It’s been barely a week since the release of the much anticipated Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl and the game already has a character that truly breaks the game: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle’s pizza-pounding Michelangelo. Mikey does this in two very special ways: his mobility and combo potential (spoilers: it’s very very good). Lets start with movement: By performing a “Party Dude Special,” Michelangelo can then cancel out of the move with a jump. Sounds fine, right? Well, the issue is that the move can be canceled into a jump regardless of whether Mikey has any jumps left, meaning he can literally fly with minimal effort.
At the time of writing, this infinite jump has actually been patched out, but the tournament is continuing with the ban. This is because of that second issue we touched upon earlier: his combo potential. Michelangelo has been blessed with what the fighting game community refers to as a “zero-to-death,” meaning that Mikey can start his combo before his opponent has taken any damage and still continue that same combo until their opponent is beaten. What’s more, this zero-to-death only requires two moves: his up-throw and neutral air.
Exactly how this combo works is tough to explain if you aren’t in the game’s community, but to simplify, Mikey simply tosses his opponent in the air and starts whacking them with his light neutral air, then catches and tosses them back up for another round. Repeat until victory. This is possible because of a number of exploits and intended mechanics implemented across the entire roster, like mid-air grabs, which all work perfectly in tandem with Mikey’s frankly incredible light neutral air, resulting in this perfect (0r terrifying, depending on the person) combo coming together. If you’re still confused, the combo is explained far more eloquently and expertly by the legendary Mew2king in this video.
The tournament took place at Super Smash Con. as the convention’s first non-Smash brothers game today, so go check it out and tune into tomorrow’s stream!