Q&A Ask about Pikachu! Hosted by Axe and N64! feat. dkuo!

[festizzio]

i dunno if i just don't know many advanced pika stuff or not, but... i pretty much never do a shffl'd Fair lol. and i didn't even know you could do SH uair -> uair. you can do that in just 1 short hop? come to think of it.... i know you can do sh uair -> neutral, so another uair should work... it's extremely hard to do though lol. but it's cool if you can get it on someone's shield just to be a kewl pika

it's really hard and i never really found a use for it, i think it's better to fast fall the uair and auto-cancel it! and sh fair works wonders against characters that like to be in the air a lot, like jigglypuff or peach (only when she's in the air though!)

 

[AXE 09]

u can sh uair > waveland.

looks sick.

not that useful, but hey.

pika actually has a ton of real cool stuff with his aerials. like the teleporting bair that edgecancels from like the middle of stages.

haha yeah, i knew you can waveland. it's tight but it's kinda hard for me to do for some reason. same with the neutral.

teleporting bair????? never seen that one before. how do you do it? oh snaps lol

 

[festizzio]

well it's something like bair distorts pikachu's body so it looks like he's slightly to the left or right of where he actually is, so you can ledge cancel his bair when it looks like you're in the middle of the platform or something.

it's also weird when you bair and it seems to go through the stage

 

[AXE 09]

oh haha i see. i thought it was something like... the glitch that mario and doc can do when someone gets up from a ledge attack using their cape. you know?

anyways... so i'm officially in college now =O i'm pretty freaked out lol

does pika's party hat really give him more range on some attacks or is that just a joke??? lol

 

[wool]

oh haha i see. i thought it was something like... the glitch that mario and doc can do when someone gets up from a ledge attack using their cape. you know?

anyways... so i'm officially in college now =O i'm pretty freaked out lol

does pika's party hat really give him more range on some attacks or is that just a joke??? lol

congratz man what college?

i have no idea about if the phat gives him more range. ive always used the trucker hat. i hope i havent been missing out

 

[N64]

Doesn't give him more range. Gives him more awesome though.

 

[AXE 09]

well said N64

i'm going to the university of arizona... and there's smashers here oh snaps!!!! and i live closer to forward now, but... i don't have my car anymore *cries*

so just a random question. for all you pika players, what's your absolute worst matchup, and your absolute favorite matchup?

my worst is jiggs for sure, and my favorite's probably fox

 

[tdk_Samurai]

worst: mario
favorite: prolly captain falcon, dk is a close second though.

 

[festizzio]

i really don't like dr. mario

i really like peach/jiggs/spacies/falcon

 

[AXE 09]

i don't like mario or doc much either, but for some reason, i find jiggs even worse. falcon is definately fun to fight lol. i like to fight roy too, but it's rare that i ever fight one. bowser's really fun too =D

 

[toasty]

I love fighting Bowser! But only good Bowsers...so much fun =D (plus, bthrow -> sideB is legit ^_^)

I hate fighting Mario...but only because my main experience with a good Mario is BOSS and I got straight trashed.

Falcon is always so much fun to play against =D

I'll try and record vids of me vs. Lambchops today if it happens and then I'll tell you about how much I hate the matchup against good Falcos >_>

 

[tdk_Samurai]

i like to fight roy too, but it's rare that i ever fight one.

Someone hasn't had to fight against ripple

 

[wool]

i hate playing against marth.
i can never approach without getting hit by that 100 foot sword

my favorite match is ganon. if my pika goes crazy against one ganon wont stand a chance

 

[toasty]

I just beat Soft's Marth, then continued to be mad nervous against Lambchops in the next bracket match but I didn't do too terribly...vids should be up in a day or so Sadly, I had to leave the tourney early due to 1st-day-of-Ramadan Johns [had to break fast with the family on the 1st night ]

 

[Synthe]

i hate playing against marth.
i can never approach without getting hit by that 100 foot sword

I dont like Marth either
Lets destroy him/her

 

[toasty]

matches from yesterday...upon further review, I was a lot more nervous than I thought and kept trying to force things that just aren't practical...and failed shffl nairs turn into dash attacks XD...I also got mad lucky a few times haha

Vs. S0FT [Marth/Fox/Marth]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfRZ6NwzJpA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5b0p7gcGuI

Vs. Lambchops [Falco]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_si0n9LRSk [mad choppy for the first minute or so]


edit: ****, am I supposed to post this somewhere else? I didn't see a vid critique thread or anything >_>

 

[Ripple]

Someone hasn't had to fight against ripple

he has, he beat me

 

[tdk_Samurai]

@ ripple: you sure he didn't beat some other roy main ;-)

@ toasty, yea, there really needs to be a video thread, and I'll watch those vids shortly

 

[AXE 09]

I've faught against sethlon... that was pretty fun lol. he's got one heck of a good roy. i dunno, i just kinda like how heavy and tall he is

Synthe: i freakin love your sig! omg

*watches toasty's vids*

 

[N64]

i played ninjalink's roy in friendlies at gameunicon this weekend. It was funsies. He's pretty good.

