably because of some contract with DreamWorks or something.

Nick Jr. Stars

I know it would never happen, but I think it would be cool if they squeezed some Nick Jr. characters into the baseball game, too. Like Swiper the Fox, Max & Ruby, or The Wonder Pets.

Conclusions

And that’s all I feel like talking about Nicktoons for now. In the comments section, tell me YOUR favorite Nicktoons! –Cary

Tags: Television