Editing Pichu (SSBM)
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Pichu is voiced by Satomi Kōrogi, who also voiced one of the {{s|bulbapedia|Pichu Brothers}} in the ''Pokémon'' anime. | Pichu is voiced by Satomi Kōrogi, who also voiced one of the {{s|bulbapedia|Pichu Brothers}} in the ''Pokémon'' anime. | ||
Pichu is currently ranked 22nd in the D tier. Pichu has solid overall movement, complemented with some very quick attacks and an excellent neutral air, | Pichu is currently ranked 22nd in the D tier. Pichu has solid overall movement, complemented with some very quick attacks and an excellent neutral air. It also possesses a surprising amount of power for its weight class, with good [[chaingrab]]bing ability and a handful of strong finishers. However, all of Pichu's strengths are severely outweighed by its weaknesses. It has abysmal range and very poor endurance due to its light weight, and is unusually prone to chaingrabs itself despite its small size, due to the unusually high amounts of hitstun it sustains as a result of being the game's lightest character. It also takes [[recoil damage]] from its electric-based moves, including its own recovery move [[Agility]], further hampering its defensive game. As a result, Pichu suffers from abysmal matchups- with nearly the entire cast taking advantage of its fragility and poor range. Historically, Pichu was considered to have the worst matchup spread in the game, with no universally agreed upon winning matchups. However, its perception has mildly improved over time due to developments in the metagame- partially because its unexpectedly fast frame data was undervalued. Regardless, Pichu's survivability remains absolutely atrocious, drastically hampering the effectiveness of any metagame developments. | ||
Although no longer considered a contender for the worst character competitively, Pichu was intended to be a sub-par character in general, with its trophy descriptions mentioning Pichu as "''top of the class in weakness''" and "''best suited for handicapped matches.''" This was confirmed in a development news update, shortly after the game's release.<ref>''[http://sourcegaming.info/2015/09/24/meleepichusite/ News Flash! Smash Bros. Dojo: Pichu]'' (translated 2015-09-24; [https://www.nintendo.co.jp/n01/n64/software/nus_p_nalj/smash/flash/1211/index.html original] posted 2001-12-11)</ref> | Although no longer considered a contender for the worst character competitively, Pichu was intended to be a sub-par character in general, with its trophy descriptions mentioning Pichu as "''top of the class in weakness''" and "''best suited for handicapped matches.''" This was confirmed in a development news update, shortly after the game's release.<ref>''[http://sourcegaming.info/2015/09/24/meleepichusite/ News Flash! Smash Bros. Dojo: Pichu]'' (translated 2015-09-24; [https://www.nintendo.co.jp/n01/n64/software/nus_p_nalj/smash/flash/1211/index.html original] posted 2001-12-11)</ref> | ||
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==Attributes== | ==Attributes== | ||
{{competitive expertise|Most paragraphs contain partially correct information, and this section as a whole somewhat misprioritizes Pichu's drawbacks and strengths | {{competitive expertise|Most paragraphs contain partially correct information, and this section as a whole somewhat misprioritizes Pichu's drawbacks and strengths.}} | ||
Pichu, as a character, falls under the archetype of being nimble, yet relatively fragile. Due to its high traction and average falling speed, Pichu has a rather short wavedash; additionally, its quick and low-lag aerials also give Pichu a good SHFFL. As such, Pichu can easily maneuver around stages, with very low landing lag, a small frame and a rather fast dash, as well as decent jumping power, making it surprisingly difficult to hit in the hands of a capable player. However, its poor endurance due to its very light weight ensures that opponents will not have to find too many openings against it to secure KOs. | Pichu, as a character, falls under the archetype of being nimble, yet relatively fragile. Due to its high traction and average falling speed, Pichu has a rather short wavedash; additionally, its quick and low-lag aerials also give Pichu a good SHFFL, much like Pikachu's. As such, Pichu can easily maneuver around stages, with very low landing lag, a small frame and a rather fast dash, as well as decent jumping power, making it surprisingly difficult to hit in the hands of a capable player. However, its poor endurance due to its very light weight ensures that opponents will not have to find too many openings against it to secure KOs. | ||