I have some things about roy to talk about now. But atm i'm so freakin tired. 'night pikas.

 

[toasty]

oh man...been so long since I've used Pika! Can't believe I missed so many edgeguards XD

I still feel like I'm missing something crucial as far as movement/approaches/camping goes >_> [and I hardly ever wavedash out of shield for some reason ]

 

[soap]

soooo, i just read through this whole thread.

i was honestly hoping there would be more useful stuff but it's mostly u guys going pikaaaaaaa...pika pi >.>

@ chad, i love full hop dair, it autocancels, ***** jumps out of shield, and is pretty safe. you just fly past and say hello with your face

im with festizzio, fair *****, so just don't use it when they can cc.

i use bair all the time as well. N64 i want to hear your 'bair is ****' essay. i use it mostly cuz it looks hella slick to edgecancel across platforms but also i shffl approach it alot. people try to space it out, but u just slide into them. i also like to zone it on shields. it kinda like autospaces away from them when u land and slide away like a slippery little guy

im actually amazed how useful all pikas moves are. I've always felt like he is a crappier version of fox. (that is a compliment btw)

he is way more interesting of a character though, so many ways to use his aerials

 

[N64]

I really agree with like that entire post. Pika's EVERYTHING is useful. Except maybe skullbash (outside of recovery). His jab is ok, his tilts are fantastic, his smashes all have uses, his aerials cover a lot, and his B moves are Beautiful. ah, pika love.

Anyways, bair essay. Here's everything I love about bair. It comes out fast. I don't know the frame data, but its hitbox has to come out in the first 5 frames or something. Its initial knockback is pretty nice too if you hit early in its animation. Also, it lasts forever. Some see this as a drawback as you're pretty committed to it once you start it, and I'll agree, but I love just floating down with a bair. A lot of people will expect it to end early or not have as wide of a hitbox (since pikas aerials have pretty poor range) or expect to be able to beat it or something and will try to punish, only to get hit anyway. Its priority is kinda bad, but it will still at least trade with a decent number of things. You can slide a bit with it, which makes it easyish to ledge-cancel, but i personally don't use it for this much as if it hits it doesn't really ledgecancel into anything. I guess it makes the move safer though. Lastly, one of the main things i loooove about pika is when you land with it for a few frames you are really short. Like, almost jigglypuff crouch short. And fortunately the few frames that you are this short happen to be when characters can first grab after shielding it. You don't duck everyone's grabs, but any medium-height character will fail to grab you. This includes sheik marth and ganon, most notably. And after they whiff, you get to punish them, usually with your own grab or rising uair.

Also, we pikas have a compendium of pika knowledge, but really few people ask about it. I think because we're lolpikas, besides quick attack ledgehogs and uair spikes our stuff doesn't look that fancy/interesting.

Edit: Nice vids toasty. Made some interesting choices on occasion, and your dash dancing looks silly, but i thuroughly enjoyed the watch. Good stuff.

 

[soap]

u were right. (thanks SDM)

hit 4-37 (thats a long time for a move duration)

hits one frame on the ground too. (I do this alll the time)

ya, im into really random facts about characters i play.

i personally like to use sh bair against falco SHL. it makes u a very skinny horizontal aerial target and u just fly over lasers and hit him

 

[N64]

Yeah, bair and dair have the extra ground hit, which i love for bair and situationally love/hate for dair. Good idea against falcos, though I'm usually afraid of approaching them with it because pretty much any of his aerials beats it.

 

[toasty]

oooh I didn't think about that @ soap's last line

also...skullbash has its uses! I've taken stocks from many a "good" spacey with just f/b throw and charged or uncharged sideB...I've said it a bunch in the past but it seems to still be unused for some reason >_>

buuut that's kind of it, and it's situational enough as it is...


I have no real experience against Samus with Pika. I mostly recall lots of CC but that's what happens when you fight Samus with anyone. My question is: do you treat her like Peach where, at low damage, the majority of your approaches are hit and run aerials?


edit: haha n64, does the "hate" for the extra ground hit of dair have anything to do with it canceling out the knockback of landing the strong hit of dair? XD

 

[soap]

checking out random frame data.

pikachu has the fastest uair in the game at 3 frames. pichu/marios are second at 4, most are 5-6, zelda at 14, bowser 22.

no wonder i always see pikas periodically camp reverse uair

 

[N64]

I guess i'll try f/bthrow to skullbash. I set out for a while to find a use for it, but like the fire in firefox would beat it out or if i missed then there's so much lag I don't have any other options to edgeguard. I much prefer bthrow to jump jolt, as i've often missed and still had time/positioning to uair spike after it.

