Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl/Garfield

Combos

Matchups

Strategy

Techniques

Resources

#NASB_Garf

Story

I'm not overweight. I'm undertall.

The cat who hates Mondays joins the fight by doing the thing he does best, being lazy. Garfield has been in several forms of media including: “Garfield and Friends", "The Garfield Show", two feature films, and it all started with a comic strip that has been running for over 40 years and counting. But no matter where he goes, the show will always be about him! This fatigued feline is ready to sleep on the competition!

Gameplay

Added as the first DLC character on December 7th, 2021. Garfield is a character that can fit almost any playstyle, his normals allow him to be oppressive in offense as well as break combos and be hard to catch on defense. He is very safe on block with a bunch of mix-up potential. You will need to adapt to how your opponent likes to play and counter that playstyle for him to be the most effective.

Just like in the other media, Garfield plays some cheap tricks on his opponents by having them fall for his plans. A lot of Garfield's gameplan revolves around reacting to what your opponent does and calling them out for it. Especially since his K.O. options are very strong with the wrong Directional Influence (DI) while they are also relatively weak with good Directional Influence.

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Garfield

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Franchise	Garfield
Weight Class	Middle
Character Discord	Garfield character discord
Home Stage	Sweet Dreams

Strengths

Weaknesses

Survivability: Due to Garfield's good animations and up-special he will live for a really long time for his weight value. To the point where he is often compared and called a heavyweight. Next to that as well he has insane mix-ups for getting back to stage as long as he is not forced to go low, which helps him live for a long amount of time. Shield Pressure: Garfield is insanely good at pressuring block, his light down-air is super safe on block and can easily allow mix-up opportunities, his other moves are also very hard to punish when spaced and hit well like strong down-air, light neutral air and strong up-air. Combo Breaking: Due to Garfield's insane light neutral air he can often escape combos or get hit or trade hits in a weird way where it becomes hard to keep the combo going for your opponent. This in turn allows him to often return to neutral or even put his opponent in disadvantage. Safe K.O. Options: Garfield has safe ways to knock his opponents out of the park, jab and light dash-attack are the 2 best once for this situation. If you hit a light dash-attack you will always be able to follow up with one of your strongs. Jab will allow you to follow up depending on DI and %, and since the move is very fast it can be just what you need but you have to react to your opponent. Ledge Trapping: Garfield has really good options for keeping his opponent on the ledge, pies are good for calling people out on a lot of situations, down-tilt is very fast when they stay on the ledge for too long, light dash-attack hits below the ledge and will set-up into a down-strong, his light down-air is great for calling out options, Pooky can be positioned where you can cover multiple options and much more. At this spot Garfield can also cover a lot of recovery options while staying on stage by either throwing Pooky off stage or by trying to strong down-air characters on stage since the hit-box of the move goes below the ledge.

Poor Damage Output: Garfield has a hard time getting a lot of % going compared to the rest of the cast, especially on lighter characters since his moves do relatively little damage. For Garfield to get a lot of damage going you have to be creative and try to read what your opponent is going to do next. Poor Raw Kill Power: When your opponent is at a higher %, once your set-ups stop working it becomes really hard for Garfield to get the kill, his raw kill moves are not fast, safe or big enough to just throw out without a thought and the only way you can get a reliable kill going is by a light dash-attack, and throws are a good 50/50 whenever possible. On light opponents going for a high % light up-air will work though but it isn’t useful on middleweights or higher. Poor Comeback Factor: While it isn’t an impossible task, more than any other character in this game Garfield struggles with getting comebacks. This is due to the fact that unlike most other characters in this game Garfield doesn’t have a move that kills super early in the right spots. With proper DI they will live for a long time and with his low damage output it can take him a while to equalize the game. Grounded Platform Pokes: Garfield’s only move from the ground that hits high enough to hit someone on a platform is his up-tilt. And while this move is great in speed and the knockback angel is favorable for him, the space that it covers is not much. This means that a lot of the time you have to commit to an aerial in order to cover anything on the platform, this open up a bigger window for your opponent to punish when you miss and since you have to travel up, puts you in a worse position to get hit by either recoveries or options your opponent throws out when they are on the platform. Edge Guarding: A lot of Garfield’s options off stage do not send your opponent in a favorable direction when you go off stage with them, together with the fact that unlike every other character you do not have a spiking down-air and your down-strong is relatively slow, it is a lot of the time better to just stick on stage unless you see a good moment when you can just hit them with a strong. Strong down-air is still an amazing call-out option though since it covers a lot of space but due to its start-up and end-lag if you miss it you are usually in a bad spot, but it is definitely worth going for when your opponent is running out of options.

Moves List

Light Attacks

Forward Kick
5L / Neutral Light

Time to kick Odie off the table.

