Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl sports nostalgic Saturday morning cartoons and frantic gameplay that immediately won over competitive fighting game fans.

The mixture of mechanics like anime airdashes and Melee wavedashes draw fighting game fans that hardly even play platform fighters. The game’s early meta is constantly developing. Join tournaments or simply play online to help push it forward. If a specific character isn’t enough for you to give NASB a shot then maybe these highlights will change your mind.

Patrick’s grab is very jank

Patrick may consistently rank as one of the worst characters in the game according to most of the community but that isn’t stopping players like multi-game champ, Coach Steve from doing work. It’s always hilarious to see people get caught with his very slow armored command grab. Maybe one of these days he’ll get buffed so we can actually see him excel in tournaments.

Two of the best in the game

In the first big tournament for All-Star Brawl there were tons of amazing matchups but none as exciting as ThunderzReign vs Void. The two Smash Bros. pros kept things stock for stock. Void’s game five, last hit finish, clutched the set and first place.

One funny note about this match is that everyone cheered on Void because ThunderzReign played Leonardo. Leonardo was at the time considered one of the best and most brain dead characters in the game. Less than a day later everyone ironically found out that Aang and his nair string was just as easy, but even better.

The game was soon patched to fix these strings and give characters more chances to escape through DI. Jank aside, this match will always be awesome.

The first JV4

A JV4 in the Smash world is when a player wins with 0% and three stocks left. ThunderzReign did just that in one of the earliest looks at top level Leonardo gameplay. It was also a tease of his future success.

Mikey’s broken era

Mikey’s broken era was the ultimate instance of jank in NASB thus far. Before the recent patch Michealangelo was able to consecutively forward air characters due to the angle and speed of the aerial attack. This allowed for an infinite combo if the player was “good” enough to land and catch the opponent out of the downward fall. It also gave Mike an almost unbeatable offstage game. How could you beat it? Hope that whoever is using him messes up.

Do the sponge

Ridiculous combos, great normals, the bubble special, and good damage make Spongebob a regular in high level matches. Here we see his pre-patch air strings lead to a double spike. While it’s easier to DI out of these strings now, Spongebob can still land the read and keep the pressure on with plenty of similar sequences.

Spongebob is amazing

Here’s an example of what can happen if a Spongebob player consistently reads and follows the opponent’s DI. Throughout this whole sequence Mango didn’t let this Catdog player breathe once and ended things off with a bubble jab lock, bite read, into another bite read to finish it off.

Spongebob’s bubbles are also amazing

Melee god Mango shows off the strength of Spongebob’s bubble projectiles. Bubbles are great for screen control to help move the opponent where you want. They can also combo on hit under the right circumstances. In this highlight, the bubble pops the opponent into a second bubble. There’s even enough hitstun for Spongebob to finish with a heavy up-air.

Aang’s chaingrab

Chaingrabs (inescapable grab after grab) from the Smash series return in All-Star Brawl. This Aang chain grabs on the ground after a jump-cancelled dash attack, then continues with air grabs off the screen to take an entire stock.

There is a lot more going on in the Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl competitive world like tournaments and additional highlights. Whether you’re waiting for your favorite character to join the fight as DLC or more patches to balance the game, now is the best time to play.