A great concept brought down by glitches and an overall lack of polish.
There are a lot of great characters like Captain Planet, Samurai Jack, and Aku; but, they are locked when you first get the game. You need to unlock the characters by beating parts of story mode, or by buying them in the store option of the menu using coins gained through play. However, the amount of time it takes to earn the coins needed to but characters is trivial, so I don't understand why they didn't just have those characters available from the start. Story mode takes settings from the show, and has characters traversing through them, beating up bad guys along all the way ala the "Subspace Emissary" from SSBB. It's nice to see evil broccoli and other miscellaneous villains from Cartoon Network shows appear as generic bad guys. These levels are very easy. Bosses, however, seem to be difficult when compared to the levels they appear. The main problem with the story mode is that it's just not fun to play. It's boring. I ended up plowing through the whole thing in a few hours just to unlock characters. The other modes are equally as boring. The only way I could see this game being fun is if you played it co-op or in versus mode. That's one of the best parts about the game: it's much more fun with other people.
Characters glitch through platforms, weird physics can send you in any direction off the screen even when you are at a low percentage, and some audio gets stuck, and initiating Punch Time attacks can cause some audio glitches too. The hit boxes for each character are also very inconsistent. This makes some characters very broken, leaving the game unbalanced. Everyone will flock to playing as Captain Planet and Aku for these reasons. These quirks are off-putting to first time players, but I'm sure they could be gotten used to.
The game would probably be fun for kids, or younger cartoon network fans. But older gamers looking for nostalgia may want to look elsewhere, or wait until the game is cheaper. I'd pay maybe $10 for this game; certainly not $40.
If the developers had more time, or a larger studio, this game could have been great. I love the idea, which is why I was so disappointed by the game, mainly because I wanted to like it so much. While it's an improvement over the 3DS version, it's still not worth it when compared to the other great games that have come out this November.
Pros:
Great cast of characters
Versus battles can be hectic
Okay level design
Cons:
Ugly menus
Glitchy gameplay
Input lag
Bad hit boxes
Lack of fun
Weird voice actors for some characters
I imagine the game will drop in price early 2012. I'd either wait until then, or I would rent it or buy it used for cheaper. It's just not worth it at this point. This is not a good alternative to Super Smash Brothers, even if you don't have a Wii.