Nickelodeon Games

Background
Nickelodeon Games (formerly Nick Games from 2002-2009, Nickelodeon Software from 1997-2002, and Nickelodeon Interactive from 1993-1997) is the video gaming division of Nickelodeon. It was originally a part of Viacom Consumer Products, with early games being published by Viacom New Media. They started a long-standing relationship with game publisher THQ with the release of their Ren & Stimpy game for Nintendo consoles in 1992, followed up by a full-fledged console deal in 1998 with several Rugrats titles. The deal expanded in 2001, when THQ acquired some assets from Mattel Interactive, namely the computer publishing rights, and all video game rights to The Wild Thornberrys. Nickelodeon also worked alongside THQ on an original game concept, Tak and the Power of Juju, which was later turned into an animated TV series.

(April 1, 1994-2005)
Nickname: "Nickelodeon Objects"

Logo: The standard Nickelodeon television logos from the era, with the name painted on various objects.

Variants:
 * AAAHH!!! Real Monsters (Genesis/SNES): A bat.
 * Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day (SNES): A bone on a purple background with doodles of a bone, cake, a heart, a tennis ball, a TV, a stopwatch, a swirly pattern, a fork, and an arrow.
 * Rugrats: Search for Reptar (PSX): An odd star-like creature, which zooms in and swirls.
 * Rugrats: Studio Tour / Totally Angelica (PSX) and Scavenger Hunt (N64): A baby bottle.
 * Rugrats: Mystery Adventures (PC): A regular orange mouse seen from the top, which lights up.
 * Are You Afraid of the Dark?: The Tale of Orpheo’s Curse (DOS and MAC): A campfire.
 * SpongeBob SquarePants: Legend of the Lost Spatula (GBC): A shell-like form.
 * The Wild Thornberrys: Chimp Chase (GBA): A crocodile.
 * The Wild Thornberrys: Rambler (GBC): A leaf with a bite taken out of it, sharing the screen with the Klasky-Csupo logo.
 * SpongeBob SquarePants: SuperSponge (GBA and PSX): A jellyfish.
 * SpongeBob SquarePants: SuperSponge (PSX, July 12, 2001 Build): A titanic.

FX/SFX: None for the still variants. For the Rugrats: Search for Reptar variant, the swirling and zooming in and out of the logo, animated by Tom Cushwa.

Music/Sounds: None.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * On Rugrats: Search for Reptar, half of the familiar "Nick Nick Nick" jingle performed by The Jive Five plays.
 * On Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day, the opening theme of the game is heard.

Availability: Common. Seen on the games listed above.

1st Logo (1998-January 1, 2001)
Nickname: "The Clockwork Mouse"

Logo: We see a wind-up mouse that says "NICKELODEON" falling from the top of the screen to the bottom. Then it goes back and forth and then drives up the wall and falls back down as the wind-up handle stops to spin.

Variant: There is a still version with the mouse bigger and at the center of the screen.

FX/SFX: The mouse falling from the top to the bottom, the mouse going back and forth, driving up the wall, falling back down, and the wind-up handle stops to spin. Animated by Tom Cushwa.

Music/Sounds: A wheeze as the mouse falls down, then the sound of the mouse and the wind-up handle spinning, one fart noise as the mouse is spinning, then another fart noise when the mouse hits the corner, then a "BOING", then the sounds of the wind-up handle stopping to spin, or the theme song of the game. None for the still version.

Availability: The still version appears on Nicktoons Racing for Game Boy Color. The animated version appears on The Wild Thornberrys: Rambler, Rugrats: Totally Angelica (Game Boy Color version) and three games for the PC: CatDog: Quest for the Golden Hydrant, Rugrats in Paris, and Rugrats Adventure.

Legacy: In the animated variant, the loud noises and the fast movement may catch some off-guard.

2nd Logo (December 1998-September 24, 2001)
Nickname: "The Footprint"

Logo: It's the Nickelodeon Movies logo from The Rugrats Movie, except it is the print version, with no interactive media indicator whatsoever.

Variants:
 * A version of this logo exists without the "MOVIES" sign.
 * The background is white in some games.
 * On Rugrats: Castle Capers, the logo looks slightly different, with the toes being smaller and separated from the rest of the foot.
 * On the Game Boy and Game Boy Color versions of The Rugrats Movie, the logo is shown above the credits.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Rare. Seen on Rugrats in Paris: The Movie on PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color. The non-"MOVIES" variant appears on The Rugrats Movie for Game Boy and Game Boy Color, Rugrats: Time Travellers for Game Boy Color and Rugrats: Castle Capers for Game Boy Advance. These games are hard to find.

3rd Logo (October 21, 2001, 2006-October 27, 2009)
Nickname: "Nickelodeon Splat"

Logo: The print version of the Nickelodeon "splat" logo and its variations from the time.

Variants:
 * On Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition, the splat is different.
 * There was also a custom variant on Rugrats: All Growed Up.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Rare. Seen on SpongeBob SquarePants: Globs of Doom, Naked Brothers Band (with black BG), The Backyardigans, and iCarly, all for the Nintendo DS. The 2001 variant was seen on Rugrats: All Growed Up.

1st Logo (November 26, 2002-2009)
Nicknames: "Nick Robot", "The Pixel Robot", "8-Bit Nick"

Logo: On a white background, an object blurs in from the somewhat-bottom-left to the bottom-center, revealing it is a 2D 8-bit robot composed of large pixels. It then moves towards us, and stops as it mildly sways. Then, it blinks, and spins around rapidly. When it stops spinning, the word "NICK" (in its 1984-2009 font called "Balloon") appears on the robot. The word "GAMES" (in an 8-bit font) swings up from the bottom and lands on the robot's feet, bouncing it a bit, and it blinks one last time before we fade out.

