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

[soju]

Pshh we'll see if I can back my **** talk in this coming year. Haha

And darn, trying to find an excuse to go visit a girl I know in that area XD oh well. . .

 

[Divinokage]

Hehe we shall see then. =)

 

[unknown522]

BC just had a tourney this weekend. Silentwolf, Toph, and Vish went to it as well.

Also, it seems that only Ontario and Quebec have bagged milk. West coast doesn't.

 

[DerfMidWest]

Robin, you're pretty slow at this point (I have the same problem). You need to move a lot more. rather than standing still, dash dance. It looks like you don't L-cancel some of your aerials, so do that. Learning how to shorthop (and SHFFL) will really help you approach and stuff.

I don't have time to do an in depth critique right now, so this is just some stuff I noticed, I'll give you more/better advice later.

 

[iRobinhoood]

Robin, you're pretty slow at this point (I have the same problem). You need to move a lot more. rather than standing still, dash dance. It looks like you don't L-cancel some of your aerials, so do that. Learning how to shorthop (and SHFFL) will really help you approach and stuff.

I don't have time to do an in depth critique right now, so this is just some stuff I noticed, I'll give you more/better advice later.

<3 Looking forward to it. And yes I want to dramatically increase the speed of my Pika. Right now, goal NUMBER 1 with the most priority, is having short hops on request.

 

[DerfMidWest]

I still have a little bit of a short hopping problem, but I used to not be able to do it at all lol.

here is how I learned:
go into training mode and spend 10 minutes trying to short hop regularly, then go into super slow melee and try it for like 5 or 6 minutes, so that you get used to it, then go into x2 speed and try it for like 10-15 minutes, then when you get back to regular mode you should be able to do it a little better (game will feel slow as hell for a little bit though).

do that same thing like every day and you'll have it down in no time.

 

[Divinokage]

I think it's only possible to speed it up when you have more experience because that way when you understand most situations that come at you then you predict in advance what's going to happen and then you can react accordingly which is why Top players seem really fast. It's all about knowing your options and how things work pretty much. I'd say first get technical skills down for sure, but at the same time it's good to have an opponent to practice with because you can understand better why an option works and what doesn't.

Like even if you can perform SH nair consistently doesn't mean it's good to use it all the time you know? You have to know when to use it at the right times. Sometimes, you'll need to mix it up with DDing or crouching idk. It depends on your position and what is thrown at you, also the character you are facing makes a difference.

 

[SamusPoop]

And how do you do that? That's the important question. =P

By any means also Kage sometime i'd love to skype with you I think you're one of the only people I could be humble even to say wants victory like no other. I want it horriblely bad and am changing how I eat and everything just for any tiny edge. Also Kage you better not EVER give up i'll kick your a** if you do. Also you are the only person not from the us who has reg. for a not smash fighting game at apex12.

 

[Captain Smuckers]

Alright so a few things, Soju I play pika with a green hat simply because axe plays blue and I don't want to copy him.

Robin regarding your video, it's tough to really make specific critiques. Essentially just get better at the game, become more technical, get a better feel for what each attack leads into and how you can follow up. Obviously, learn to l-cancel everything, short hop, and learn to dash dance more. For now just learn to shffl and dashdance and what not and eventually as you play more you'll find yourself comboing more, reading more, and punishing more.

And since everyone decided to post their goals I may as well post mine as well.
1. top 10 at a no johns which is a local near new york city (I've actually done it before but it only had like 20 people so I don't count it)
2. top 5 at a no johns
3. make it out of pools at the next tournament I enter that has pools (I won't be entering apex)
4. Eventually win a no johns which will take a damn long time since they usually have people like jman, hax, hbk, m2k and many others.

From there I pretty much hope to follow suit. Become the best in new york and all that good stuff. Of course aside from those major 4 there are a bunch of players from around here that I'd like to beat.

Hopefully I'll record some videos before christmas to put up, I'd really like to compare videos now to the one I uploaded from like 6 months ago.

 

[iRobinhoood]

Thanks for the help guys, rendering another video right now. This time, I'll be posting a video which I think I did ok in.

Videos up = D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpjCVZDc40E

Also on the note of Pikachu color preference, I choose Party Pika because it's the closest I can come to a blue Pikachu but sometimes I'll rock RobinHood Hat Pika because well.... you know ; )

 

[Captain Smuckers]

Yea I think this video was better, I'd say essentially the same things apply though. Better tech skill such as l-cancels, short hops, wavedashes, all that jazz. Then other things like spacing which everyone can improve on, edgeguarding, comboing, sweetspotting the ledge when recovering and stuff like that. Pretty much everything will just come to you over time though, obviously the more you play the better you'll get at those things so just keep practicing and you'll get there in no time. Nice gimp at the end by the way.

 

[iRobinhoood]

Yea I think this video was better, I'd say essentially the same things apply though. Better tech skill such as l-cancels, short hops, wavedashes, all that jazz. Then other things like spacing which everyone can improve on, edgeguarding, comboing, sweetspotting the ledge when recovering and stuff like that. Pretty much everything will just come to you over time though, obviously the more you play the better you'll get at those things so just keep practicing and you'll get there in no time. Nice gimp at the end by the way.

Question about sweet spotting:

Can someone clarify how to sweet spot? See Diagram 1 - A


Diagram 1 - A

 

[DerfMidWest]

basically, you hit the ledge...

with your jump or upB

and you don't go way over it

and you grab it right away

its a pretty simple concept.

 

[Captain Smuckers]

There are two ways to sweetspot:
1. Make it so your recovery ends just as you are reaching the ledge so you don't either crash into it or pass it.
2. Hit the ledge with your up-b from above. If you use your up-b towards the ledge when you're above it, you will auto sweetspot.