One of Pichu's main advantages is its perhaps surprising power. While its moveset generally consists of attacks that deal less knockback than its clone {{SSBM|Pikachu}} or most other characters in the cast, the few strong moves it possesses can be deadly if utilized properly. Pichu's smashes are all of short range, but all are unusually powerful; its up smash and forward smash contain incredible power, being able to KO characters reliably at as little as 70 to 80 percent, while its down smash semi-spikes opponents and has invincibility frames. Pichu also has decent throws; its forward and back throws can knock opponents off stage or set up combos, while its up and down throws can chain throw fastfallers and tech chase characters respectively. | One of Pichu's main advantages is its perhaps surprising power. While its moveset generally consists of attacks that deal less knockback than its clone {{SSBM|Pikachu}} or most other characters in the cast, the few strong moves it possesses can be deadly if utilized properly. Pichu's smashes are all of short range, but all are unusually powerful; its up smash and forward smash contain incredible power, being able to KO characters reliably at as little as 70 to 80 percent, while its down smash semi-spikes opponents and has invincibility frames. Pichu also has decent throws; its forward and back throws can knock opponents off stage or set up combos, while its up and down throws can chain throw fastfallers and tech chase characters respectively. | ||
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Pichu also boasts an excellent recovery. Its up special, [[Agility]], can travel in many different directions and cover very large distances; while Pikachu's [[Quick Attack]] is superior in speed and distance, Agility is still a solid recovery tool in its own right. Pichu's [[Skull Bash]] also further aids its horizontal recovery, with surprising power and distance when charged; at full power, it deals a massive 39% damage and guarantees KOs at very low percentages. With Agility being able to seamlessly mix up edgeguarders, and Skull Bash's potential strength serving as a direct deterrent to attempted edgeguards, Pichu has one of the best recoveries in the game. | Pichu also boasts an excellent recovery. Its up special, [[Agility]], can travel in many different directions and cover very large distances; while Pikachu's [[Quick Attack]] is superior in speed and distance, Agility is still a solid recovery tool in its own right. Pichu's [[Skull Bash]] also further aids its horizontal recovery, with surprising power and distance when charged; at full power, it deals a massive 39% damage and guarantees KOs at very low percentages. With Agility being able to seamlessly mix up edgeguarders, and Skull Bash's potential strength serving as a direct deterrent to attempted edgeguards, Pichu has one of the best recoveries in the game. | ||
Much like {{SSBM|Pikachu}}, a key weakness is its poor range. All of its best and most powerful attacks are very close to its body, and it lacks a full set of tools to consistently approach enemies to make use of these moves, making it very difficult for Pichu to KO or even find any openings against its opponents (especially against characters with disjointed hitboxes). Its neutral aerial and [[Thunder Jolt]] projectile are among its only reliable options, making Pichu's overall [[neutral game]] play very predictable; the latter also inflicts [[recoil damage]] to it, making it unreliable long-term. Pichu's grab game is also heavily hampered by its short range, at the third shortest in the game, making it difficult for players to consistently take advantage of Pichu's decent throws. Many of Pichu's poorest matchups stem from it being unable to deal with individual moves of characters (such as {{SSBM|Sheik}}'s forward tilt or a large portion of {{SSBM|Marth}}'s moveset) because it lacks tools that have enough range to counter the attacks. | |||