Damage	Startup Frames	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
5%	6	7-9	20	-6
Garfield sticks his foot, kicking in front of him. A good poking tool that allows for follow ups. Combo’s into itself or up-light at low% on DI in, into light dash-attack on low to mid% DI out, and into up-air and aerial up-strong on DI in mid to high%.

Donut Bother Me
8L / Up Light

Want a hurtz donut?

Damage	Startup Frames	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
6%	6	6-7	20	-7
Garfield lifts a donut into the air, truly sending a message to keep off his snacks. A combo starter with a slight disjoint. Has a pick-up hitbox in front of Garfield on the first active frame. Garfield’s body has a hitbox the entire time. Can link into itself for a juggle depending on the opponent's character.

Fly Swatter
2L / Down Light

You’ll have to be faster than that!

Damage	Startup Frames	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
7%	6	6-7	23	-10
Standard poking tool, only this time its with a newspaper. Can be a combo starter on wrong DI. Hitbox does not cover the full news paper but does cover Garfield’s body relatively well. The spider is only a visual effect.

Tap Dance
66L / Run Light

“Showtime!”

Damage	Startup Frames	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
5%	7	7-14	30	-21
Garfield tap dances his way into the opponent. Standard dash attack. Covers Garfield’s entire body including a decently large space in front and behind him. Can hit opponents on the ledge. Can confirm into it from jab and falling aerials depending on DI. Down-strong and aerial down-strong are both great spiking moves out of this, the grounded one is easier to confirm but will kill later. It does miss on some lighter characters like April and Danny. Converts into all 3 pies, each leading to different combo paths. You can hit Pookie or other projectiles with this move and then jump out of it to preserve momentum. Use it as a way to approach.

Jumping/Air Light Attacks

Happy Day
j5L / Jump Light

“AAAAAAAAA”

Damage	Startup Frames	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
4-6%	7	7-17	32	-8
Garfield stretches out all 4 limbs, hitting everything around him. Great low % combo tool that leads into itself and other light aerials. Can continue to lead to followups at mid %s when used as a DI mixup. Very good combo breaker.

Thrashing Thoughts
j8L / Jump Up Light

Lasagna.

Damage	Startup Frames	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
6%	6	6-7	23	-8
Garfield manifests a thought bubble above his head. All he ever thinks about is lasagna and Mondays. Hitbox hits higher than the thought bubble makes it look. Garfield main source of racking up damage. Fastfalling lets him chain multiple of these together. The visual does not follow Garfield. It spawns where he uses the move and then stays there.

Spin Drop
j2L / Jump Down Light

Who knew he could do that…

Damage	Startup Frames	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
1-3%	5	5-20	36 while airborne	+0 multi, -5 landing
Garfield spins multiple times, drilling the air below him. Decently disjointed multi-hit aerial, good for almost every situation. With proper spacing impossible for certain characters to punish, making them have to resort to calling out your next option instead. A great combo breaker that forces your opponent to respect your landing, opening them up for empty hop grabs. Starts your combo game at low % on all DI and at mid to high % on DI in.

Strong Attacks

Leg Slap
5S / Neutral Strong

Great, now I want fried chicken.

Damage	Startup Frames	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
14%	15	15-19	47	-15
Garfield whips out a turkey leg and hits his opponent with it. A good disjointed strong that kills super early on bad DI and not at all on good DI, great for mix-up out of light dash-attack together with up-strong. Can be used for call-outs since it is fast for the range it has.

Lasagna Frenzy
8S / Up Strong

He’s gotta have a good meal.

Damage	Startup Frames	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
11%	17	17-31	44	-10
Garfield digs in to a big dish of lasagna in the most on-brand strong there is. Strong up-strong with a disjointed hitbox in front of Garfield. Kills early with improper DI and decently with good DI. Can be confirmed into with light dash-attack. Longest active frames of any of Garfield's moves. Lowest amount of total frames for Garfield’s grounded strongs.

Classy Schtick
2S / Down Strong

Bravo! Bravo!

Damage	Startup Frames	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
13%	18	18-19	53	-18
Don’t forget to tip your waitress! Great spike with amazing disjointed range. The disjoint is slightly bigger than the magic stick itself. Slow strong at frame 18. One of Garfield's best combo conversions out of light dash-attack. Biggest amount of total frames out of any of Garfield’s moves. Great call-out move from the ledge. Hits above Garfield when he swings down on the first active frame. Hits characters on platforms but not recommended unless you are trying to teeter them.

Cat Pounce
66S / Run Strong

As the song goes, you better look out.

Damage	Startup Frames	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
11%	18	18-22	42	-17
Garfield lunges at his opponents like a true feline. Garfield slows down immensely and then speeds to attack his opponent. Slowest of all Garfield’s moves at frame 18. Really bad hitbox compared to his other hitboxes, it only hits on Garfield's arms. Has decent push-back and is useful for teetering people out of ledge situations. In most situations it is way worse than a light dash-attack. When your opponent is hit by a Cream Pie you can heavy dash-attack into them to convert out of it.

