IMAGE COURTESY OF FOREVER KASRANI
Gogglechu > Pikachu
Hello, all of you! I assume if you're reading this, you want to pick up Pikachu in Brawl Minus as a main or secondary. I'm not going to go into a super in depth character description, I assume you already know how to play this game. What I'm going to do is tell you how to annoy the crap out of everyone who plays against you. And win. A LOT.
Let me tell you how this works.
Pikachu *****. Hard. Because, you see, Pikachu is a character of options. He [I think] has the most options out of anyone in the game. That said, I personally believe that Pikachu is unbeatable if played perfectly.
~~~~~~~~~Basic changes~~~~~~~~~~~
But before we get into that, we have to talk about WHY he *****.
I'm not going to go into a change list, partly because Brawl Minus website doesn't have one and partly because people don't read those anyway.
So let me tell you what's important.
Thunderjolt [read as Jolt or (special move)B from now on] is jump cancel-able. It's a knockdown move, so it can be tech chased. Most of all, it's spammable as a mofo.
Thunder is jump cancel-able, shield cancel-able [from some videos I just watched, I haven't tried it myself, but I will soon] and most importantly, METEOR SPIKES. Do you understand what that means? It means you can jump off the edge, do the thunder, jump cancel, and return to the stage safely, watching your opponent fall to their death. More on that later.
One other thing that's Pika specific. It's called the Pikacopter by all who fear it. What is it, you ask? Backair. That's what it is. It goes COMPLETELY horizontal. What does that mean? You can move and attack AT THE SAME TIME. It's so so so good. It beats everything, or if it doesn't, it trades. Definitely one of his best attacks.
Let me give you an example. You don't need to watch everything, but just a few seconds to really understand what this means for Pikachu. No tripping [always good], automatically L Canceled Aerials, and no stale moves. So now all of Pikachu's Kill Moves will now always be his kill moves. So useful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIuhd3m3fdc
~~~~~~~~~~In Depth Options~~~~~~~~~~~
So let's take a closer look at this. Why does Pikachu **** so hard?
Well, it's pretty much his natural characteristics along with the things we just talked about. Pikachu is small. When crouching, he avoids almost everything that's thrown at him [literally and figuratively] He's stupidly fast, easily one of the most mobile and agile characters in this game. And, almost all of his moves combo into other moves.
For Example:
Dthrow bounces all characters to SH height. Dthrow-> SHFFNair wins games.
Dthrow->Fair->Fsmash
Dthrow->Bair->Bair->FSmash
Dthrow->Fair->USmash
Dthrow->Fair->Grab
Dthrow->Uair->Uair [though I don't like this as much]
DThrow->Fair->DSmash->Thunder->USmash->Thunder->Off stage Thunder->Thunder->win
[Thunderspiking, will be covered later]
The hardest part of throws is when they DI behind you. That takes a little bit of improv.
B takes things to another level, where once you fire it, you have a ridiculous amount of options. Every time that the enemy is hit, they get knocked down. If they're off the map, it'll even meteor spike them! If they don't tech the jolt, you can do one of three main things.
1) you can thunderjolt again.
2) You can do a running up smash.
3) You can tech chase into pretty much anything.
If they avoid it, you can also do a double jump, and based on their decisions, you can make yours.
1) If they jump towards you, you can double jump towards and aerial.
2) You can also jump away and thunder.
3) Jump away and UpB to the ground.
4) Jump away and UpB far away [if it's a big map]
5) Jump towards/away and UpB through them [super fast and an actual attack]
6) Jump and do a second jump [depending on if it'll hit]
7) Don't jump, thunder, and jump/shield cancel the thunder.
Are you beginning the get the picture?
Sooo broken.
Thunder. What can I say? It's sooooo good. UpSmash->Thunder->UpSmash is a ridiculous combo akin to Falco's pillaring. But usually not as effective, because Pika's not THAT fast, most of the time. It can meteor spike, as we discussed earlier. Which means on 1v1, unless your opponent is stupid good, [or shiek] they will not, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, recover. Thunder is a projectile. What that means, is that nothing will ever out prioritize it. The only recovery you will ever have problems with is Sheik. Why? She is literally invincible during her entire recovery move. It's ridiculous. But that's for another time.
So how do you do this amazing move? It's very easy. You jump out, down b [either normally or B-reversed] and then jump cancel into an UpB to recover. Or maybe even thunder cancel into another thunder into an upB to recover. It's so good. But keep in mind, even though I call it Thunderspiking, it is NOT A SPIKE. It is a meteor smash, and it will require more than one thunder to kill! But fear not, even if they catch the ledge, if they don't move, their invincibility frames will end before the Thunder's hitbox ends.
If you're above the stage and see someone coming up to attack you [Ganon's upB for instance] spam that Thunder, and it'll hit them either before or after they begin to hit you. In the case of Ganon's upB, it'll spike him as he's shocking you.
And don't even get me started on the explosion.
It'll send people flying. It'll kill at 50% on a small stage.