Pichu's defensive game is also notoriously poor. Although it has a rather large shield for its size, it is saddled with short tech rolls and a slow, short ledge roll, making it very easy for enemies to extend punishes on Pichu with little that the Pichu player can do to escape. Furthermore, despite being a lightweight, Pichu is also quite vulnerable to combos (some of which are either infinite or [[zero-death]], such as {{SSBM|Ganondorf}}'s chain throw) due to its abnormally high hitstun and average falling speed. These traits exacerbate Pichu's range issues; its problems in the neutral game are very reminiscent of Pikachu's, but Pichu is punished harder for losing exchanges by several orders of magnitude, making the risk-reward of its approaching heavily skewed against it in the vast majority of situations. | Pichu's defensive game is also notoriously poor. Although it has a rather large shield for its size, it is saddled with short tech rolls and a slow, short ledge roll, making it very easy for enemies to extend punishes on Pichu with little that the Pichu player can do to escape. Furthermore, despite being a lightweight, Pichu is also quite vulnerable to combos (some of which are either infinite or [[zero-death]], such as {{SSBM|Ganondorf}}'s chain throw) due to its abnormally high hitstun and average falling speed. These traits exacerbate Pichu's range issues; its problems in the neutral game are very reminiscent of Pikachu's, but Pichu is punished harder for losing exchanges by several orders of magnitude, making the risk-reward of its approaching heavily skewed against it in the vast majority of situations. | ||
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Finally, Pichu suffers from the infamous recoil damage it receives while using almost any move involving electrical hitboxes. Several of Pichu's moves, especially those that involve electricity, add at least one percent of damage to the user. For example, using both segments of Agility to recover adds four percent to Pichu each time it is used. While most of Pichu's best moves do not use electricity, making this less of a problem at higher levels of play, the threat of recoil damage reduces the utility of its electric-based attacks, and there is no way for Pichu to avoid recoil when recovering. If players are not careful with balancing Pichu's electrical and non-electrical attacks, the recoil damage can add up quickly, which can be especially crippling to Pichu. With the lowest weight in the game (being lighter than ''Jigglypuff'') and average falling speed, Pichu's survivability is already among the worst in the game, even without recoil damage. Additionally, the extra damage taken also reduces how long it can utilize [[crouch cancel]]ling. | Finally, Pichu suffers from the infamous recoil damage it receives while using almost any move involving electrical hitboxes. Several of Pichu's moves, especially those that involve electricity, add at least one percent of damage to the user. For example, using both segments of Agility to recover adds four percent to Pichu each time it is used. While most of Pichu's best moves do not use electricity, making this less of a problem at higher levels of play, the threat of recoil damage reduces the utility of its electric-based attacks, and there is no way for Pichu to avoid recoil when recovering. If players are not careful with balancing Pichu's electrical and non-electrical attacks, the recoil damage can add up quickly, which can be especially crippling to Pichu. With the lowest weight in the game (being lighter than ''Jigglypuff'') and average falling speed, Pichu's survivability is already among the worst in the game, even without recoil damage. Additionally, the extra damage taken also reduces how long it can utilize [[crouch cancel]]ling. | ||
Overall, Pichu is a very poor character at all levels of play, with its advantages being thoroughly outweighed by its numerous deficiencies. While Pichu could potentially pose a threat to the opponent with its decent frame data, evasion, and chain grabs, its horrific survivability heavily counters any benefits over higher tiered characters. The vast majority of the ''Melee'' cast can outrange and out-punish Pichu in | Overall, Pichu is a very poor character at all levels of play, with its advantages being thoroughly outweighed by its numerous deficiencies. While Pichu could potentially pose a threat to the opponent with its decent frame data, evasion, and chain grabs, its horrific survivability heavily counters any benefits over higher tiered characters. The vast majority of the ''Melee'' cast can easily outrange and out-punish Pichu in nearly every instance. This is amplified by Pichu's need to sometimes win vastly more neutral interactions than the opponent to be victorious, owed to Pichu being easily comboed and knocked out at low percentiles. As such, Pichu is almost never seen at any level of play. | ||
==Differences from {{SSBM|Pikachu}}== | ==Differences from {{SSBM|Pikachu}}== | ||
{{incomplete|Missing a lot of differences in overview | {{incomplete|Missing a lot of differences in overview.}} | ||
