Let's make Pikachu hype again!

[ForgottenLabRat]

So a lot of characters from melee got some really cool stuff that makes them hype and incredibly unique like Ness getting a shine/ rising and DJC aerials, or Mew2 with floats and what not. Pikachu is sort of lacking in the hype department IMO. I'm sure I'm gonna get some hate for this but I think people see pika as a gimpy character who is very hard to play without pay out. Pika needs something that can make him hype and become a crowd pleaser! If you think pikachu is fine the way he is and don't play PM for the hype, thats fine you do you, but there is a big lack pikaplayers and I think pika could be one of the hypest characters just a couple changes. He is already really fast and technical, but needs that kick in the pants to have people like IPK or Neon to actually put time into this character.

Here are some baseline changes that I think need to happen for Pikachu to get some hype:
Less gimpy: I know this is a big part of Pikachu's game in melee, but it shouldn't be in PM
Tech used in combos: The main tech pikachu has is QAC, but that's really only movement. I was thinking maybe having a jump cancel-able side B on hit or something like that.
More electricity: His moves need to look cooler, right now his moves just are that visually appealing and would get a boost in hype just my reanimating his moves with more electricity.

Of course this is my opinion and the pikaplayers might think that he is fine the way he is and these changes would make in too mainstream along with other characters in the PM cast, but I don't see that happening. I just want pika more in tournaments and see some crazy ****.

Ideas I have that are a little more specific:
SideB is jump cancel-able only on hit
Neutral B has a ZSS stun effect
Possibly giving pikachu some kind of shield pressure with QACing
Not having UpAir being a gimp and more of a horizontal combo move
(yes no **** **** these changes alone would be overpowered so pika would need nerfs)

What are some of your ideas to make pika hype again?

 

[Choice Scarf]

So I could have probably been a bit more clear about the hype thing in the other thread, but mainly just because Pika lacks traditional hype doesn't mean you can't play him hypely. Getting super godly with him is very hype in itself thanks to the insane speed of his SHFFL and offstage antics. People get hype for Pika gimping not because of how early stocks can be secured, but rather how far or deep offstage and still recover to do so. Gimping may not be the hypest thing but it isn't necessarily boring either.

And I know you're anticipating that massive changes like the one you suggested will get some backlash from us Pika players but I'm going to have to follow through anyway. One of the beautiful things that Project M has done was steadily buff Pika up without radically changing his Melee feel. Pika has been comfortable as a transition point from Melee and even Brawl in some aspects, so most Pika players would like his core playstyle to remain the same. PM has always been about the Melee physics and balance first, and unfortunately that isn't going to take second fiddle to trying to make a character more fun if both can't be done.

This isn't to discourage anyone from suggestions though! Hell the more discussion we can have on these otherwise dead threads the better. If the hype thing is still something you want to push then along with the ideas you should present a ton of rationale behind them, especially if what you suggest are major changes, and I'll be happy to argue the mechanical ramifications of them all. These are what my arguments would be about your suggestions, but notice how despite the gameplay bias the reasoning is all different:

• Being less gimpy is too broad of a change. Anything to remove Pika's ability to gimp in order to discourage that type of play would only serve to nerf him, and it's hard to justify when other characters are also capable of gimping anyway. Faster fall speed or shorter recovery for example could discourage offstage play but then he'd be as big of combo food as spacies without any of their neutral pressure. Your more specific nerf to Uair not only removes one of Pika's most infamous KO tools but your restriction to horizontal only means you can't juggle with it either, which itself is crucial to setting up Pika's aerial combos. The current horizontal hit (the last one) is by far the weakest and least useful - if you were aiming for ground knockdown then Pika's tailspike is also the part you'd want and one of Pika's only sources of reliable techchase setups.
  
• QAC may just be movement, but movement is big in smash - part of the reason why slow characters like Bowser, Zelda, and DK are still struggling despite greater adjustment. Because of the different types of cancels (attacks with aerials, shield/grab/smash out of waveland, or jump as a positioning mix-up), it can be used as shield pressure if you stay unpredictable with it. More importantly it is perhaps the greatest source of creativity for the Pika player, and what the player does is ultimately where the hype comes from. For example, I could probably do something like Utilt -> footstool -> QAC reset into Skull Bash as an extremely unorthodox "jab reset punish" if I was actually good and didn't care for optimal play. And QA itself is still awesome for movement without QAC with the ledge snaps and edge cancels.
• More electricity is actually something that has been slowly implemented over the patches. Fair and Dair both have slightly increased range and more electricity to supplement to bigger hitboxes. All of Pika's throws also now have electric effects. And the sound effects from the newest patch makes all of the moves feel beefier. Keep in mind that electricity has more hitlag than other attacks, which while making power moves feel more painful allows the opponent more time to SDI, and Pika doesn't have many strong moves like Falcon's knee to fully benefit from the psychological effect.
• Stun jolt is a good example of a possible change but only really because we have seen it's influence in sm4sh. However, because it was in sm4sh, the PMDT will never add it as it is because they need to keep PM as distinct from sm4sh as possible to avoid potential C&D from Nintendo. So even if you suggest something like "up-taunt to make the next jolt a stun" it is extremely unlikely that it or any sm4sh based change would be added.
  
