Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2/Nigel

Moveset

Combos

Matchups

Strategy

About

A smashing nature narrator with an appetite for adventure!

Sir Nigel Archibald Thornberry, KBE is the patriarch of the Thornberry family. Born to an aristocratic British couple, Nigel has devoted his life to studying animals and other forms of wildlife, and is the host of his own nature show, Nigel Thornberry's Wild World. An expert zoologist, experienced pilot, and general upstanding guy, Nigel travels the world with his family in their RV to see what exciting creatures it has to offer.

Playstyle

Due to his lightweight yet high damage potential, Nigel falls under the glass cannon archetype (particularly in bursting). He excels at hitting opponents in the air while at the same time being good at moving in it. Nigel also has a lot of moves that can either be spammed (Nair, Bair, etc.) or kill opponents early with the proper setups (Supair, Down special, etc).

Metagame

Nigel is ranked 25th out of 29 on the current tier list, in the C tier. This is a critical drop over his 3rd out of 25 placement in the first Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl and is the biggest drop of any veteran in the game.

Nigel is a floaty character that's most threatening in the air. His air mobility is very noteworthy, having 4 jumps and being able to glide around with both his Air Down Strong and his Light Back Air. This, in tandem, gives him a very good recovery, allowing him to mixup his direction depending on how many jumps he uses. Nigel also has a good combo game, being able to juggle his opponent high in the air due to his large amount of jumps. However, this all pales in comparison to his signature move: Smashing! Comboing into this move for an early kill is the M.O of Nigel's gameplan.

Nigel is burdened with a large list of flaws, however. One of his more notable ones is his weight: he is among the lightest in the cast, narrowly being beat out by Zim in terms of base stats. This makes him very easy to KO, and ensures he can't take too many risks. Not helping matters is his large frame, which makes him easy to hit if the opponent has a fair amount of range. Nigel also has bad approach options, with Back Air arguably being his best one, and this is coupled with awful shield pressure as well, with most of his moves being unsafe on shield. These weaknesses make Nigel a very risky character to play, making disadvantage an uphill battle if he ever has the misfortune of being in it.

Nigel has largely been considered a low-tier character for most of the metagame, even being considered the worst character in the game for a large portion of it. In spite of this, however, he has achieved respectable and even strong results in tournament play, notably offline. Perhaps because of this, Nigel has been seen slightly more positively in the present day, no longer considered to be the worst character in the game by many of the playerbase. In spite of this, though, Nigel has yet to escape the bottom 5 characters, and remains a low-tier, albeit a polarizing one.

Nigel


Franchise	The Wild Thornberrys
Home Stage	Wild Savannah
Weight	0.75
Fall Speed	0.88
Gravity	0.8
Run Speed	0.84
Air Speed	1.5

Strengths

Weaknesses

GOOD COMBO GAME: Nigel can chain moves easily.

GOOD AIR MOBILITY: Nigel glides through the air with his 4 air jumps, high air movement stat and some moves that provide him with mobility.

GOOD RECOVERY: Correlates with the point above.

GOOD EDGE-GUARDING: His air mobility allows for a lot of options to edge-guard opponents.

HIGH KILL POTENTIAL: Nigel has a decent amount of moves that can kill early.

WEIGHT: Nigel's low weight value makes him easy to KO.

BIG HITBOX: Nigel's hitbox body is fairly big, which makes him easier to hit with disjoints.

MEDIOCRE APPROACH: Nigel doesn't have the best approaching tools compared to the rest of the cast.

SHIELD PRESSURE: Nigel lacks shield pressuring moves.

Moveset

Ground Light Attacks

Astonishing!
Light

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
7%	5	6-8	31	-0
Nigel throws an uppercut, which sends opponents upwards. Single hit type of jab.

What's over there?
Forward+Light

"Hello!"

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
8%	7	8-13	33	-0
Nigel looks at you closely with his binoculars, hitting opponents away from him.

Fly Clap
Up+Light

"Got it"

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
7%	7	8-11	31	-0
Nigel claps his hands in an attempt to kill a mosquito, any accidental casualties are sent upwards

Scorpion Sting
Down+Light

"Thrash!"

