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(→Changes from Super Smash Bros. Melee: Figured I'd extend on this section because it felt empty and it neither extended on the details about its recoil damage nor how it fares with the changes to the game's mechanics.) |
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Since its absence from previous installments, Pichu was infamous for being by far the worst clone character in ''Melee'' due to its status as an intentional "joke character", largely due to its very low weight, recoil damage and vulnerability to chain grabbing, giving it | Since its absence from previous installments, Pichu was infamous for being by far the worst clone character in ''Melee'' due to its status as an intentional "joke character", largely due to its very low weight, recoil damage and vulnerability to chain grabbing, giving it very poor matchups and leading to its bottom-tier perception. Most likely as a result of this, Pichu has been significantly buffed in its transition from ''Melee'' to ''Ultimate''. | ||
Pichu's | Pichu's mobility has overall improved; its [[walk]]ing, [[dash]]ing and [[air speed]]s, as well as its [[air acceleration]], have been increased, and it can now [[crawl]], enabling Pichu to approach more easily while being able to dodge certain projectiles. Pichu's combo game is noticeably more varied as a result of its improved mobility, many of its ground moves and some of its aerials dealing less knockback and/or sending at more desirable angles, and its multi-hit moves being significantly more consistent due to the weakening of [[SDI]]. Its weight was also increased, allowing it to survive for longer, though its endurance is still the overall worst in the game. [[Agility]] also travels a slightly longer distance, significantly improving its offstage survivability. | ||
Despite the many buffs it received, Pichu also received a few nerfs. Some of its strongest kill options, such as its forward and up smashes, have been significantly weakened in terms of knockback, while its neutral aerial, previously considered by many to be its best move, has also been weakened in both its damage output and knockback. Its grounded attacks are also less effective for edgeguarding, as its down tilt, down smash and dash attack now send opponents at a much higher angle. Additionally, more of Pichu's attacks (examples being its forward tilt and back aerial) emit electricity, meaning that more of its moves cause recoil damage; while this allows Pichu to build up rage more easily in comparison to the other fighters, it allows Pichu to be knocked out even more quickly, which is further compounded by its atrocious weight and fast-falling speed making it vulnerable to combos, despite its small hurtbox. | |||
Pichu's recoil damage has seen some noticeable changes. Some of its [[electric]] attacks deal reduced recoil damage ([[forward smash]], [[forward aerial]], [[pummel]], [[Thunder Jolt]] and Agility), making these moves less of a detriment to use; particularly, forward aerial is a less commital attack and its pummel is much more useful for racking up damage. Conversely, [[down aerial]], [[Skull Bash]] and [[Thunder]]'s shockwave hitbox deal more recoil damage (though down aerial's landing hit deals less damage to compensate), making them riskier to use. Additionally, more of Pichu's moves now have an electric effect, namely its [[forward tilt]], [[down smash]] and [[back aerial]]; as a result, both their KO power and risk have been generally increased.. In bulk, Pichu's moves generally deal less recoil damage than in ''Melee'', allowing it to utilize them more frequently, with down aerial's newfound meteor smash hitbox compensating for its higher risk, and it has many more KO options as a result of them receiving an electric effect. However, its higher abundance of electric attacks and dearth of regular moves generally compensates for the lower recoil Pichu's other moves inflict; moreover, Thunder is a riskier KO option, and while a fully charged Skull Bash's extreme power compensates for its recoil, the uncharged version is now more polarizing as a recovery move. | |||
Overall, Pichu is no longer an intentional "joke character" like in ''Melee''; instead, it is now a very polarized glass cannon, akin to a min-maxed version of {{SSBU|Pikachu}}. It has a stronger punish and | Aside from the changes to SDI, the changes to the engine's mechanics are both benefitial and detrimental to Pichu, but help him overall. The changes to [[stale-move negation]] make its multi-hit moves deal consistent damage as opposed to less damage, which makes its forward smash, forward aerial, back aerial and down smash (the latter two now being multi-hit moves) more reliable for racking up damage and KOing. The removal of [[edgehogging]] in favor of [[ledge trump|ledge trumping]] and the changes to [[air dodge]]s make Pichu much harder to edgeguard and thus improves its survivability, while Pichu can now use an air dodge to escape combos, sporting one of the fastest in the game; however, they also make it slightly harder for Pichu itself to edgeguard opponents, forcing it to KO them through raw power more often. The removal of [[chain grab|chain grabbing]] significantly improves Pichu's endurance at low percentages, no longer being as much of an easy victim to unavoidable damage into a KO, but it also means it can no longer chaingrab with its up throw, hindering its damage-racking potential against fast-fallers (though its improved combo game compensates for this). Finally, the implementation of [[rage]], coupled with its small stature, allows Pichu to make highly effective use of it thanks to its electric moves' high knockback, in addition to said attacks' recoil damage indirectly putting it out of range of KO setups it would've otherwise suffered from, but it also makes its endurance at higher percentages just as atrocious as in ''Melee'' should it fail to KO the opponent. | ||
Overall, Pichu is no longer an intentional "joke character" like in ''Melee''; instead, it is now a very polarized glass cannon, akin to a min-maxed version of {{SSBU|Pikachu}}. It has a drastically stronger punish game, more varied KO options, many of its moves deal generally less recoil damage, and it retains its excellent frame data, but it also has less range on average and thus a more commital approach. Pichu's buffs additionally fail to completely alleviate its glaring weaknesses, with the biggest being its fragility, despite its higher weight and improved survivability. Game updates have also nerfed Pichu, and optimizations to several characters have resulted in it not performing as well as on release. Nevertheless, Pichu's buffs greatly outweigh its nerfs, and it has heavily improved compared to ''Melee'', being one of the most buffed characters in the transition to ''Ultimate''. | |||
{{SSB4 to SSBU changelist|char=Pichu}} | {{SSB4 to SSBU changelist|char=Pichu}} |