Pikachu (PM)

Pikachu in Project M and Project+
Universe	Pokémon
Base game appearance	Brawl
Moveset inspiration	Pikachu (SSBM), Pikachu (SSBB), Pikachu (SSB)
Alternate costume	Pirate Hat Pikachu, Sideways Pokemon Trainer Hat Pikachu

Pikachu is a playable character in the Brawl mod Project M. For its appearance in Project M, it was mostly reverted to its Melee version, while keeping a few techniques and moves from its Brawl and Smash 64 versions.

Changes from Melee and Brawl to PM

Pikachu performing its back aerial while wearing its pirate hat alternate costume.

Pikachu was buffed in Project M overall, keeping most of its more favorable attributes from Brawl while gaining others from Melee, along with a few other options being strengthened, giving it additional leverage against top-tiered characters.

Attributes

• Retains its crawl and wall jump techniques from Brawl, the latter one allowing for a slightly better situational recovery on stages such as Yoshi's Story.

Ground Attacks

• Forward and up smashes restored to their Melee power, with the former KOing opponents at lower percentages, and the latter acting as one of the best KO moves (and also the most powerful up smash) and out of shield options.

Aerial Attacks

• Forward aerial and down smash use their formats from Brawl; the former has a late stronger hit that sends foes away, while the latter links into itself more adequately. Both attacks also possess their reduced hitlag from Melee, giving foes less time to react and SDI away from them.
• Back aerial is now its Smash 64 kick, which has combo potential and KO/edgeguarding strengths that its previous back aerial did not, greatly improving Pikachu's aerial game.
• Up aerial has its higher and more juggling-orientated knockback from Melee, while also sending foes at a semi-spike angle when connecting late and inflicting slightly more damage, overall bolstering its utility.
• Forward aerial has less knockback scaling on the last hit.
• Forward and down aerials have additional sparkling graphics, which also better matches their hitboxes placements.

Grabs and Throws

• Down throw uses its higher knockback growth from Melee, thus shortening the length of Pikachu's chaingrabs with the move, depriving it of guaranteed damage racking and zero-to-death capacities it previously had with the move.

Special Moves

• Thunder Jolt uses its higher knockback scaling from Brawl, and also has slightly less ending lag, making it more consistently usable for camping.

• Thunder Jolt has a slightly shorter duration.

• Pikachu retains its Quick Attack cancel from Brawl, greatly improving its approach and defensive options, especially with the Melee-style physics allowing for some new options, such as wavelanding out of a QAC. During a Quick Attack, Pikachu's tail now also becomes intangible.
• Thunder remains unchanged from Brawl, so that the bolt can still pass through platforms and solid surfaces very close to the thundercloud it's summoned from, and Pikachu bounces slightly upwards upon being hit by it in midair, allowing it to still create a "Thunder wall" offstage for edgeguarding.

Revisions

v2.5b

• Quick Attack minimum and maximum distances increased to match Melee's.
• Up smash and neutral aerial's sound effects adjusted.
• Forward throw has some electric graphical hit effects restored.
• Up throw matched to Melee.

v2.6b

• Forward aerial received slightly more horizontal range with new graphical effects to match that range.
• Quick Attack's startup was reduced slightly, and it can now sweetspot ledges. The move's ending animation stretch was tweaked so that it leaves Pikachu closer to walls.
• Quick Attack's delay between dashes is a little longer.
• Full jump sound effect doesn't occur right at the start of the jump.
• Neutral aerial weak hit knockback values have been fixed.
• Down aerial has an added burst graphic to the impact.
• Quick Attack goes maximum distance upward when stick input is below the amount needed to change direction.
• Quick Attack's aerial mobility and friction adjusted during the move and when in helpless state.
• Quick Attack preserves momentum at the end of the dashes.
• Fixed a bug where Quick Attack canceling into a platform and dropping through it could result in landing from a helpless state (similar to the landing lag glitch) after going into Fall.
• Using Quick Attack into the ground uses the grounded ending animation of the move instead of the special landing animation.

v3.0

• Skull Bash can now sweetspot ledges, reinstated from Brawl.
• Pikachu's hurtboxes get less of a stretch during Quick Attack's animation, and its tail is now intangible during travel.
• Quick Attack cancel tweaked to compensate for the SCD bugfix.

v3.5

• Quick Attack can now reverse ledgegrab on frames 10 to 16 from the special's end.
• Quick Attack Cancel (QAC) can now only be activated on the first dash.
• Skull Bash no longer ledge snaps mid animation.
• Throws now all use electric element on release.
• Quick Attack was rebuilt such that it no longer ends just above the ground and then falls, which allowed aerial inputs. But instead moves cleanly into the QA landing animation. Many other small refinements make the move much more polished.