Variants:
 * A still variant exists. It can be found on games for cartridge-based handheld consoles and Vtech's V.Flash system.
 * On the arcade game SpongeBob SquarePants: Bikini Bottom Bowling, the still logo is on a background with bubbles.
 * The motion variant was also rendered interlaced for 60fps deinterlacing display on TVs in some games.
 * A short version exists that starts with the robot spinning.

FX/SFX: Very well-done 2D-style 3D animation.

Music/Sounds: A descending chiptune theme with some sound effects as the robot moves, which stops as the robot comes to us. A brief "boom" is heard as the robot blinks, and we hear a loud whirl as it spins. We then end with a robotic voice saying "Nick Games", and 2 brief chiptune notes.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * On the PlayStation 2 version of Tak and the Power of Juju, everything plays at a higher pitch.
 * None for the still version.

Availability: Very common. Seen on almost every Nickelodeon game from the period, such as Rugrats: Royal Ransom, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom, The Fairly OddParents: Breakin' Da Rules, Tak and the Power of Juju, and Nicktoons Unite! (as well as its sequels Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island and Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots), among others. The short version appeared on Nickelodeon Toon Twister 3D.

Legacy: Its sudden appearance could startle some, but it's a favorite among many early-2000s Nick fans.

2nd Logo (2003-2004)
Nicknames: "Splat from the Sky", "Nickelo"

Logo: We move forward as many raindrops fall from the skies and create splats on the ground. Then we zoom very closely to the vertical Nickelodeon splat, so the name even doesn't fit the screen.

FX/SFX: Splats falling down.

Music/Sounds: Sound of falling goo.

Music/Sounds Variant: The original version has stock splat sounds and a male voiceover saying "Now back to the show." over upbeat Asian-sounding music (titled "Samurai Swing" and previously used in Nickelodeon's 1993-98 next IDs).

Availability: Rare. First used as a generic break bumper on Nickelodeon in 2003-04, and it later appeared on the game SpongeBob SquarePants Typing.

3rd Logo (2007-October 26, 2009)


Nickname: "The Planet"

Logo: On a black background, we see the Nickelodeon splat logo of the time. Then it turns into a star-like object with an orbit around it. It then turns into a planet, with abstract objects, buildings, and creatures. It spins for a second, then zooms in, then zooms back out. A hand appears from behind the planet, and "wipes out" the planet and pulls the splat logo back to itself on a black background. Then it fades-out.

FX/SFX: The splat turning into all of the things, the planet spinning and zooming, the hand appearing and "wiping out" the planet; produced at Freestyle Collective.

Music/Sounds: First a drilling sound, then skateboard and chiptune noises, and finally some static sounds.

Availability: Seen on Nickelodeon games from the time, such as SpongeBob SquarePants featuring Nicktoons: Globs of Doom, SpongeBob's Truth or Square, and Ni Hao, Kai-Lan: Super Game Day, all for Wii.

Legacy: The quick pace might scare some, but this is kind of a cool logo.

4th Logo (February 6, 2008)
Nickname: "The Splash"

Logo: The print version of the Nickelodeon Movies logo from 2008.

FX/SFX: None, it's a still logo.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Seen on The Spiderwick Chronicles for the Nintendo DS.

1st Logo (2009-)
Logo: We see an orange letter "i" jumping from a letter "n" and sliding off a letter "c". The "i" then lands on the letter "k" from the current logo and does a front flip. Then it jumps down and we see other letters forming the 2009-present Nickelodeon logo falling to the ground. The animation doesn't match the current Nickelodeon logo on TV.

Variants:
 * A still version is more commonly used.
 * Sometimes the logo is in print form and on a black background.
 * On Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, the print logo is used on a white background.

FX/SFX: The letters in CGI or Flash animation. This and the next two logos were storyboarded and animated by Robert Kohr. The three game slates were animated in Blender, composited in After Effects, and rendered on twelve Mac Pros over a weekend.

Music/Sounds: Several hopping bumps, along with some electronic music which concludes with the "Nickelodeon" part of the "Nick Nick Nick" jingle. None for the still version.

Availability: Common. The still version is seen in a lot of games on minor platforms like Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, and also on iCarly 2. The animated version is seen only on Dora's Big Birthday Adventure for PC and Nickelodeon Fit for the Nintendo Wii. The "movies" variant appears on The Last Airbender. The black background version is much rarer and appears on SpongeBob's Boating Bash.

2nd Logo (April 10-November 8, 2011)


Logo: A letter "i" stands in front of a big white button. It looks left to right, then jumps onto the button, turning it light orange. The 2009-present Nickelodeon logo falls from above, including the letter and clearing the button.

FX/SFX: Animated letter and logo falling.

Music/Sounds: Several slide whistle sound effects as the letter "i" looks around, followed by the ending of the Nick jingle.

Availability: Rare. Appeared on SpongeBob SquigglePants, SpongeBob's Surf & Skate Roadtrip, Victorious: Taking the Lead, Nick Jr. Draw & Play, and the Nintendo DS version of Nicktoons MLB.

3rd Logo (September 13, 2011-)


Logo: There are many cubes floating in the sky. They fall to the ground, forming an object that we see from its side, then it becomes solid, zooms and rotates to full view as the regular Nickelodeon logo.

FX/SFX: The letters moving.

Music/Sounds: Regular jingle in computerized format.

Availability: Uncommon. It was first seen on Nicktoons MLB, and was seen on all games afterwards, like Nickelodeon Dance, Nickelodeon Dance 2, SpongeBob SquarePants: Plankton’s Robotic Revenge and SpongeBob HeroPants.

Legacy: The animation here is good.