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
8%	8	9-16	38	-0
Nigel takes the stance of the scorpion to sting any opponents approaching him. On Frame 10-12, the sweet spot appears a little behind Nigel's stinging foot. Landing it will instead cause the opponent to take 10% damage and obtain poison effect that deals 10% damage overtime.

Crocodile Wrangling
Light (Running)

"Make way!"

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
11%	10	11-26	49	-0
Nigel summons a crocodile and runs over opponents by riding it. On Frame 11-13, a sweet spot is active on the crocodile's head that can hit below the stage and deals 14% damage

Air Light Attacks

Flying Squirrel Slam
Light (Airborne)

"Haiyah!"

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
7%	5	6-30	42	-0
Nigel slams his body against enemies with the flying squirrel stance. On Frame 6-7, a sweet spot covers most of Nigel's body and deals 11% damage instead The sour spot follows Nigel's body till frame 30.

Woodpecker Rage
Forward+Light (Airborne)

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
2%	6	7-24, 28-29	41	-0
Nigel takes the stance of the woodpecker and pecks opponents with his pointy nose. Nigel attacks 4 times during the active frames that have very little knock-back On Frame 28-29, a sweet spot activates that deals 4% damage with decent knock-back. Land all the multi hit attacks to deal a total of 12%

Frog Back Kick
Back+Light (Airborne)

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
13%	8	9-13	41	-0
Nigel stretches his legs with the power of a frog, kicking any opponents away from him. On frame 12-13, the hitbox is replaced with a sour spot that deals 8% damage and has its knock-back greatly reduced This makes Nigel face the other way when used. You can cancel the end-lag of this move by landing on the ground without hitting any opponents

Elephant Trunk
Up+Light (Airborne)

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
9%	6	7-18	40	-0
Nigel imitates an elephant trunk swing with his arms The position of the swinging arm will affect knock back direction If you input this move while jumping on the air at the same time, Nigel will gain more air height compared to a normal jump.

Wolf Claw
Down+Light (Airborne)

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
7%	11	12-14, 17-18	45	-0
Nigel claws enemies below him with the technique of the wolf. On the second set of active frames, A sweet spot activates on Nigel's second hand that he swings, dealing 9% Damage and spikes opponents The arm Nigel swings first depends on the direction he is facing (If he is facing West, he'll swing his left arm first , if he faces east then he'll swing his right arm first) This move can hit twice if you position yourself correctly

Ground Strong Attacks

Kangaroo One Two
Strong

"One, two!"

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
16%	11	12-14,19-21	45	-0
Nigel punches enemies away with the strength of a kangaroo, represented by the boxing gloves First active hitbox deals 4% while the second one deals 12% with great knock-back If you land the first hitbox too close to you, the second one will miss.

Tea time!
Up+Strong

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
15%	11	12-16	46	-0
Nigel Uppercuts any opponents interrupting his teatime, using his tea cup.

Ostrich Bury
Down+Strong

"Hmph!"

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
14%	7	8-10	48	-0
Nigel smashes his head through the ground so hard; it damages enemies, just like an ostrich. The sweet spot is located in Nigel's head, it spikes opponents and can go through the stage Each side next to Nigel's head there is one small sour spot that if landed, deals 12% and knocks enemies away

Air Strong Attacks

Snake bite
Strong (Airborne)

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
10%	10	11-12	42	-0
Nigel turns his arm into a poisonous snake, which attempts to bite opponents. Theres a sweet spot located on top of Nigel's hand, if landed it will apply a poison effect to the opponent that deals 10% damage overtime and greatly increases the knock-back of the move

Giraffe Neck
Up+Strong (Airborne)

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
14%	9	10-11,18-20	46	-0
Nigel stretches his neck like a giraffe and then swings it around. Nigel stalls in the air while he is swinging his head. The first hitbox sends opponents upwards with a weak knock-back, the second has great knock-back but send opponents horizontally in the direction Nigel is facing If you position yourself correctly, you can hit both hit boxes to double the damage and increase the knock-back overall.

Falcon Dive
Down+Strong (Airborne)

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
12%	13	14-36	60	-0
Nigel glides through the air using the falcon’s dive stance. After frame 19 of this move, the hitbox turns sour and deals 9% damage instead. Nigel stalls in the air while charging this move. If Nigel touches the ground while this move is active, he will cancel it and get 26 frames of end-lag while moving forwards due to the momentum.

