Pikachu (SSBU): Difference between revisions

Opinions of Pikachu have remained strong throughout the game's competitive lifespan. This is due to several favorable adjustments, such as its new and potent neutral aerial, as well as its strengths, including its ability to pancake (crouch under) a lot of moves, its strong recovery and zoning options, and it possessing some of the best [[zero-to-death combo]]s in the game. As a result, some players saw Pikachu as one of the best characters in the game, an outlook that only improved following nerfs to the early metagame's best characters, as well as strong performances from {{Sm|ESAM}} prior to and immediately following the online metagame.

However, Pikachu noticeably lacked the results other contenders for best in the game had. ESAM largely spearheaded Pikachu's results for the first few years of the game's competitive lifespan, and despite seeing high highs, was often brought down by mediocre results. For example, ESAM saw a career-defining victory over {{Sm|MkLeo}} at {{Trn|Glitch 8.5 - Konami Code}} but underperformed at most of his other majors in 2021. The post-online metagame also saw the rise of a couple other Pikachu players such as {{Sm|H4}}, {{Sm|Neeroz}}, and {{Sm|ShinyMark}}; the latter especially has seen performances that were on par with ESAM's, which included two top 8 finishes at supermajors. These results, however, were often countered with the players' inconsistency or a lack of results from outside their region. Furthermore, Pikachu's position in the post-pandemic metagame became less secure due to the increase in strong players at top-level play as well as new metagame standards, with more people preferring to use characters that have easier time racking up damage and killing, such as {{SSBU|Steve}} and {{SSBU|Kazuya}}.

As a result, opinions on Pikachu have varied. Some players, particularly in North America, continue to argue that Pikachu is one of the best characters in the game due to its polarizing strengths, while others, particularly in Japan, believe that Pikachu is overrated due to its mediocre representation compared to other top tier characters. As it stands, Pikachu is currently ranked 13th on the tier list, with the character notably having the greatest standard deviation; the character was ranked in the top 5 in Latin America and top 10 in the United States and Canada, but conversely was not even ranked in the top 25 in Japan.