Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl’s comedic ninja turtle might seem like a hard character to handle with limited combo potential, but quick aerials, strong heavy attacks, and some versatile special moves make Michelangelo one well-rounded brawler.
Light Ground Attacks
Michelangelo’s light attacks are fairly heavy in knockback; most aren’t capable of setting up combos, but they work pretty well as combo finishers.
- Light Neutral Attack: Michelangelo spins one of his nunchaku in front of him for 6% damage on contact. This is an effective way to either finish combos, or to guard a ledge while your opponent is trying to recover.
- Light Up Attack: A simple uppercut that does 8% damage. As it knocks enemies upward, this can be used to set up air combos.
- Light Down Attack: Michelangelo slides forward on his knees while playing an air guitar. This move is probably better left untouched, as it only does 6% damage, and it also has some high ending lag, making it particularly difficult to act out of.
- Light Dash Attack: Michelangelo rides his skateboard into his opponent, dealing out 8% damage. This move has solid combo potential, as it can be followed up quickly with either a heavy neutral attack or a heavy down attack. Additionally, this move is particularly useful near the edge, as it knocks opponents slightly below the stage, setting you up perfectly for a spike.
Light Aerial Attacks
Michelangelo’s light aerials, particularly his downward one, come out quick, and are critical in setting up combos with this character.
- Light Neutral Aerial: Michelangelo spins one nunchaku above him and the other in whichever direction he is facing; each nunchaku does 5% damage on contact, but the two hitboxes vary slightly in knockback. The top nunchaku has minimal knockback, even at higher percentages, while the other’s knockback scales upward as damage increases. If you land this move on a grounded opponent, toss out a light neutral attack immediately after landing for a quick combo worth 11% damage.
- Light Down Aerial: Michelangelo performs a downward strike followed by an upward one for a total of 10% damage. If used in midair, this spikes, so this should be your go-to kill-move after getting an opponent off-stage. If striking a grounded opponent, follow this up with a light up attack, jump ,and then deliver your neutral aerial for a combo that should net 23% damage.
- Light Up Aerial: This is a simple upward strike that does 8% damage. It’s important to note that this move sends opponents flying upward at a diagonal angle behind Michelangelo, so if using it to defend against offstage, you could unintentionally knock enemies back onto the stage. Additionally, this is a difficult move to land; you should probably avoid this one altogether.
Heavy Ground Attacks
Michelangelo’s heavy attacks are slow to come out, but each carries a devastating amount of knockback that makes them ideal ways to finish off your enemies. Most are best used as combo finishers.
- Heavy Neutral Attack: Michelangelo takes a step forward and delivers two blows with his nunchaku; the first hit does 4% damage, and the second hit does 10%. This move knocks enemies upward at a sharp angle, making it viable for off-the-top kills at high percentages. That said, this move has incredibly high ending lag, which makes it incredibly easy to punish should you whiff on one.
- Heavy Up Attack: A backflip kick that does 16% damage and has high KO potential. This move also has a pretty large hitbox that allows you to hit enemies located directly behind Michelangelo as well.
- Heavy Down Attack: Michelangelo swings his nunchaku down towards the ground to deal 13% damage. Similar to the previous move, this attack has a very wide hitbox that will strike opponents directly behind the character.
- Heavy Dash Attack: Michelangelo runs forward and hurls his hips towards the enemy for 10% damage. The hitbox on this attack comes out a little late, but if you can land it, you can act very quickly out of it with most of your light and heavy ground attacks.
Heavy Aerial Attacks
Regrettably, one of Michelangelo’s weaker points is that his heavy air attacks are a little too slow to be useful in the air. However, a well-timed one can result in a powerful killing blow.
His neutral and down aerial heavy strikes work mostly the same as they do on the ground, but worth noting is Michelangelo’s heavy upward aerial, which has some astoundingly large hitboxes and deals out a whopping 28% damage. Use this on recovering enemies to rack up damage quickly, and possibly even take a stock off them.
Specials
Michelangelo’s specials aren’t particularly meant for combos, but they can work wonders for aiding his recovery while stunting others’.
- Neutral Special: Michelangelo tosses out a pizza that does 9% damage. This is good for disrupting enemy movement across the stage, or for safely stifling recoveries.
- Up Special: The turtle throws out a grappling hook that does 12% damage, but the primary purpose of this move is to help you get back on stage. The hook will grab the ledge before reeling Michelangelo into it. Unfortunately, this move is a little easy to counter, especially for characters with solid ledge-guarding moves like Aang or April O’Neil, but the next move should help mitigate this issue.
- Down Special: Michelangelo spins around on his shell, dealing small amounts of damage to anyone who touches him. This move is invaluable for Michelangelo’s recovery, as you can infinitely jump-cancel out of it, meaning that Michelangelo effectively has infinite jumps. To take advantage of this, simply press the jump button right after starting your down special. The turtle will jump out of it, even if you’ve already exhausted all of your jumps. With this technique, Michelangelo has one of the most unpredictable recoveries in the game; he can directly get back onto the stage, go up high to come down with an aerial, or even travel under the stage to recover on the other side.
