Nickelodeon has never been shy about bringing together characters from different shows into high-profile 'special features' - the Jimmy/Timmy combination shows are but one example of where this has worked extremely well. This idea has been extended to the whole Nicktoons line of videogames - Nicktoons was originally a generic name for any of the cartoons featured on the Nickelodeon Network, but as the popularity of many of the series has grown, so has the marketability of combining them in break-out shows and games. The latest of these - Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island - shows that attaching popular characters to a fairly average game and infusing it with the personalities of the characters can make for a fun experience!

The game has a simple premise - you have been brought to an island in an alternate dimension by a strange hermit crab and are labelled as 'the chosen ones', tasked with saving the island and all of its inhabitants. No pressure! Helping you make your way through the adventure are SpongeBob SquarePants, Danny Phantom and Timmy Turner - along with Cosmo and Wanda, of course! Within the game there are five areas, each comprised of three sections - exterior exploration, interior exploration and a boss battle.

The gameplay is pretty straightforward platform action - you move with the D-pad, jump and fire with the A and B buttons, activate each character's unique power with the X button and switch between characters with the Y button. There are numerous strange looking plants and other item containers throughout the levels that you tap to get the goodies within - actually tapping on them causes Cosmo and Wanda to sprinkle something that makes them discharge their item. Each character is useful and necessary throughout the game - you will frequently rely on SpongeBob's ability to float after jumping and his upward bubble-shots. Timmy Turner has a special double-jump move and Danny Phantom has a cool jump-kick.

The dual screens of the DS can make for excellent platforming - and Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island makes great use of both screens by extending the world to full height. You can very easily see where you need to go and super-jumps take your character from bottom to top screen in an instant. That's an interesting mechanic - while on the top screen you run across containers that you know contain items, but you must figure out how to get them to appear in the lower part of the screen so you can tap them, which adds a nice puzzle dimension to the typical platform jumping. Each of the five areas has a very different visual theme, which is distinct and quite detailed - you move from mountains to jungles to caves and more, and each area has enough personality that you feel like you're jumping through different locations rather than the same one over and over with a new coat of paint. In between each area you are challenged with increasingly difficult mini-games - basically 'catch the falling items' with an increasing number and difficulty of hazards. It is simple to play but hard to master and just enough to provide a nice diversion between levels.

Another interesting feature is that the 'death' of any character triggers a 'Game Over' screen, while many games of a similar nature simply remove that character from the action until the next area and let you continue with the rest of the group. This can be very frustrating, since you can make a jump right before the end of an area and get knocked off a cliff to your death - and have to repeat the whole area. Fortunately the game is fun and pretty well balanced - you won't be encountering too many game over screens if you take your time with jumps and watch each character's health meter. There are enough power-ups scattered through the levels to keep most players going without a problem.

The audio isn't up to the same standard as the graphics - while the basic soundtrack is pretty good and features themes from the shows as well as some exciting music to keep things moving during the levels, there isn't nearly as much variety as the graphics and none of the cut scene dialogue is voiced. The best audio effect is when you change characters - there's a sound that accompanies the change and then the new character has theme music that plays in the forefront as you continue along.

This highlights one of the best things about the Volcano Island - its personality. Despite the fact that the characters aren't voiced, their personalities shine through during the action as well as the cut scenes, making the whole game fun to play. Despite being a platformer, each character really does have a distinctive feel to them - and the change of backing themes really helps enhance this. My kids adored this game and can't wait to get more time playing it. And it does promise some 'long trip fun' for them, as the it features a download-play mode that lets you play the mini-game with all of its challenges, as well as a multi-card mode that lets you play through some of the platforming areas. Neither of these is up to the full robust multiplayer modes that some games offer, but they are much more than is usually offered in licensed games of this type - and they provide simple multiplayer fun.

A game will never get much attention by being known for succeeding by not failing, yet among licensed children's games that is somewhat of a badge of honor. Too many games in that category seem happy enough being really terrible and trudging through on the strength of recognition alone. Fortunately this isn't true for Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island - at its core is a solid platform action game that would be fun without recognizable characters. It's well balanced - easy enough for its core audience to complete while still being reasonably challenging - and the personality of the characters shines through. This won't make you forget the truly great platform games that have been released for the DS this year, but it will provide a satisfying experience for kids who are fans of the Nicktoons cartoon shows and characters.

Reviewed by Michael Anderson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).