Pikachu (SSBB)

This article is about Pikachu's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. For other uses, see Pikachu.

Pikachu
Pikachu
Universe	Pokémon
Appears in	SSB SSBM SSBB
Availability	Starter
Tier	A (9)

Unveiled at E3 2006, Pikachu (ピカチュウ, Pikachū) is a character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. In the E3 2006, Pikachu didn't show its Final Smash like Mario, Kirby, and Link did. Visually, Pikachu has barely changed at all from its Melee design, only being larger and touched up slightly. It has all of its moves from the first two games. It is currently in the A Tier and holds 9th position overall, making it much closer to its original Top Tier status in Super Smash Bros, where it was ranked first place; as opposed to its Low Tier status in Melee, where it is ranked sixteenth place. It is currently the highest tier character that has appeared in all three Super Smash Bros. games. Pikachu's decent killing power, quick overall speed, good recovery and edge guarding, good chain grab, and Brawl's new physics have helped it a lot; Pikachu can no longer be so easily combo'd, its grab range is no longer the shortest, its Thunder is not as laggy, and it's gained various new tactics such as Quick Attack Cancel.

Changes from Melee to Brawl

Pika

Attributes

Pika

In competitive play

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Character Matchups

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Role In The Subspace Emissary

Pikachu is first seen when Samus, in her Zero Suit enters a lab on the Isle of the Ancients. She finds that Pikachu is having its electric energy drained by a device, and uses her Plasma Whip to break the glass encasing Pikachu. With their common goal of revenge on the Subspace Army, they infiltrate the Research Facility to find Samus' Power Suit.

Pikachu in the SSE

After going through the first area of the Research Facility, Zero Suit Samus and Pikachu discover a monitor room, and learn the location of Samus' Power Suit.

They then traverse another section of the Research Facility. They cross a bridge to reach the Power Suit. When Samus approaches the Suit, she and Pikachu are ambushed by two Shadow Bug clones of her Power Suit. After defeating them, Samus regains her Power Suit, and after defeating a small R.O.B. Squad, travel through the last area of the Facility. Later, the duo almost exit the Research Facility, but are then confronted by Ridley, who brutally damages Samus by dragging her across the wall. Pikachu uses Thunder on Ridley to stop him. Samus falls back down onto the platform, her Power Suit damaged, but working, while Ridley, enraged by Pikachu's electric shock, roars at them. The two then fight and defeat Ridley. After defeating Ridley, Pikachu and Samus leave the facility and notice a pair of R.O.B.s carrying a Subspace Bomb. They prepare to enter the Subspace Bomb Factory.

They infiltrate the Ancient Minister's base, and eventually enter a large room, with him, an army of R.O.B.s, and a great number of Subspace Bombs on racks behind them. They prepare to fight him but pause, noticing that Ancient Minister is looking down as if he's sad.

As they stare at his sorrowing, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Captain Falcon and Olimar break into the room the same room. DK smashes the doors open with his fists, and the four barge into the room. They also want to attack the Ancient Minister, but a hologram of Ganondorf appears. He commands the R.O.B. Squad to activate the remaining Subspace Bombs. The Ancient Minister tries to stop the Squad as their leader, but Ganondorf forces them to mindlessly attack the Ancient Minister using a reprogramming device. As the Ancient Minister sulks in flames, the brainwashed R.O.B. squad starts to take the Subspace Bombs off the racks. Ganondorf laughs at the Ancient Minister's despair, and sends the Subspace Army to distract the fighters. Auroros fly towards the group, but the Ancient Minister fires energy beams at them before they get near the fighters. The Ancient Minister reveals itself to be a R.O.B. himself, the lead R.O.B, and joins the five other heroes in fighting the Subspace Army. After they defeat the Subspace Army, the heroes attempt to detach the R.O.B. squad from the Subspace Bombs. Captain Falcon throws the R.O.B.s, Samus uses her Grapple Beam, while Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong use sheer force. Nothing detaches the R.O.B.s from the Subspace Bomb. The lead R.O.B. attempts to get them to willingly detach, and two members of the Squad respond, apparently unable to detach themselves. The R.O.B. looks down in despair, and Captain Falcon calls his Falcon Flyer so they can escape. After descending through the Subspace Bomb factory escape tunnel, full of members of the Subspace Army, they escape on the Falcon Flyer. Meta Ridley chases them down with the intent of revenge on Samus and Pikachu. They fight his mechanically enhanced form on top of the Flyer, and defeat it. Pikachu and the rest of the group then join the ground heroes and Halberd Battleship heroes, and help them out throughout the rest of the adventure.

Unfortunately, when these characters reach Subspace, Tabuu turns everybody, including Pikachu, into trophies using the terrible Off Waves. However, thanks to the efforts of King Dedede, Luigi and Ness are revived and in turn revive him. They save most of the trophies, including Pikachu. Once they regroup with the trophies that Kirby and the others revived, they set off to enter The Great Maze. When they approach Tabuu, Sonic appears and saves them from his Off Waves. They then finally defeat Tabuu, and returned the Subspace Bomb-ed portions of the World of Trophies back to their original places, except the Isle of the Ancients, which Pikachu and the rest look on at in triumph.

Costume Gallery

File:Alt-pikachu3.jpg

Pikachu's alternate costumes

Cheer

• "Pika Pika Pikachu!"

Trivia

• Pikachu's Wall Jump, Goggle costume and one of its taunts were features of Pichu in Melee. In addition, Pikachu in the Pokémon series can only know Volt Tackle if they learned the move as a Pichu. These coincidences have led to theories that the Pikachu in Brawl is the evolved Pichu from Melee.
• Pikachu could be male due to the fact that in the Generation IV Pokemon games, male Pikachu do not have dents in their tails, but it could be female because this gender difference does not apply to Pikachu outside of Generation IV.
• Pikachu holds the world record for Co-op Target Smash!! Level 3 with Fox (completed in 4.58 seconds), and Level 4 with Yoshi (completed in 4.81 seconds).
• When Pikachu gets a Dragoon or a Warpstar, Pikachu rides it as if it were surfing. This comes from certain Pikachus given away at events and/or for finishing certain Pokémon games, knowing the move Surf, which it usually could not learn; in the 3D Pokémon games, Pikachu rides a surfboard to use the move. (This in turn may come from the Pokémon anime.)
• When Pikachu's Thunder is used in mid-air, it won't go through a falling block, yet when used on the ground it will.
• Interestingly, in the games, Pokémon were only allowed Four Special moves, but in Brawl, Pikachu, Jigglypuff and Lucario all have five special moves (including Final Smashes), thus breaking the limit of special moves, despite Jigglypuff's and Lucario's Final Smashes, and Pikachu's standard special, not being actual moves from the game.
• If Pikachu is standing at the end of a main platform (e.g. Final Destination) with its back to the edge, if its shield breaks, hold the opposite direction Pikachu is facing on the control stick; Pikachu grabs the ledge and cancels the dizzyness.
• Like all characters, Pikachu's eyes glow when it has a Smash Ball. However, if it has a Smash Ball and its costume color is red, its eyes become red because of the color tint of its model (and even then, the color of its eyes in its default costume are still red). This also happens with Sonic to a lesser extent.
• If Pikachu uses or charges its forward smash with a battering item, it will have a normal face. If it does so with a Smash Ball, its face takes on an evil expression.
• Thunder Jolt is not actually a move in the Pokemon game series, yet Pikachu uses it in the Super Smash Bros. series and atleast once in the original anime

External links

• Pikachu's page at Smash Bros. DOJO!!.
• Pikachu Character Guide at SWF