Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion is a 2011 crossover fighting video game developed by Papaya Studio and published by Crave Games, for the Nintendo 3DS. It features characters from various Cartoon Network programs battling against one another. The game was released in June 2011 in North America and in April 2012 in Europe. An upgraded port, Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion XL, was released for the Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 less than a year later.
Gameplay
Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion is a platform fighter, with up to four players moving and battling on a 2D plane and trying to knock their opponents out of the arena. Each playable character has a unique set of moves they can use to attack their opponents, performed by pressing a direction in combination with one of the attack buttons. When players strike one another, glowing cubes will fall out of them; collecting these cubes will gradually fill the player's special meter. When full, the player can use their character's "Punch Time Explosion", a powerful attack that can deal heavy damage to multiple opponents. For example, Ben Tennyson turns into Ultimate Humungosaur and launches missiles all over the stage. Players can also use various items that appear randomly on the stage to attack their opponents, including an item that summons one of 19 assist characters (22 in the XL version) to aid the player. In the XL version, playable characters can team up with certain assist characters and do Synergy attacks. For example, Chowder eats a plate of Madame Foster's cookies and becomes morbidly obese as the latter rolls him around the stage. Players can choose between 21 different stages for battles (26 in the XL version). Many stages shift between multiple phases as the battle continues, and players may use stage elements in order to take out other players. For example, in the Dexter's Laboratory stage, players can pull two different levers, with one activating a conveyor belt and the other firing a deadly laser.
Playable characters
Players can choose from 18 playable characters drawn from 11 Cartoon Network programs. An additional eight characters were added to the XL version for a total of 26.
Ben 10
Ben Tennyson
Young Ben Tennyson
Kevin Levin
Vilgax
Captain Planet and the Planeteers
Captain Planet
Chowder
Chowder & Kimchi
Codename: Kids Next Door
Numbuh One
Father
Toiletnator
Dexter's Laboratory
Dexter
Monkey
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
Mac & Bloo
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
Billy & Mandy
Grim
Hoss Delgado
Johnny Bravo
Johnny Bravo
The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack
Flapjack
Captain K'nuckles
The Powerpuff Girls
Blossom
Bubbles
Buttercup
Mojo Jojo
Him
Samurai Jack
Samurai Jack
The Scotsman
Aku
Plot
An unseen announcer prepares to watch some television on his day off as he tunes into Cartoon Network. However, he discovers that an unknown force is causing chaos in the respective universes of some of its programs, with villains traversing between them and many heroes becoming corrupted. The announcer watches the events unfold, beginning with Ben Tennyson traveling to the Chowder universe in pursuit of Vilgax. Ben restores a corrupted Chowder, but Vilgax escapes and the Chowder universe is engulfed in static. Chowder and Ben are then pulled into the Ben 10 universe, where they are attacked by a corrupted Buttercup. She too is restored and, after a battle with the mutated Kevin Levin, the dimension begins to fade as well. However, Dexter arrives in a dimension-traveling capsule and rescues them. The allied heroes then use the capsule to travel to the network's programs one by one, defeating the displaced villains while restoring the corrupted heroes and recruiting them to their cause before their respective dimensions are terminated.