 

[iRobinhoood]

There are two ways to sweetspot:
1. Make it so your recovery ends just as you are reaching the ledge so you don't either crash into it or pass it.
2. Hit the ledge with your up-b from above. If you use your up-b towards the ledge when you're above it, you will auto sweetspot.

This was what I was looking for. My next diagram was going to be something like this:

 

[DerfMidWest]

it looks like pika got ****ed on....

 

[iRobinhoood]

it looks like pika got ****ed on....

Lmao those were suppose to be hitboxes.

 

[DerfMidWest]

what hitbox looks like this:

 

[Dre the Ace]

There are two ways to sweetspot:
2. Hit the ledge with your up-b from above. If you use your up-b towards the ledge when you're above it, you will auto sweetspot.

Don't forget to NOT hold down when doing this. Otherwise you will go past the edge.

I would also avoid using method 1 with Pikachu because at the end of each Up-B section, Pika is stretched vertically then horizontally for a few frames. So during those few frames (if you are near the edge), you can get hit really easily if your opponent is half as good at edge guarding.

 

[soju]

Oh hey, we're posting about pikachu's up-b? It's the greatest up-b that ever lived, i'm serious :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fTYdref4kM

 

[Spyro]

Oh hey, we're posting about pikachu's up-b? It's the greatest up-b that ever lived, i'm serious :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fTYdref4kM

O_o, what did I just watch?


Pikachu's up b is pretty good, the hurt box is not a big problem most of the time.

 

[DerfMidWest]

Soju, i don't know how to send friend requests on the new youtube, so i just subscribed to you instead

 

[iRobinhoood]

Man you ever just have one of those off days? = ( Really discouraging, I wanted to take a bat to my controller. I felt I knew what to do in situations buts its as if my controller had a mind of its own and wanted to do things differently.

I mean I was bad today, not even like slightly off, really bad. I SUCKED. I think I played a total of 15 matches today. I won 2 of them. Of those two, my opponent suicided like twice in each of them.

EDIT* Time to watch some Axe gameplay.

 

[Divinokage]

You gotta tame the beast... whether it's your controller or yourself. =P

 

[Spyro]

Man you ever just have one of those off days? = ( Really discouraging, I wanted to take a bat to my controller. I felt I knew what to do in situations buts its as if my controller had a mind of its own and wanted to do things differently.

I mean I was bad today, not even like slightly off, really bad. I SUCKED. I think I played a total of 15 matches today. I won 2 of them. Of those two, my opponent suicided like twice in each of them.

EDIT* Time to watch some Axe gameplay.

Don't let it get you down and instead watch this video. Everbody has their off days, it does not matter how offten it occurs but rather how you deal with those off days.

 

[iRobinhoood]

Don't let it get you down and instead watch this video. Everbody has their off days, it does not matter how offten it occurs but rather how you deal with those off days.

Goddamn I needed that video. Way to go clutch.

 

[Captain Smuckers]

I nominate the pika boards for the most motivational character board. Like every other post is a motivation video lol. Anyway, yeah Robin I've had off days for sure. It just feels like your hands don't listen to you and things just don't at all go according to play. If it happens to me I try not to let it get me down and I just play through it, occasionally slowing down helps.

 

[iRobinhoood]

Sometimes if I get knocked into the air I don't DI tech or anything, I just watch how my opponent plays it out, to see what he's looking to do lol.

 

[Captain Smuckers]

Alright so I recorded a few friendlies with my friends today, this is the first of hopefully quite a few to come in the future:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BcTa-y_pbw&context=C371da33ADOEgsToPDskJAx_nuwS7umdd4h2s88qmL
Any and all advice would be appreciated.

Also if you want to take a look to see if there is any improvement, here is my last video from july:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBBw...xt=C371da33ADOEgsToPDskJAx_nuwS7umdd4h2s88qmL

 

[Spyro]

You should also try to go off stage more when you have Fox off stage to edge guard him.

 

[Captain Smuckers]

Yea I actually spoke to my friend about that, I used to go for gimps far more and I'd always go offstage, but I realized I didn't want to rely on gimps too much so I stopped. I'll try getting back into it, thanks.

 

[DerfMidWest]

In the beginning, you should have uair spiked him after the jolt. instead you just kinda stood there.
You get a LOT of chances to uair spike where you don't...
Its best not to sit on the ledge charging a smash move UNLESS you know that they are not going to be able to hit it or punish you for it if you miss.

Learn to use tilts more. Dtilt is a nice spacing tool, ftilt is a **** gimp move. I'd advise using ftilt rather than fsmash for edgeguarding spacies.

yea..

 

[Italis]

those videos > me DX but im still not stopping cuz of all dis motivation. srsly though ive learned alot about playing pika and i actually stand a chance agains my friend who plays tournaments

 

[iRobinhoood]

I hate cold hands.

 

[Diske]

I hate cold hands.

Fingers worst enemy. ._.

 

[Spyro]

How dose Pikachu deal with Sheik?

*EDIT*I should be a little more peirce, how do you make sure you don’t get grabed?

 

[iRobinhoood]

How dose Pikachu deal with Sheik?

Do you mean Sheik or M2K Sheik? Please specify.

 

[Spyro]

Do you mean Sheik or M2K Sheik? Please specify.

I just mean Sheik.

 

[DerfMidWest]

Sheik is a hard *** matchup.
Marth too.

But more so for me, because I have like 1/3 of your range lol.

 

[Captain Smuckers]

Well I guess you avoid getting grabbed by sheik the same way you would with any other character. Avoid being in a lot of lag, keep moving, and always land behind her on approaches.