Beginner pikachu need some critiqueing

[tdk_Samurai]

sorry if this is in the wrong area of the forums, if so I ask for a mod to move and let me know, as you can see by my post count I don't know my way around the forums super well yet.

But If you would help me out a little, I'm gonna provide some links and if you could watch me and tell me some things I need to do different/learn, I would greatly appreciate it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0Vb_ayFVo0

&

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_1iepxSm48
(got *****, I know)

any tips would be helpfull for me

 

[N64]

It's always good to see new pika players. He's a super fun character.

As far as your gameplay, it needs a lot of work heh. Which is cool, work on things one at a time and i'm sure you'll greatly improve. Here we go.

Work on your approach game. Namely, i noticed a lot of the time you were either just standing there or approaching headlong, rather predictably. With pika, you should be moving at all times, creating a constant change in distance between you and your opponent. Don't set yourself into one course of action. Fake some approaches, i.e. start approaching and then stop just short of them and see what they do, and punish them for it if you can. Or send some jolts as you move around to make your approach easier or theirs more difficult. The whole game you want them to be guessing where you're going to be, when and how you'll approach, how to approach you, etc. Mix things up. Mix things up.

I guess to help with this, we'll first work on mixing up your approaches themselves. Short hop nairs are the staple, but don't rely on them too much. Empty short hop behind them, then turn and tilt, or grab, or rising uair, or dsmash. Short hop towards them, then waveland backwards and see how they react. Double jump and fastfall a dair. Try out different approaches and keep them guessing. See what works and what doesn't.

Get better at using upB. I liked to see you hang out off the edge and stall that fox till he was forced to recover (and then you killed him) but you could have made it back after that with proper upB usage. Go into training mode then try getting good at all angles you can think of.

That's all i can think of for now.

 

[tdk_Samurai]

I'll keep all that stuff in mind, it is greatly appreciated :-)

 

[Kiwikomix]

There are a few technical things you should be aware of.

Firstly, shorthopping your aerials is very important, as I'm sure you would notice in the first few seconds of the video. SHFFLing is a little harder to pull off with Pika than with many other characters but used with nair it can be very useful.

Secondly, remember to jump cancel your grabs. I wouldn't recommend running up for a grab with Pikachu anyway due to his terrible range, but if you're going to do it then it's important to minimize lag as much as possible.

Thirdly, to avoid Fox's uthrow-uair, you'll have to DI away from his hits, which is explained more fully here. Kind of hard to understand/pull off at first so if you don’t get it don’t be discouraged.

Be careful with your thunder jolts. You don't want to shoot them out too close to any character, and Fox's speed means that he'll be able to capitalize on your ending lag extremely well.

I know it doesn't seem at first like you have to l-cancel nair but every little bit helps.

Make sure your quick attacks head straight for the ledge (in most cases, unless someone's edgeghogging or something) as they are much less punishable that way.

I wouldn't recommend going far below the stage to edgeguard until you get the quick attack mastered. Sometimes easier edgeguards will work, like just waiting on the side of the stage to fsmash, dtilt, or ftilt them back out. Just make sure you don’t get too predictable.

DI away from Falcon's throws and upward attacks so that it's not so easy for him to land his knees.

The biggest thing I would have to say is not to go for grabs so often. If you can combo into a grab or punish their mistakes it's a different story, but you just don't have the range to enjoy the luxury of running up and grabbing them. This ties into what N64 said about mixing up your approach.

Keep at it

 

[ChivalRuse]

A happy medium between "standing there and approaching headlong", is to dash dance/ wave dance. Just run around barely outside Falcon's SH nair range and wait for him to act. That can be a good way to get a grab and start the uair combos.

For obvious reasons, the consensus is that nair is the best aerial to incorporate into approaching tactics. When you see an opening, hope that it's not a trap and SH nair (don't forget to l-cancel). If you happen to land in front of a shield Falcon, jab repeatedly so that he can't shield grab you (I'm pretty sure your jabs will also hit him out of a SH dair during the start up of his jump; you just have to jab really fast). Anticipate his roll and grab.

Keep up the good work. There aren't nearly enough Pika mains in the Melee community.

 

[V3ctorMan]

WATCH AXE'S PIKACHU!..........................

j/k i know that's not what you want to hear, but it's worth a shot. Anyway. I don't main Pikachu like anyone else here, but my dub partner is Axe and from playing his, pretty much everything everyone posted above.

The biggest part is the approach, try and use you're approach a little bit better. Mix it up with N-airs and such. JC grabbing with Pikachu is MAJOR Pika has the SHORTEST grab distance in the game so it'd be very useful to get that down. Something i've even seen Axe do pretty well is the SHFFL u-air. i'm sure other Pika's might do this as well.

and yeah just tryin to control and sweet spot the quick attack would be most useful as well, rather difficult but can help alot and more difficult for your opponent to punish you.

That's all i could notice. I'll try and get Axe in here to help you out w/more stuff though! He's a monster! lol

 

[defsithe]

WATCH AXE'S PIKACHU!..........................

best advice ever!

but i saw the first one and think standard technical stuff needs to be practiced, its boring to practice it but its very useful. (SFFL, JC, DI(too important), quick attack stuff, etc...)

and like everyone else said mix it up. keep em guessing.

 

[PsychopathicEmus]

wow, lotta stuff covered in the previous posts; i hope i don't repeat anything.

-grabs: capitalize on your grabs. uthrow is amazing and can lead to stuff like usmash, chaingrabs, aerials, or edgeguards. i think of it this way: spacies/sometimes falcon are retardedly hard to grab, so when they do get grabbed, they better lose a stock for it. that said, be smart about it; you don't want to miss a grab...you'll get ***** for it ><"

-edgeguard: learn what you can do in certain situations: i saw the fox drop way below the ledge a lot (probably to avoid the tailspike), fsmash, dsmash, and downward-angled ftilt work really well in that case; or if you can predict when he's going to sweetspot, just turn around and wavedash-->ledgehog at the last moment. pikachu's got a lot of options for edgeguarding, both on and off the stage, and it's probably the most reliable way for him to take a stock

have fun and good luck!

 

[tdk_Samurai]

tyvm all, everything has been noted, and I am trying to implement what some of you have said into my game now