Special Attacks

Bull Stampede
Special

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
12%-26% (depending on charge)	20	21-45	76	-0
Nigel charges forwards with the strength of a bull, knocking back anyone who gets in his way. Charge this move to make it stronger and faster. Takes about 5 seconds to fully charge the move. Nigel can begin charging the move in the air. Nigel can move while charging if he is in the air. Nigel obtains armor when the charge is released. If there's a wall in Nigel's path, his momentum will be reversed gradually when he collides with it (like the ledge for example) You can cancel the move early by inputting special again after releasing the charge This move will go through shields if the lower half of Nigel's body touches it EX VERSION Time to fully charge the move gets halved Damage is capped at 12% Any opponents hit will float in front of Nigel briefly instead of being sent flying away

Gorilla Double Punch
Forward+Special

"Oog, Oog!"

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
8%	14	15-30	46	-0
Nigel punches forwards like a mighty gorilla! If you land the first hit and Nigel is on the ground, press Special Forward again for an uppercut. Second uppercut deals 7% damage and stalls Nigel on the air briefly Can only be used once in the air until Nigel touches the ground. EX VERSION Knock-back and distance is increased Second uppercut can be inputted regardless of you hitting an opponent or not (but Nigel still needs to be on the ground)

Smashing!
Down+Special

"That was smashing!"

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
20%	2	3-4	124	-0
Nigel snaps his fingers and laughs. Land the snap on an opponent for a marvelous attack. The hitbox is not really on Nigel's fingers, but more right above his chest, making this move most likely to connect on a juggled opponent. Since it's also tiny, this makes the ground version dangerously easy to low profile. While Nigel is laughing, you cannot control him. If you land the move, you can cancel the endlag (Nigel's Laugh) (you can also cancel the laugh by getting hit by an opponent) EX VERSION Damage is increased to 27% Knock-back is greatly reduced An additional massive Hitbox is created, covering Nigel's body and more which deals 16% damage Nigel's laugh is shortened to 8 frames when you miss

Whale Crash
Up+Special

"Look, Mumsy, I'm a whale."

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
7%	40	Depends on airtime, 1-6 (when landing)	On average 84	-0
Nigel launches himself up into the air and then crashes down with the weight of a whale. A hitbox appears on Nigel's body when he crashes down that lasts until he lands on the ground. Nigel cannot slime cancel the move once the hitbox is created (but regains the ability to do so once he lands on the ground). EX VERSION Nigel gains more height but comes down crashing faster On frames 31-40, a sweet spot appears that when landed, spikes enemies and deals 8% damage

Grab/Throws

Grab
Grab

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
0%	0	0-0	0	-0
Nigel swings his arms to grab the opponent .

Dash Grab
Grab (Running)

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
0%	0	0-0	0	-0
Nigel lunges forward before trying to grab the opponent

Pummel
Light (Grabbing)

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
1%	0	0-0	0	-0
Nigel peck's the opponent with his pointy nose

Up Throw
Up (Grabbing)

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
10%	0	0-0	0	-0
Nigel launches the opponent upwards with his arms

Foward Throw
Forward (Grabbing)

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
9%	0	0-0	0	-0
Nigel throws the opponent in a downward angle

Down Throw
Down (Grabbing)

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
11%	0	0-0	0	-0
Nigel slams his body on top of the opponent. Kills at high percents.

Back Throw
Back (Grabbing)

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
18%	0	0-0	0	-0
Nigel knocks the opponent away with a powerful kick. Kills at high percents. This throw deals the most damage out of any throw in the entire game.

Super

Super
Slime+Light

"Marvelous... The great giant elephant!"

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
40%	23	24-25	124	-0
Nigel observes the great giant elephant squishing the opponents. The end-lag stalls Nigel in the air.

Taunts

Nigel's thing with his hands
Taunt

"I'll do this with my hands!"

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
-	-	-	64	-0
Nigel does his thing with his hands.

Nigel's Laugh
Down+Taunt

"Buahaha!"

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
-	-	-	98	-0
Nigel laughs at the opponent.

Defense stance.
Up+Taunt

Damage	Startup	Active Frames	Total Frames	Safety
-	-	-	54	-0
Nigel strikes his menacing pose.