And yes, samus is hit and run early, then usmash at mid percents and usmash/fsmash/aerials at high percents. When she's trying to CC everything, downair her a few times. She falls down from it after like 10% i think, so it's pretty decent if she wants to be CC happy. Also jolts are amazing at screwing up bombjump recoveries. Just throw em out with relative aim and one is bound to hit either her or one of her bombs. You want to kill her off the top though, if possible, that's how she'll die the fastest. Too **** heavy otherwise.

That's the gist of it.

Edit: And you see pikas camp uair because it leads into a lot, especially vs spacies. If you hit a rising uair when fox is at like 20-50%, you can follow with I think literally every move pikachu has (all aerials, all tilts, all smashes, all bmoves, grab). I just went through them all in my head. Some might be DI dependant, but yeah.

 

[toasty]

I feel like a complete nub now...the jolts actually blow up her bombs? >_>

I usually just try and hit her and if I miss, I throw one down the stage wall to hit her after she tethers, then just upB edgehog if she can even make it up there with upB

as far as using the skullbash, I've never had problems with Firefox having priority...if ANYTHING they'll trade, from my experiences that is. It's actually more useful on Falco than it is on Fox's nimble ***. Falco's are reduced to having fewer options for recovery to avoid being gimped after a bthrow.

It's also good to use this as a mixup after conditioning them to either not-sideB immediately or to not start upB-ing relatively close to the stage where it will be easy to get faired or tail spiked...

I only get this on Fox when, after the bthrow [which is the best setup for this] I see him DI away and jump back to being level with the stage.

 

[tdk_Samurai]

soooo, i just read through this whole thread.

i was honestly hoping there would be more useful stuff but it's mostly u guys going pikaaaaaaa...pika pi >.>

Pi....ka? :-(

 

[soap]

i found it really easy to cross over bair at the edge of platforms and combo aerial bair into the ground hit, edgecanceled into double jump uair > **** combo from there (low percents of course)

 

[AXE 09]

so lately i've been doing a few tests about recovery...

after testing, this is what i found out. i'm not sure if this is exactly correct, but this is my experience anyways.

every time you do a forward-b in the air, you can recover a tad bit further, maybe about pikachu's body length further

i tried CHARGING the forward B, and i found... that no matter how long you charge it, it seems that your recovery is still increased by the same amount as just doing a forward-b without charging it. i've tried charging it all the way, and charging it about halfway.

to conclude... if you want the max amount of distance in your recovery, it is best to just keep doing side-b multiple times, without charging it

even if it does help your recovery, i still refrain from using it unless it's the ONLY option you have, like you won't make it to the edge unless you use it. it just has so much lag that it makes you easy to punish.

so umm... charging your forward B in the air still gives you the same distance as if you didn't charge it at all lol

 

[tdk_Samurai]

good **** axe, I always wondered if charging would help or not, I'll stop doing that **** from now on.

 

[AXE 09]

lol i've always wondered too! so i decided to test it out

 

[toasty]

lol i've always wondered too! so i decided to test it out

thanks for the info =D

 

[soap]

dang, so skullbash is COMPLETELY useless.

ill keep doing it though, i feel like it helps

 

[AXE 09]

lol no problem toasty you freakin rock

and skullbash isn't COMPLETELY useless, it helps your recovery by a very small amount, so what if that small amount is exactly what you need to recover? i can think of a lot of times where i lost my jump, and i would've made it back if i did a skull bash, but cuz i didn't, i just barely missed the edge. darn you pika, you're supposed to have amazing recovery lol. i still don't like using it though. it's so slow!

 

[toasty]

I use skullbash a lot for recovery...yields pretty good results...I only charge it if I'm high up enough because any character who's good at edgeguarding relatively far away from the stage will capitalize heavily on your lag if you're low enough

aww Axe don't turn this into a back-and-forth "no YOU freakin rock" heart fest XD

I think I'm gonna flex my Pika at TO5 this weekend! I'll be MMing spacies and Marths with him too and will try my best to record.

I'll also try him out against the beastly Doc/Mario players that will be there! *recalls matches against Boss....shudders *

any tips against the Marios?

whoa totally missed this:

Edit: Nice vids toasty. Made some interesting choices on occasion, and your dash dancing looks silly, but i thuroughly enjoyed the watch. Good stuff.

thanks! and LOL yes my dash dancing is HELLA silly indeed...The Doug was saying the same thing but he also noted it's mad confusing... it's the only way I can really play Pika for some reason >_>

 

[tdk_Samurai]

god, I fricking hate marios

 

[AXE 09]

no YOU rock toasty XD

lol jk

but seriously, you do freakin rock

against mario... his grabs are scary, and he can combo you pretty well. against them, i love to run at them, then downtilt. i use a crapload of tilts against them lol. but you pretty much just have to try to space yourself correctly... try not to get punished. i know, i'm not the best at advice, but i gave it my best shot lol. any other pika advice against the mario dudes?