Analysis: Pikachu

Click here to discuss the Marth vs. Bayo matchup for my next guide.

Welcome back to my analysis series, my dudes. Last time, we took a look at the character most people agree is the best in the game, Bayonetta. This time, let’s talk about a character people thought was top 5 at first, but has since fallen in tier lists. The character I’m talking about is, of course, Pikachu.

Hey what’s up everybody, ESAM here bringing you another video--

CAN YOU NOT?

Anyways, let’s take a look at Pikachu’s pros and cons. Hopefully this won’t turn into an anti-guide like my blog about Bayonetta did. Partly because I don’t know how that happened with Bayonetta and didn’t mean to do that at all, but also partly because I don’t know as much about anti-Pikachu strategies as I do anti-Bayonetta strategies. Without further ado, let’s do this.

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Table of contents

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Small hurtbox and low crouch

Range

Jab locking

Kill power

Edgeguarding and recovery

Combo game

Survivability

Tournament play

Tier placement

Miscellaneous stuff about Pikachu

My thoughts on the character

Conclusion

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Small hurtbox and low crouch

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Pikachu can be the bane of some characters’ existence because of how difficult it can be to hit him. Being so small makes him practically immune to combos like Wario’s falling up air into Waft. He also has a low crouch and can crawl, which can make it difficult for some characters to grab him.

Once he does get grabbed and his opponent tries to start a combo, the damage will likely be minimal, because of Pikachu’s light weight. This makes it easier for him to escape combos compared to heavyweights and fast fallers, who can have a hard time. This is a key advantage in the Bayonetta matchup, which is becoming increasingly important in today’s metagame. While this does mean Pikachu dies earlier, these factors can make it more difficult to get him to kill percents.

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Range

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Pikachu’s small size, while it does have some benefits, also leads to a pretty big problem: range. Having short range means he can’t reach out to hit opponents where other characters would be able to, which results in his moves being less safe overall.

Like Mario, Pikachu’s short range makes it difficult for him to deal with swordfighters. Fortunately for him, Pikachu doesn’t have too bad of a matchup against Cloud because of how easy it is for him to edgeguard him.

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Jab locking

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Whereas most characters need a footstool or a lucky missed tech to set up a jab lock and some others have a setup move (such as Mario’s neutral air), Pikachu has several setups. I bet there are more out there, but the ones I know about are down tilt, up tilt into footstool, and up throw into neutral air against certain characters on the tri-plats (i.e. Battlefield and Dream Land). The up throw into neutral air setup can be used to do up to 60% damage on Battlefield.

These combos can make Pikachu a really scary character to fight, since if he makes you slam on the ground after a missed tech, you’re in for a whole lotta trouble.

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Kill power

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Pikachu has a variety of kill moves and setups. He has up throw into Thunder, which does over 20% damage and can kill at reasonably early percents. If he lands a down tilt at certain percentages (varies between characters), he can jab lock them into a forward smash. Falling forward air into up smash is a solid mixup. Pikachu’s kill setups aren’t the best, since they require reads and good timing and spacing. Up throw to Thunder for example, can be DI’d. This means in order to kill with it, he has to make the correct read. But he can also get his kills from edgeguarding, which leads me nicely into our next section.

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Edgeguarding & recovery

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Pikachu’s edgeguarding, like Bayonetta’s, is among the best in the game. He can use back air and forward air to drag opponents down, pretty much all his aerials to send opponents further offstage, and Thunder to try to spike them. After that, Pikachu is also blessed with a top tier recovery. Quick Attack is one of the best recovery moves in the game, as it’s quick and unpredictable. Pikachu can aim Quick Attack in almost any way he wants, which can result in tons of different mixups. This is also great for opponents who want to edgeguard him.

Pikachu’s top tier edgeguarding gives him a key advantage in matchups like Cloud and Captain Falcon. Both of these characters have bad recoveries, which Pikachu can capitalize on.

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Combo game

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Pikachu’s combo game is pretty good, with combo starters like down throw, forward throw, up throw, and up tilt. As stated above, ESAM discovered an up throw to neutral air to jab lock combo on certain characters on tri-plats. When optimized, this combo can lead into up to 60% damage. Up tilt can combo into itself, and when the percent gets too high, he can follow up with an up air. After the up air, he can double jump into another aerial, the most optimal being neutral air.

Quick Attack can also be used as a combo starter, because of the hitstun and the fact that you can position Pikachu in the right place to start a combo, because of the move’s maneuverability.

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Survivability

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Pikachu’s light weight, small hurtbox, and average falling speed make him more difficult to combo than normal, but also make him a more frail character. Being one of the lightest characters in the game and not having a particularly fast falling speed to compensate like characters like Sheik and Bayonetta do mean he’ll die earlier than average. Fortunately for Pikachu, it can take a little while to get him to kill percents because of the factors mentioned above.

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Tournament play

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A majority of Pikachu’s good results come from ESAM. Not many other people play Pikachu, thanks in part to his difficulty curve. While he isn't quite as good as he used to be, ESAM recently came in fifth at CEO Dreamland and third at UGC Smash Open. But outside of him, Pikachu barely has any results at all.

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Tier placement

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There was one point where Pikachu was considered top 5, as ESAM was getting better results more consistently with Pikachu back then. However, since then, people have figured out how to beat Pikachu, and as a result, he’s fallen considerably on the tier list. He comes in at 15th on the latest 4BR Tier List.

Personally, I do think this placement is about right, but if more people started to play Pikachu, he could see a rise on the list.

Time to hit the lab

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Miscellaneous stuff about Pikachu

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Here are a few other things about Pikachu, because why not?

-His air speed is 46th fastest in the game. This is one of the few downsides to his recovery, as he can’t drift back to the stage as easily as characters like Mario, Yoshi, and Donkey Kong can without using a double jump or special move. This also comes with another downside. With such a low air speed, DIing out of combos is less effective, since he won’t go as far as a character with high air speed.

-Pikachu’s jab, while not coming out on frame 1 (it’s actually frame 2), is one of the fastest jabs in the game. Within one second, he can throw out jab 1 three times. Pikachu can also use jab to lock (though at low percents down tilt may be a better option due to its higher damage), intercept recoveries to setup an edgeguard, or just to look silly.

*repeated headbutts*

What’s up? What’s up?

Yes. My friends and I call Pikachu’s jab the What’s Up attack.

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My thoughts on the character

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OK, what the actual heck is going on? I typed “thoughts” and it autocorrected to “Thoughts”.......?

Pikachu is a character I did main for a while. It was a time when I didn’t know how mains work and just picked up like half the roster. I played a lot of characters during that time: Sheik, Ike, ZSS, Ness, Pikachu, Mario, Toon Link, Diddy Kong, Sonic, and more I’m not thinking of right now probably. I had fun with a lot of characters, and my Pikachu was probably one of my best characters at the time. 3-0ing my friends in Pika dittos and such.

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Conclusion

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So that’s about all I have to say about Pikachu. Let me know who you think I should analyze next in a comment. I’m going to start doing regular character analyses alongside matchup guides. This is Matt, g off.