Strategy

Air game

As previously stated, this is Nigel's bread and butter. Your goal here is taking advantage of your air mobility being as slippery as you can, while also hitting your opponent to rack up damage for the finishing blow. There's plenty of ways to do this with Nigel's kit that we need to analyze on more detail:

Neutral Air and Forward Air

Both moves have the main purpose of catching opponents on the air while being able to chain with other moves.

Back Air, SUp Air and SNeutral Air

These are all valid options to end combos or to catch opponents but do have some differences; like Back Air being the more spammable move, SUp Air being more of a kill move and SNeutral air dealing the most damage

SDown Air, Neutral Special and Side Special

They are your main mobility moves as Nigel, they all fulfill a different purpose though:

- SDown Air has takes the same path with the same speed regardless of how much you charge it, plus it being somewhat quick makes it a good mix up to go into your opponents.

- Neutral Special might not be great to use when you are trying to attack the opponent, but when you are away from them in the air, it becomes a very good and safe horizontal recovery tool as it gives you enough time to fully charge it and glide through the stage (bonus points if you hit the opponent). However, if the opponent catches on and tries to shield it, you can always cancel it early by pressing Special button again and land safely onto the stage. (Its worth noting that the EX VERSION OF THIS MOVE should not be used, the charge time is really not an issue with the normal version and the other attributes just straight up nerf the move)'

- Side Special works similarly to SDown Air on it having a fixed path and same speed always, but its a lot slower and covers less distance. This however is compensated by the fact that its one the major combo tools Nigel has, making it a High risk high reward move. EX VERSION makes the move less risky because it gains more speed and covers more range.

Up Air

Arguably Nigel's best move, Up Air is a spammable juggle that chains into itself or other attacks while covering a huge arc above Nigel's head. AND on top of that it can also take stocks.

Down Air

On the flip side, Down Air is without a doubt Nigel's worst move, but that's not to say it doesn't have it's uses. It can be a combo extension move but the timing and positioning is precise and the sweet spot that spikes is there (keep in mind that there has never been a documented ranked/tournament game of this hitbox hitting someone due to how hard it is to actually land it.)

Slime Dash

Another universal NASB 2 mechanic but its worth saying that if you ever need the extra distance to catch someone, do not be afraid to use this.

Ground game

Just because Nigel has an incredibly good air game doesn't mean he don't got tools on the ground. When you are grounded, you are mainly looking to either start a combo or use one his explosive ground moves to kill opponents.

Nigel's light grounded moves:

These attacks either start combos or serve as get off me tools.

- Jab (Neutral Light) sends opponents upwards and in front of Nigel with great amount of hit-stun, making it a very good move to start a combo (keep in mind that it doesn't have the best range though).

- Ftilt (Light Foward ground) creates a big hit box in front of Nigel that knocks away opponents and is spammable, while also being a good out of shield (OOS) option.

- Uptilt (Light Up ground) sends opponent's upwards making it a good combo starter, can also be used to catch rolls.

- Dtilt (Light Down ground) almost same purpose as Ftilt, but the sweet spot makes it a potential burst of damage (has less range and is slightly slower than Ftilt though).

Nigel's Strong grounded moves:

All of them server the purpose as finishers, but they do it in different directions:

- SFtilt (Strong Foward ground) deals high damage and knocks-back enemies to the side blast zones.

- SUptilt (Strong Up ground) uppercuts enemies to the ceiling blast zone.

- SDtilt (Strong Down ground) spikes opponents (or in case of hitting the sour spot, sends to the side blast zones).

Nigel's Grab throws:

- Up Throw can chain into a lot of moves, but keep in mind that if opponents DI out of it, you'll need a Slime dash to catch them.

- Forward Throw launches the opponents away in a downward angle, however the knock-back isn't great so you should never use it over down throw unless the opponent is using a character with a bad or exploitable recovery (like Gertie for example)

- Back Throw is a kill throw, also deals the most damage out of any throw in the entire game.

- Down Throw is a kill throw as well.

