Pichu (SSBM): Difference between revisions

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, some even more powerful than those of its counterpart, Pikachu. 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; it was historically considered to have the worst matchup spread in the game with no winning matchups at all, with this perception only marginally improving after recent metagame developments.

Although it is no longer considered a contender for the worst character competitively, it appears that Pichu was ''intended'' to be a sub-par character in general, since its trophy descriptions mention that it is "''top of the class in weakness''" and it is "''best suited for handicapped matches.''" Indeed, 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>

*Another way is to play 200 VS. matches. If the player fails to defeat Pichu, they can re-fight it by playing another VS. match to completion. If this method is used, fighters with lower VS. match quotas must be unlocked before Pichu can be fought.

One of Pichu's main advantages is its perhaps surprising power. While its moveset generally consists of attacks that deal much lower damage and 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.

Pichu's best tool, however, is not its powerful set of smash attacks, but rather its neutral aerial, which is considered the central attack to its [[metagame]]. Pichu's neutral aerial comes out very quickly and has very low ending and landing lag, especially when L-canceled. This move serves as a viable [[approach]] option, can rack up respectable damage with long strings of just itself, and can create a pseudo-[[wall of pain]] if the player is allowed to continue the strings off-stage. Pichu's up aerial complements neutral aerial's utility, allowing it to juggle enemies into the air. Its other aerials are lackluster, but these two moves alone give Pichu quite a force in the air.

Pichu's greatest flaw, however, is its very 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.

Finally, Pichu suffers from the infamous recoil damage it receives from using almost any of its attacks involving electrical hitboxes. In several of Pichu's attacks, especially those that involve electricity, at least one percent of damage is directly inflicted onto it; using Agility to recover alone adds four percent to Pichu each time it is used. While most of Pichu's best moves do not use electricity, making this a lesser problem at higher levels of play, the threat of recoil damage further limits the small amount of utility its electric-based attacks have, and there is no way at all 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, meaning that this extra damage makes it even more trivial for opponents to put Pichu in KO range. Outside of making Pichu even easier to KO, the extra damage taken through recoil also reduces how long it can utilize [[crouch cancel]]ling.

Overall, Pichu is a very poor character at all levels of play, with its few advantages being thoroughly outweighed by its numerous deficiencies. While Pichu has the potential to pose a threat to the opponent with its speed and power, it simply lacks the tools to put those positive traits to consistent use against competent opponents. The vast majority of the ''Melee'' cast can easily outrange and out-punish Pichu in nearly every instance, regardless of whatever trickery the Pichu player may attempt. As such, Pichu is almost never seen at any level of play.

Pichu not only performs significantly worse than Pikachu, but is considered a low-tiered character and sometimes even referred to as a joke character. Pichu inherits Pikachu's range issues, but has very few positive traits to compensate for such problems, and it is generally outclassed in most areas by Pikachu otherwise. The raw power increase on a few of its finishers is not enough to outweigh not only the overall power and utility loss across its entire moveset, but also the added [[recoil damage]] on several of its moves that automatically make such moves riskier than Pikachu's. Perhaps the single most negatively impactful change is Pichu's lack of a semi-spike hitbox on its up aerial, which makes it vastly inferior to Pikachu in terms of [[edgeguard]]ing. Pichu's loss of such an integral edgeguarding tool harms its viability significantly, 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.

|ftiltname=Pichu Kick ({{ja|ピチューキック|Pichū Kikku}})

|utiltname=Tail Smack ({{ja|テールスマック|Tēru Sumakku}})

|dtiltname=Tail Sweep ({{ja|あしばらい|Shippo Barai}})

|dashdesc=Jumps and headbutts forward. Has some noticeable endlag.

|usmashname=Jumping Headbutt ({{ja|ジャンピングヘッドバット|Janpingu Heddobatto}})

|dsmashname=Spinning Mouse ({{ja|スピニングマウス|Supiningu Mausu}})

|nairname=Pichu Roll ({{ja|ピチュースピン|Pichū Rōru}})

|pummelname=Electric Shock ({{ja|電気ショック|Denki Shokku}})

|fthrowname=Electrocution ({{ja|感電死|Kanden shi}})

|uthrowname=Electric Skull ({{ja|エレクトリックスカル|Erekutorikku Sukaru}})

|dthrowname=Electric Slam ({{ja|エレクトリックスラム|Erekutorikku Suramu}})

*{{Sm|Codeman|USA}} - Has taken sets off players such as {{Sm|Wes}}, and games off players such as {{Sm|Panda|p=Florida}}, {{Sm|2saint}} and {{Sm|S2J}}. Currently considered the best active solo main of the character, and among the very few to reach genuine competitive notability with the character. Placed 65th at {{Trn|Get On My Level 2018}} and 49th at {{Trn|Shine 2022}}, the best result at any [[major]] achieved by a Pichu player.

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 solid 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 also fail 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 considered to be non-viable choice in the metagame with a terrible matchup spread, with its playerbase and results only marginally improving.

===Ending images===

PichuClassicMode.jpg|Classic Mode.

PichuAdventureMode.jpg|Adventure Mode.

PichuAllStarMode.jpg|All-Star Mode.