Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2/Universal Mechanics

NASB 2 really shook up the formula... funny enough making it a fair bit closer to a traditional platform fighter than it's predecessor. The change from Digital to Analog controls opened up new possibilities for movesets and a lot of the rougher edges of the first game have been shaved off or smoothed out. On top of that, the new Slime Meter opens up nearly infinite possibilities.

Basic

Light Attacks

These are your standard jabs, tilt attacks, and aerial attacks that you're likely used to from Smash. New for the NASB series, there are now forward and back inputs on every single character, meaning that on top of the old inputs characters now have a Forward tilt, Forward Aerial, and Back Aerial. (miss you Hugh)

Charge Attacks AKA "Strong Attacks"

Like in NASB1, the game's equivalent to "Smash" attacks is tied to it's own button that works on both ground and air. This time the official name is "Charge" attacks since you can charge them for greater power and damage in exchange for taking a bigger risk landing it. Your character will start flashing yellow when you've reached the maximum level of charge. Unlike for light attacks, there are no "Forward" or "Back" inputs for Strongs, meaning you only have Up, Neutral, and Down strongs and the aerial variants of those.

The "Rock Paper Scissors" counterplay system has also been entirely removed, now it's just about spacing and hitboxes.

Blocking

A more traditional "shield bubble" has been added, as well as shield health and shield breaks which were both absent from the prequel game. The only form of parry you have now is based on shielding the moment an attack hits, which will make the shield glow a different color for a moment and play a unique sound. There is no longer a bonus for holding the direction an attack is coming from, and in fact now you can press down while shielding to spotdodge in place for a few frames of invincibility, and press left or right while shielding to roll that way. You can also spend Slime to bolster your shield against a particularly vicious onslaught, see the Slime section below.

Note that while the bubble visibly shrinks, there is no "Shield poking" to let you hit a blocking opponent who isn't fully covered - a character is fully protected by their block until it's dropped, one way or another.

Dash attacks

Input: Press Light Attack while your character is running.

Dash Attacks return from NASB 1, however Strong Dash Attacks have not returned. Dash Attacks are also no longer cancelable on hit due to the presence of Slime Cancels. They are merely attacks to be done out of a run, usually for some sort of lunging strike.

Grabs

Grabs are once again dramatically different in NASB2 compared the original, "Cargo Grabs" are entirely gone with nobody on the roster capable of them at the moment. Instead everyone has four unique throw attacks they can perform on an opponent as well as a "Pummel" move done by mashing grab or light attack while holding an opponent.

You also can no longer grab projectiles out of the air and throw them back, meaning projectiles now need to be respected a lot more.

Reflecting

Like the changes listed in the above Grabs section, Reflecting has been weakened considerably. Strong/Charge attacks still bounce projectiles away but only during the active frames of the move, and depending on the angle and launch direction of the attack it likely won't even send it back to the opponent. Certain skills are still uniquely capable of reflecting, like Gerald's table tennis paddle and Garfield's Shine. (yes, Garfield The Cat has a shine)

It should be noted that the original game's "level" system for reflected/grabbed projectiles has been entirely scrapped - one projectile beats another, period, no matter how many times it's reflected, unless it's a unique function of a given projectile to beat out other projectiles.

Landing

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Advanced

Wavedashing

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Regular Canceling

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DI (Directional Influence)

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SDI (Hitstun Shuffling)

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Slime

Slime is a special meter that every character has access to, and mastery over this resource is vital to success in NASB2.

The Slime Meter appears beneath your character's damage percent and stock count and has up to three bars that can be filled by dealing or (to a lesser degree) taking damage, earlier bars filling up faster than later bars. Roughly 60%/90%/100% per bar, starting from nothing and taking no damage.

While every character is going to have their own gameplan on how to use slime, it is an integral part of the game and something you should be looking to weave into your strategy more often than not.

All Slime functions require pressing or holding the Slime button (default Left Trigger/ZL/Left Shift) at the correct time or with the correct additional input.

Slime Specials (EX Specials)

Input: Hold Slime while inputting a Special, Costs 1 bar of Slime.

Spends a bar of meter to enhance one of your specials in some way. Check individual character pages for details, as the effects can very dramatically from more power, to travelling further/faster, sometimes effectively producing an entirely new move.

Slime Strongs/Charges (EX Strongs)

Input: Hold Slime while inputting a Strong/Charge move, costs 1 bar of Slime.

A Strong/Charge attack that deals extra damage compared to the uncharged form, without any of the charge time. Does not deal any additional knockback.

(Note: as of this writing EX Strongs are still in flux due to patches, 1.3 claiming it will remove the DI restriction on them.)

Slime Canceling

Input: Tap Slime during the frames of any move's animations, costs 1 bar of Slime.

Immediately places you back into a neutral, actionable state. The visual slime burst it produces is also a hitbox that stuns any character already caught in hitstun and holds them in place for about 50(?) frames, allowing for further damage to be tacked on, or allowing kill confirms. Comparable to Roman Cancels and it's not the only mechanic this game is taking from Guilty Gear.

Note that knockback is reduced from moves immediately following a Slime Cancel, though not to a dramatic degree.

You cannot Slime Cancel regular throws, however certain command throws like Plankton's Chum Bucket Buster can be.

Word of warning: the Slime Cancel hitbox itself has zero blockstun, meaning that if you cancel a move that was just shielded you might just give an aware opponent a chance to strike back at you, due to the cancel hitbox overriding the normal move's shieldstun.

Slime Dashing

Input: Hold Slime while inputting an Air Dodge, costs 1 bar of Slime.

Your air dodge will now travel further and be fully actionable throughout, not unlike how they worked in NASB1. Note that this move has no invincibility frames like the regular one (citation needed) so don't be reckless with this.

Slime Blocking

Input: Hold Slime while holding Shield. Costs meter for as long as Slime is held, at a rate of about 2 seconds per full bar.

Comparable to Guilty Gear's "Faultless Defense", this essentially makes your shield unbreakable and reduces/eliminates the amount you're pushed back while shielding. This is especially helpful at the ledge to prevent being put into Teeter.

Slime Momentum Canceling (Slime Burst)

Input: Slime + Shield while in hitstun, costs 2 bars of Slime.

Immediately cancels all knockback taken and produces a small hitbox around your character knocking back the opponent if they aren't blocking.

This is generally used to save stocks from certain death and give you one more chance to recover. If your character already doesn't need a lot of slime to operate, Slime Burst will just make it that much harder for your opponent to keep up.

Status Effects

Poison/Burn

Certain moves inflict Poison or Fire which inflicts damage over time for a few seconds before clearing up on it's own. How much damage depends on the move. Signified by a visual effect on your character and a fire or purple bubble icon next to your stocks.
Campaign: The brawler is dealt 3 damage per second.

Sauce

Sauce is a status that reduces movement speed and your ability to DI, making you easier to combo and to kill. Signified by your character being coated in orange gunk and a bottle icon next to your stocks.

Currently exclusive to moves by Plankton.