Pichu performs significantly worse than Pikachu, being largely outclassed in most areas by its counterpart. A key change is the added [[recoil damage]] on several of its moves, making such moves less rewarding to land and mildly punishing the user for choosing the option, regardless of whether or not it connects. Pichu is also smaller than Pichu, while also having a shield that protects | Pichu performs significantly worse than Pikachu, being largely outclassed in most areas by its counterpart. A key change is the added [[recoil damage]] on several of its moves, making such moves less rewarding to land and mildly punishing the user for choosing the option, regardless of whether or not it connects. Pichu is also smaller than Pichu, while also having a shield that protects his body more consistently than Pikachu's. Both traits culminate into a character that is significantly harder to hit than his evolved form- although his lighter weight counteracts these benefits. | ||
Asides from some of Pichu's recovery options dealing recoil damage, the movement of Agility is slower and has no attack hitboxes unlike Pikachu's version. Pichu however has the ability to wall jump. With wall jumping being a rather situational option, this makes Pikachu's recovery superior. | Asides from some of Pichu's recovery options dealing recoil damage, the movement of Agility is slower and has no attack hitboxes unlike Pikachu's version. Pichu however has the ability to wall jump. With wall jumping being a rather situational option, this makes Pikachu's recovery superior. | ||
One of the key differences across Pichu's moveset is the change of some single-hit moves to multi-hit, and vice versa. The greater presence of multi-hit moves in its moveset is mostly to Pichu's detriment, allowing opponent's to use directional influence to escape the remaining hits. Perhaps most notably, it makes Forward Smash largely unsafe on hit if the opponent is on stage, as the finisher can be escaped. Neutral aerial is the same hitbox wise as | One of the key differences across Pichu's moveset is the change of some single-hit moves to multi-hit, and vice versa. The greater presence of multi-hit moves in its moveset is mostly to Pichu's detriment, allowing opponent's to use directional influence to escape the remaining hits. Perhaps most notably, it makes Forward Smash largely unsafe on hit if the opponent is on stage, as the finisher can be escaped. Neutral aerial is the same hitbox wise as his counterpart- but due to Pichu having significantly smaller damageable collision bubbles than Pikachu, the move is vastly better than Pikachu's version. This is possibly the only monumental benefit Pichu has over Pikachu that doesn't come with a significant drawback. | ||
Pichu's up aerial lacks a semi-spike hitbox, | Pichu's up aerial lacks a semi-spike hitbox, which makes it vastly inferior to Pikachu in terms of [[edgeguard]]ing, and instead launches the opponent upward in a consistent manner, making it better for setting up a follow up attack. Regardless, this loss of such an integral edgeguarding tool harms its viability noticeably, as edgeguarding is considered one of Pikachu's biggest strengths, and one of the main reasons that it can stand up to the top ''Melee'' characters at the highest levels of play. | ||
As a result of its major flaws, it is arguably the worst clone in the game, and overall one of the worst clones in the series. | As a result of its major flaws, it is arguably the worst clone in the game, and overall one of the worst clones in the series. | ||
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===[[Crowd cheer]]=== | ===[[Crowd cheer]]=== | ||
{{Crowd | |||
|char=Pichu | |||
|game=Melee | |||
|desc-us=Pi-chu! | |||
|desc-jp=Piiii-chu! | |||
| | |pitch-us=Male | ||
|pitch-jp=Female}} | |||
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|- | |||
|} | |||
===[[Victory pose]]s=== | ===[[Victory pose]]s=== | ||
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Pichu was developed as an intentional joke character, and has historically been seen as such by the competitive ''Melee'' community. From the start, many noted that it was completely outclassed by {{SSBM|Pikachu}}, who was already considered a below-average character at the time. With its poor [[approach]] coupled with many attacks that damaged itself, including its own [[recovery]], as well as its terrible overall [[reach]], extremely light [[weight]], and difficulty in putting [[pressure]] on the opponent, many professionals doubted that Pichu could ever develop a deep metagame or gain any notable professional players. Because of this, Pichu has