Specific Characters Match-up: Pikachu vs Mr Game & Watch

[Felth]

I know that there's a Matchup Thread. But I don't like that the information is spread among different pages because the discussion can be changed to different characters and that could be a little messy. To avoid this, I suggest the following idea: one post for each character. Following some general points I'll organize all the post in a very simple way.

I propose to study in this post the Mr Game & Watch MU. If you want to discuss other Matchup and you liked my idea just write a post following this idea. Suggestions of any type are welcome (I'm not an expert of Smash so it's probably that you know more than me about this).

Mr Game & Watch:

• Neutral Game:

• Stage selection and Ban:

• Specific Situations:
  • Ground - Ground:
  • Ground - Air:
  • Air - Air:
  • Off Stage:
  • Some situation to punish or to look (Situations that are advantageous to pikachu vs this character)
  • Situations to avoid?

Extra information:
​

• I don't want to lose all the information that the community has discovered at this point. Most of this theory it's in the MU Thread.

• You can read the document made by the User Umbreoff which summarizes the previous post. Click here to see the document. I'm transcribing this document into a pdf version with access to new options. If you want to check the progress of this document I'll invite you to see the PDF Online Version.

• With respect to the Killing Section: add Good Set-ups to perform the killing (not just the final attack). Set-ups performed in specific Stages are also welcome.

• With respect to the Stage Selection Section: we should discuss what stages to avoid and what stages are good for Pikachu. The Smash Player Esam made a Depth Analysis on each Stage. Recall that some stages could be good for Pikachu but are even better for other character that's the reason for why we should discuss this kind of things here (one example is Halberd: IMO is good for Pikachu but not against Meta Knight).

• With respect to the Difficulty Section we should discuss how difficult is this MU for Pikachu. If it's possible it would be good to associate a measure to this difficulty. I think that this section should be completed once we developed a lot of theory in the corresponding MU, otherwise is just speculation.

• With respect to the Specific Situations Section we should discuss what to do in both scenarios.

 

[The_Devious]

dont use thunderjolt, it can be bucketed by G&W.​

 

[SafCar]

How powerful is a 3 Thunder Jolt bucket, though? Might be worth it to bait the bucket so that we can use Thunder safely.

Pretty much just keep your distance and punish him if you can. One note I recall to beating G&W is to survive early-game so that he can't set us up into RNG Hammer. Try and let him damage you enough (~35% or so) in order to make Dthrow -> Hammer impossible. For the rest, just do what comes naturally, Pikamains.

 

[Pikabunz]

3 Jolts will kill from 0%.

 

[SafCar]

Huh, thought it worked more like Marth's counter this time around for some reason. Or maybe Pikachu is just that light. At the very least, Thunder doesn't fill up G&W's bucket like it did at release, so it's somewhat more useful than TJ. Still limited though.

 

[Denzill7]

Game and Watch can't necessarily bucket anything without getting punished, especially if the Pikachu full hop autocancels it. And as far as I can recall, it doesn't kill at 0%. It kills at like 50-60% ish, basically akin to Mario's fireballs. It's almost always better to just powershield it. Pikachu's aerials come out pretty fast, but G&W outranges him with his disjoints, most notably bair. Pikachu has a hard time killing, and as long as G&W can avoid getting hit by a rouge smash attack, it takes a while to kill G&W because uthrow Thunder can be DI'd out of easier. Also, if Pikachu is approaching with a lot of aerials, they're gonna get read and up smashed pretty easily. And up smash kills pretty early. I definitely think G&W wins this MU. This is a MU I play practically daily since my brother plays Pikachu.

 

[Megamang]

I think aerial TJolts might be more powerful than grounded Tjolts, when bucketed. I believe this was true in melee at least.


Also, watch out for usmash, its invincible and powerful. Be wary of quick attacks.

Uair is a kill move now, avoid that as well.

When I wanna style, I shoot a Full Hop Tjolt so itll bounce to them eventually (like on the side of the stage) then QA when they bucket.

 

[Denzill7]

I think aerial TJolts might be more powerful than grounded Tjolts, when bucketed. I believe this was true in melee at least.


Also, watch out for usmash, its invincible and powerful. Be wary of quick attacks.

Uair is a kill move now, avoid that as well.

When I wanna style, I shoot a Full Hop Tjolt so itll bounce to them eventually (like on the side of the stage) then QA when they bucket.

Up smash, if shielded, will be dash attacked Oos every time. You can even up smash Pikachu's up smash if you read it because of it's invincibility. I've never necessarily had an instance where I've been killed specifically with uair, but it can combo into the bolt of Thunder and kill off the top. The only times I ever bucket is when I'm sure the Pikachu can't get a decent follow up if they punish the end lag of bucket.

 

[Megamang]

Now that i read what i said, it was worded poorly. I was warning to watch out for GaW usmashes, I thought i was on pika boards for a second lol.


Get your quick attack punishes down! If I play someone who can't punish it, its really really easy to get great set ups.

 

[Coro_]

I wrote a long post back in the matchup thread, but I'll summarize the few points that I feel are significant.

- G&W Dtilt has a windbox, it can catch errant QAs and punish them, and can also kill at 137%. Don't be reckless with QA.
- G&W Ftilt and Usmash are rough for Pika, both are invincible and stuff Pika's stuff (the ftilt chair has no hurtbox and Usmash gives invincibility frames)
- His jab beats our jabs and tilts at point blank, plain and simple.
- Try playing the neutral without jolts, Oil Panic is no small thing. At most maybe use it to bait a bucket for a kill, otherwise it's at your own risk.