Overview
Mike is a character with great strengths and crippling weaknesses. His damage and mobility is top notch, but he's greatly hurt by his limited range and technique. Mastering Mike is no easy task, and despite his brutal damage output, you'll need to work hard for your wins. Still, he's very rewarding and fun to play. But how do you play him?
Moves to Use & The 3-Hit Rule
3-Hit Rule
As mentioned before, Mike's damage is extremely high, which is an essential piece of the puzzle to taking rounds with him. This damage mostly comes from his HP and Kick (LK/MK/HK) buttons.
What these two buttons have in common is the fact that they both can kill any opponent in 3 collective hits. As such, you often won't think of the enemy's health as a traditional counter, rather just a simple meter that says "3 hits to kill, 2 hits to kill, etc".
two of Mike's moves break this "3-hit rule" however, those being his LP and MP. For the most part you won't use these too much. LP has a nice niche VS. more aggressive characters like Birdie... but MP is pretty useless other than for taunting.
The Dangerous Duo (of moves)
HP is your primary anti air in many matchups. While not fantastic, it gets the job done, and does very threatening damage. Additionally, it's your longest range move, so it's fantastic as a general longer range poke and punish. The biggest downside to this move is its ability to be crouched, which can make it a bit more difficult to use on some characters.
Kick is your other most important move. It crouches you down, making it a nice move for low profiling and counterpoking higher-hitting attacks. It's also very fast and knocks the enemy back. And if it doesn't knock the enemy back? Go for a second one! You're usually safe to do it and hitting both can take two thirds off of the opponent's healthbar, bringing you ever so closer to victory. This move does has a downside, though, and that's its range. You really have to get close for this move to work, which can be risky.
Art of the Wavedash
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General Strategy
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