been almost never seen outside of sandbagging or low-tier exhibitions. Pichu's initial placements on each [[tier list]] reflected its stance, typically shifting between 25th and 26th for over a decade of ''Melee''{{'}}s lifespan, competing with characters such as {{SSBM|Bowser}}, {{SSBM|Kirby}}, and {{SSBM|Mewtwo}} for the lowest placement on the tier list, before placing 24th on the twelfth tier list in 2015. | Pichu was developed as an intentional joke character, and has historically been seen as such by the competitive ''Melee'' community. From the start, many noted that it was completely outclassed by {{SSBM|Pikachu}}, who was already considered a below-average character at the time. With its poor [[approach]] coupled with many attacks that damaged itself, including its own [[recovery]], as well as its terrible overall [[reach]], extremely light [[weight]], and difficulty in putting [[pressure]] on the opponent, many professionals doubted that Pichu could ever develop a deep metagame or gain any notable professional players. Because of this, Pichu has been almost never seen outside of sandbagging or low-tier exhibitions. Pichu's initial placements on each [[tier list]] reflected its stance, typically shifting between 25th and 26th for over a decade of ''Melee''{{'}}s lifespan, competing with characters such as {{SSBM|Bowser}}, {{SSBM|Kirby}}, and {{SSBM|Mewtwo}} for the lowest placement on the tier list, before placing 24th on the twelfth tier list in 2015. | ||
While still considered to be an awful character and | While still considered to be an awful character and unused outside of [[sandbagging]], players began to recognize Pichu's strengths, namely its agility and decent set of normals. Several professionals, such as {{Sm|Mew2King}} and {{Sm|Armada}}, believe that while Pichu is still unviable, they believe that other characters, like {{SSBM|Kirby}}, {{SSBM|Zelda}}, and {{SSBM|Bowser}}, are even worse than it, [http://www.eventhubs.com/news/2014/may/02/kirby-and-zelda-are-two-worst-characters-melee-pichu-highly-underrated-mew2king-discusses-his-super-smash-bros-tier-list-pt-1/ ranking it 19th] and [https://youtu.be/17n7Tcjrifg?t=264 22nd], respectively. Pikachu's rise in the competitive scene also helped Pichu's ascent out of the bottom tier, with players noting that Pichu shared a few of the tools that ultimately made Pikachu a viable pick. Despite Pichu's theoretically worse matchup spread and barren results, most players believed that the former was attributed to a different metagame and the latter has other bottom-tier characters that have also failed to achieve significant results. | ||
With its strengths being recognized better, it is currently ranked 22nd on the current tier list. While universally not considered a contender for the worst character in the game, Pichu is still widely considered to be a non-viable choice in the metagame with a terrible matchup spread, with its playerbase and results only marginally improving compared to the early metagame. | With its strengths being recognized better, it is currently ranked 22nd on the current tier list. While universally not considered a contender for the worst character in the game, Pichu is still widely considered to be a non-viable choice in the metagame with a terrible matchup spread, with its playerbase and results only marginally improving compared to the early metagame. | ||
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*Pichu falls asleep when it crouches, though this is merely an animation and not an actual effect. | *Pichu falls asleep when it crouches, though this is merely an animation and not an actual effect. | ||
*Pichu, along with {{SSBM|Ganondorf}}, {{SSBM|Mewtwo}}, Young Link, and {{SSBM|Jigglypuff}}, are the only unlockable characters in ''Melee'' seen in the [[opening movie]]. | *Pichu, along with {{SSBM|Ganondorf}}, {{SSBM|Mewtwo}}, Young Link, and {{SSBM|Jigglypuff}}, are the only unlockable characters in ''Melee'' seen in the [[opening movie]]. | ||
==References== | ==References== | ||
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*[http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=96978 Pichu Player List] | *[http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=96978 Pichu Player List] | ||
*[https://smashboards.com/threads/a-guide-for-pichu-in-the-2019-meta.476773/ Pichu Guide for 2019] | *[https://smashboards.com/threads/a-guide-for-pichu-in-the-2019-meta.476773/ Pichu Guide for 2019] | ||
*[[Super Pichu cheating scandal]] | |||
{{SSBMCharacters}} | {{SSBMCharacters}} | ||
{{EnemiesAdvSSBM}} | {{EnemiesAdvSSBM}} |