Jumping/Air Strong Attacks

BURP!
j5S / Jump Strong

Garfield the Cat, where are your manners?

Damage	Startup Frames	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
15%	15	15-19	44	-7
He burps on you. Fastest air strong at frame 15. Disjointed hitbox in front and above of Garfield. Visual doesn’t fully match-up to the hitbox spacing. Good DI mix-up if the opponent is expecting you to go for aerial up-strong. Good spacing move due to the disjoint and safety landing. Garfield pulls his entire body upwards during the animation, making it harder to hit him. Bewaren of down-strong's due to RPS when using this.

Yawn
j8S / Jump Up Strong

Say goodnight.

Damage	Startup Frames	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
12%	16	16-20	47	-8
Garfield gives a big stretch and makes for a good finisher. Garfield stretches backwards when he yawns, meaning that you can do it while turned around to get more range out of it. Disjointed up-strong that covers the entire body. Since it covers the entire body you can use the hitbox on the feet while coming down. Most reliable aerial K.O. option. Confirms out of Jab.

Air Stomp
j2S / Jump Down Strong

Get dunked on!

Damage	Startup Frames	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
18%	17	17-21	50	-6
Very strong spike that makes Garfield resemble a demon king. Strong aerial spike option, great for call-outs and covering space while edge guarding. Disjointed move that covers Garfield’s entire body almost fully, only having the top part of his head not covered. Can hit through the stage when spaced well on the ledge. K.O.’s your opponent off of the top earlier then aerial up-strong but only if your opponent is touching the ground Safe on block when done right due to the extreme push-back the move has, even on Yellow block.

Special Attacks

Pie Party!
5P / Neutral Special

Too bad this wasn’t a pie eating contest.

Damage	Startup Frames	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
3%, 10%, 10%	13	13-72 (Cream Pie) 13-88 (Raspberry Pie) 13-88 (Blueberry Pie)	32 for each pie	-7 for Cream/Raspberry, -0 for Blueberry
Garfield throws an assortment of pies as an essential tool in his moveset. Garfield will throw 1 of 3 pie’s, they will always be in the order: “Cream, Raspberry, Blueberry”. Garfield will always throw a Cream pie as his first pie after he respawns from a knockout. Unlike other projectiles, Garfield‘s pie’s do not get slowed down when used multiple times in a row due to the fact that each pie counts as its own projectile. If Garfield gets hit out of this move before the Pie gets thrown he will try to throw the same pie again when the move is activated again. All the pies have their own unique effects and are all useful in his combo game for their own reasons: Cream pie is a multi-hit projectile that can be followed up by a heavy dash attack which can then be converted off again. This one is the most useful one in this position. It can also be confirmed into Raspberry pie off stage which forces your opponent to recover low. Raspberry pie is a spiking projectile that sets up for a tech chase situation. Near the ledge you can combo this into your strong down-air. Blueberry pie is a hard hitting projectile with higher hitstun that combos at low% into Garfield’s basic combo game. Can be hit and destroyed during the first 29 frames, after this there is only a hitbox active. When hit in the right spot Cream Pie can just carry your opponent to the blast zone from the ledge.

Feral Cat
8P / Up Special

Look out below!

Damage	Startup Frames	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
7%, 11% on hit	38	38-End	20 on landing	-
Garfield goes upwards and forwards before descending at an insane speed. This move has a lot of drift on it with low end lag making it hard to punish even when landing on the stage. You can grab the ledge while facing away from the stage if spaced right moments before you start descending. While going up there is no hitbox. When Garfield starts descending there is a hitbox that covers his entire body, though it is not disjointed. The landing hitbox can send you behind Garfield if placed right.

Pooky
2P / Down Special

Garfield’s partner in crime and biggest fan. Top data is for placing Pooky and bottom is for calling him.

Damage	Startup Frames	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
-	34	-	-	-
Damage	Startup Frames	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
9%	1	1-End	20+	-9
Garfield pulls out his favorite teddy bear to trip up his opponents. Pooky can be placed and called at any moment. Calling Pooky back is a frame 1 action, meaning that you can do it during a combo if there is a 1 frame gap. Pooky will get destroyed by any move that isn’t a projectile, no matter the damage. When Pooky is spaced in a very specific way where he is slightly touching the opponent's hurtbox when returned, he will send the opponent out and down instead of up. Pooky can be used as a tool to get a bunch of momentum from a dash-attack. since you can jump out of it on hit. Pooky can go through the stage.

Taunt

Taunt
Taunt Button

“Go away, Nermal.”

Shhh… He’s resting.

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