Neutral Game

By far the hardest part about Nigel is learning how to start a combo chain, not because its mechanically intensive... more so his lack of approaching tools and shield pressure make him vulnerable to punishes when trying to do so, plus his light-weightiness leaves no room for mistakes. This factor means good neutral skills are required to perform on Nigel. Some tips to overcome this weakness are the following:

USE NIGEL'S MULTI-JUMPS:

A common tactic used in neutral is to not immediately approach an opponent when going into them, normally done by jumping. This acts as a bait to make the opponent whiff a punish move, which gives you a window to punish/start a combo. Nigel can do 5 jumps before having to touch the ground, giving him an edge with the mind games.

USE NIGEL'S MOBILITY TOOLS:

These moves can catch opponents off-guard when mixed in with your approaches, just be careful not to spam them or you'll become predictable.

HIDE NIGEL'S GRAB:

Some moves like Back Air can have their end-lag cancelled just by touching the ground, this is helpful against opponents who like to spam shield as you could use those moves to pretend you'll hit the opponent when shielding, but instead, you land on the ground just barely not touching the shield and run for a grab. This is not only a quick setup, but also can confuse the enemy into keeping their shield on.

USE NAIR/GRAB OOS (Out of Shield):

Nigel's Nair and grab are very quick and can defeat a lot of move's. Ideally you would just grab after your shield gets touched but in the case of them not being in grab range, you can short-hop Nair for the punish (and Nair is a very good tool to start combo's with Nigel as well).

SPACE YOUR OPPONENTS:

Even though this is a universal thing within NASB 2, its pretty mandatory on Nigel to be able to punish opponents. The good news is that he also has an edge with his good air mobility, allowing you to dodge moves easily on the air and not being reliant only on wave-dashing/running behind.

Techniques

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Snap (Down Special) setups

Knowing how to land Nigel's down special is crucial to cheese damage and potentially take early stocks. They maybe precise but with practice, you'll get the hang of it. [NOTE: The clips shown are slowed down so you can analyze the set up]

Non-Slime setups

Up Throw

On early damage percents and if the opponent's character isn't floaty, you might be able to sneak in a Snap from Up Throw if you are quick enough to react where the opponent DI's (except if they DI Out of the throw).

Up Air

On early damage percents and if the opponent's character isn't floaty, you can Snap from Up Air if you can predict where the opponent DI's.

Jab

On Mid damage percents, you can confirm a Snap from Nigel's Jab if you react where the opponent DI's (except if they DI Out).

Side Special

The way you use this setup depends on how much damage percent the opponent has.

Early Percents

Side Special does not have a lot of base knockback, but you are still able to get a Snap if you perform the move on the ground, all you have to do is quickly run to where the opponent DI's and perform the Snap. Be careful as if you are not quick enough, they will touch the ground and you will miss the opportunity.

Mid-High Percents

At this point, Side Special will throw opponents high enough for you to jump and catch them in the air, this allows you to get a Snap if you jump high enough while chasing wherever the opponent DI's.

Slime setups

With slime, you have access to much more set ups, but I'll only mention the ones that are consistent/powerful:

Slime Cancel Up Air

To perform this setup, Slime Cancel your Up Air and move Nigel near your opponent to then perform the Snap. While this is one of the easier setups to do, since you don't normally Up Air near the side blast zones + Slime Cancel reduces knock-back, this has a hard time taking stocks. My recommendation is to use it as a combo finisher for the extra 20 damage.

Slime Cancel Foward Air

To perform this setup, Slime Cancel your FAir and move Nigel near your opponent to then perform the Snap. Keep in mind FAir can only be Slime Canceled just before the Strong Hit appears. If you hit this setup near the side blast zone, you guarantee taking a stock.

EX Side Special

Very similar to the normal Side Special set up, just that you gotta keep in mind about the extra distance it covers and the higher knockback.

Slime Dash

A very high risk, high reward move to pull off, with this one you try to catch the opponent's trajectory when they are recovering/on hit-stun. Only use this to finish off the opponent and if you are feeling based.

Combos

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Matchups

(Note: List is unordered) [TO DO: Update list as this one is from previous patch and is now outdated]

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Other Resources

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Videos

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Costumes

Nigel's Default Outfit.
Nigel with a Safari Hat.
Nigel's outfit from "Nigel Knows Best".
Nigel's outfit from "Sir Nigel" (unlocked by having the Ultimate edition of NASB 2).
Mind controlled Nigel (unlocked by defeating Nigel twice in campaign mode).
Nigel's Ghost Clone (unlocked by defeating Nigel thrice in campaign mode).