Moveset

Up to date as of version 3.5.

	Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack		2%	A quick headbutt. The button can be mashed for quick headbutts.
Forward tilt		9% (high), 8% (mid), 7% (low)	Stands on its front paws and attacks with both feet in front of it. The attack can be angled up or down.
Up tilt		7% (base), 6% (tip)	Swings its tail in an arc above itself, good for juggling fast fallers.
Down tilt		7%	Whips its tail in front of itself in a half circle. Can hit a couple of times if the button is mashed fast enough.
Dash attack		8%	Jumps forward with a headbutt, has a lot of ending lag and can be punished.
Forward smash		21% (clean), 19% (mid), 18% (late)	Does a quick charge in its cheeks and releases it in front of itself with a small amount of ending lag.
Up smash		19%/18%/17% (clean base/mid/tip), 13% (mid), 7% (late)	Does a quick backflip, attacking with its tail. Has very strong knockback and can KO as early as 80% on heavyweights.
Down smash		2% (hits 1-6), 3% (hit 7) (15% total)	Spins repeatably on the ground, releasing electricity. Good for racking up damage.
Neutral aerial		12% (clean), 9% (late)	Quickly spins in the air. Has hardly any landing lag and is a good finisher.
Forward aerial		2% (hits 1-4), 3% (hit 5) (11% total)	Drills forward in the air with electricity. Has a bit of landing lag but can set up for a grab.
Back aerial		14% (clean), 10% (late)	Pikachu does a back kick while airborne, doing great horizontal knockback.
Up aerial		7%	Does a quick tail flip overhead while flipping forward. Can be used for juggling and if hit at the proper angle, can send the enemy downward at a semi spike angle.
Down aerial		12% (attack), 4% (landing)	An electric drill move downward. Has hitboxes when landing on the ground.
Grab		—
Pummel		3%	Gives the enemy a quick shock.
Forward throw		2% (hits 1-4), 2% (throw)	Puts the enemy on its back and shocks them forward. Can set up for an up smash or another grab.
Back throw		9%	Rolls backwards a ways quickly before throwing the opponent.
Up throw		5% (hit), 5% (throw) (10% total)	Lifts the enemy above itself and then headbutts them upward. Can combo with thunder.
Down throw		5% (hit), 5% (throw) (10% total)	Throws the enemy below itself and the headbutts them downward. Can combo into itself on heavyweights.
Floor attack (front)		6%	Quickly flips with its tail front and back.
Floor attack (back)		6%	Quickly flips with its tail front and back.
Floor attack (trip)		5%	Quickly gets up and then flicks its tail backwards and forward with a few visual sparks.
Edge attack (fast)		8%	Quickly flips its tail overhead.
Edge attack (slow)		9%	Slowly gets up and flicks its tail below itself.
Neutral special	Thunder Jolt	7% (ground), 10% (air)	Drops a sphere of electricity diagonally, dealing small knockback and damage, if it touches the ground it will leap across the stage for a short time before vanishing and will deal slightly less damage.
Side special	Skull Bash	7-25%	Sits for a second while charging energy then leaping forward with a powerful headbutt. The button can be held for a limited time for increased speed, damage, and knockback. Has slight ending lag. Great for horizontal recovery.
Up special	Quick Attack	3% (1st dash), 2% (2nd dash) (5% total)	Quickly moves in one direction then another depending on if the control stick is moved. Causes light damage and can be canceled into a jump or an attack upon landing.
Down special	Thunder	10% (bolt), 17% (spark)	Summons a thunder cloud while yelling "Pika!" which shoots a bolt of lightning to the ground. If the attack hits Pikachu it creates a shockwave dealing more damage and knockback. The thunderbolt can be interrupted by platforms but can go through terrain. Has slight ending lag.
Final Smash	Volt Tackle	13-25%	Turns into a gigantic ball of blue colored electricity that flies around the stage at high velocity. The attack button can be pressed to create a large discharge, increasing knockback. Can rack up damage quickly.

In competitive play

Notable players

•  Anther
•  Axe
•  ESAM
•  File
•  UTDZac

Alternate costume

Pikachu has received an additional costume where it wears its blue party hat costume from Melee and Smash 64. It also received a special pirate hat costume, referencing a Japanese promotional card from the Pokémon Trading Card Game in which it appeared as Captain Pikachu (wearing the same hat). It also got an alt where it wears the (Brawl or post-Generation I version of) the Pokemon Trainer hat sideways and had its ears folded down.

Pikachu's alternate costumes in PM.

External links

• Project M character page