Pikacopter is stupid good too. It'll combo into other aerials, especially other bairs. It also has almost NO lag due to autoLcancel, so what you can do is bair->bair->FSmash->win
Alternatively, you can go into a DSmash [which is also stupid good, and people can't DI out of anymore, from what I understand] which pops them up after about 15-20 damage. Then you can thunderspike into a PikaPillar or into a Nair or Bair or something. Beginning to get the picture?
As discussed before, Pikacopter is also good as a movement across the stage. When you Pikacopter across the stage, almost nothing can stop you. Only super high priority moves or disjointed hitboxes will stop it. And if it hits, you can go into those options we talked about. So basically, with Pikachu, once you get one hit, you can get at LEAST 20%, and at most, a 0-death. As I said, Pikachu is a character of options.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~Offensive side~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This leads us to Offensive and Defensive in a match. As I said, this is a quick runthrough of Pika's changes and how to capitalize on them. Most of your match ups will consist of 2 things. Zoning, and killing. One of your greatest offensive moves is also one of your greatest defensive moves. And that's the jolt. The best way to do a jolt is called a retreating jolt. Thunderjolt that stage. All day, every day. Jump away from your opponent->Press analog stick towards your opponent->let go of control stick->press B. If you do it correctly, Pika will jump left [for example] and fire his thunderjolt right. It takes a while to get used to, and Pika is stubborn and sometimes refuses to listen. So don't feel too bad. Just make sure you get that move down before you start ******. It helps so much.
So basically, what you're going to do is do jolts until you feel like attacking. If they get too close for comfort, upB out. They can't do anything. Ever. After you get bored and feel like attacking, the safest approach is wait until they're knocked over from your jolt, and either teching or bouncing on the floor. Run towards them, read their tech, and do a running upSmash. The two ways of doing this are the Melee way [up+A at the EXACT same time] or the Brawl way [flick the C stick up]. Either way works, and I prefer the Brawl way even though I'm a Melee player.
When you do hit, since Pika's way too strong with that electric tail, they will either die, or fly way up to the ceiling. If option 2, jump and Thunder and try to hit with a second upSmash for the kill. It's a very safe approach, and very good.
Now, if your opponent can get out of your jolts [either by clanking or just avoiding in general] get into that Pikacopter and start her up. Send out a jolt and slam them with a Pikacopter when they're not paying attention, and you can usually get an Fsmash out of it. Or, if they shield it, try and land behind them so you can grab. Pikachu doesn't really have a lot of shield-stun, one of his 3 weaknesses, but he's so mobile you can usually get around it.
Pikacopter should be your preferred method of movement when you're not reverse jolting. There's almost no lag, there is no stale moves, and therefore no reason NOT to use it. Empty SH are good for mindgames, but it's super useful to just go ahead and pikacopter.
Other good approaches are dash attack [surprisingly], dash dance, and dash cancel into a Fsmash. Fsmash has a lot of priority and a lot of range. It's very useful. Also, Nair is very good if they're above you, and Uair is alright, but not that useful imo.
~~~~~~~~~Punishing~~~~~
For punishing, UPSMASH is your go to weapon. It's got a super good knockback, and has a lot of priority. The only problem is that is has a very small range, you have to be super close to win. Depending on where you are, you can also punish with FSmash, Ftilt, Dtilt, Utilt [though if you're close enough to utilt, UPSMASH] IF they have a lot of lag, you can dthrow, bthrow if they're near the edge, or even uthrow if you're silly.
Ftilt is my favorite for punshing, next to that and jolt. Ftilt has a lot of range [farther than his feet] a lot of priority, and a decent amount of knockback. Also, ftilt can knock people down. Then go into a jolt, into the paragraph above. Punishing for Pikachu effortlessly translates into his offensive game. Which, for us Pikachus, is a very good thing.
But what happens when you're on the defensive? Pikachu has a lot of options there, too.
~~~~~~~~Defensive options~~~~~~~
Most of his Defensive options stem from the fact that he's very mobile. Pikachu is so fast that Marth literally can't touch him. Ever. If he touches you, you're doing it wrong. So how do you Zone? Easily, you spam B. Retreating jolt until you hit, and now suddenly you've gone from Defensive to Offensive.
But let's say you're in a bad place, and you need to get out NOW. Pikachu's main GTFO move is his upB. If you're in super big trouble need to get out NOW, upB is your main man. If you see Ganon pulling back his elbow, and you want to stop him instead of shielding, upB either into him or away from him. If you do it into him, you'll add some % while getting out, maybe stopping him. If away, good for you. Reset into those thunderjolts.
If you're stuck on a small stage, plank like a mofo.
This is a little bit different, since the ledge invinc frames are very low, but you can do it because YOU'RE PIKACHU. It consists of ledgecatch->downb->jump cancel->upb->ledgecatch->repeat
Basically you're untouchable until you decide to get off/mess up. It's a great strategy, but the cost of messing up is HUGE. If you mess up, you die. So practice this for a few hours against some computers before you just jump into it.
If your opponent approaches, you have quite a few options [as always]. If they jump, you can Nair. If they just run straight at you, jump and jolt. If they they jump over that, retreat jolt or Nair. If they land in front of you, grab->dthrow/bthrow. Or, UpSmash. It really just depends on what you want to do. You're Pikachu, you have every option ever. So use whichever one you feel like doing.
I don't wanna lose his awesomeness.