• Jump cancel skull bash is more or less redundant when QAC exists. Skull Bash itself just isn't a good move to hit with in the first place, and since you're flying above the ground I'm not entirely sure if it's mechanically possibly to even jump cancel it anyway.

And again, this is all assuming that the cause of Pika's lack of hype is the character's fault. I'd still stress for more representation first, because all of what most people know about Pikachu is how he is played from Axe's and Anther's Melee based styles. There may be other player out there playing in more hype ways but the less there are the less we can see and take away from, or those styles are simply not effective enough to make it to stream. Until we know what the numbers and truths are though, it's hard to tell what needs to happen.

 

[ForgottenLabRat]

Thanks for the reply. Sorry there was a little confusion on the Upair change. I meant to say that the gimping hitbox was replaced with the horizontal combo move and keep his vertical chains the same. I of course know that movement is everything in PM and wasn't trying to say that QAC wasn't cool or anything like that, but more of that characters like Lucario and Ness not only get movement off their tech but combos as well, where as pikas is solely movement. Yes while elec. does increase the ability for the opponent to SDI, doesn't it increase hitstun allowing for more follow ups in the long run? The JC skull bask wasn't movement based at all, the move has huge amounts of endlag and could allow for some cool combos with it. Also I don't see why you couldn't have it jump cancel in midair, every shine and also Sonics DownB can do it. Clearly I need to put some more time into my posts as to no imply incorrect information but this is more of what I meant to say.

 

[Choice Scarf]

Yeah that's fair. It's just that game design discussion is tricky and many people on the boards are willing to call you out if your ideas don't sound substantiated enough. Granted it's still discussion, but we get more progress wwhen people provide more details. but hey at least you don't sound like an asshole!

I'd highly recommend joining the Pika Skype group if you haven't already to see where people's opinions are about the hype and what not. Meanwhile we could focus on each aspect at a time though to keep things simpler, so let me know what seems most interesting to you:

• Technically, almost all of Pika's hitboxes can be used for gimping. While Pika's tailspike is simply the hardest to recover from, I could still say weak Nair or Bair offstage for around the same effect if we're close enough to the blastzone. So you'd have to tweak all of the aerials to be less gimp-worthy, and that would involve either making him fall too fast offstage or making his aerials rather laggy, and honestly those are really the few sources of appeal for playing Pikachu in the first place.
• I think I may have mistyped stuff and caused some confusion about QAC so I apologize. Pika can definitely start combos from QAC similarly to how he does with aerial rushdown. Look at this recent set between Anther and Tetra, where Anther does a cross-up QAC rising Uair to start a juggle chain. I think I meant to say that Quick Attack itself was pure movement, but the cancel can be done with aerials or anything out of waveland/jump that allows for relatively quick offensive follow-ups.
• Hitstun and hitlag are different things - rule of thumb is hitstun is after the hit while hitlag is during. Hitstun is purely based on damage so I'm not sure electricity has any bonuses there. And this is a relatively minor point so it may really only affect top play for now, but I just remember one set where M2K was able to SDI every hit of Fair against like Axe or somebody and it was scary as **** (I'd link but I think this was a VGBC vid that got taken down).
• Yeah I just tested some JC stuff with Sonic and Ike and I didn't know you could do that in midair. This would probably an actual point of discussion instead of just explaining known mechanics and meta. Skull bash is still somewhat tricky to hit in the first place so again this change may not see extreme use if added in. Against even casual players, if you charge too long (aiming for somewhat respectable damage) they can just spotdodge and suddenly you're careening offstage. An uncharged skull bash can catch the spotdodge because it's so slow but it does like no damage. I would say jump cancel would help at that point since they probably wouldn't go anywhere, but since Pika's in the air he wouldn't be able to do his go to JC options like grab or Up-smash. So that leaves like Nair, maybe waveland if you're just above the stage, but I'm not sure if either can connect or not. Hmm...

 

[SuperUltraHyperOrochiPika]

At the moment I feel Pikachu suffers from crouch cancels and that he has way more trouble finishing opponents at higher percents. He's a technical character that requires a lot of work for little reward as opposed to other fast characters like Sonic, Fox, and Falcon, require a lot of work with high rewards.

If there are any things I think Pikachu needs to be considered a good character, its this;

Before you start saying he doesn't need ALL of this, I want to get this out right now. You're correct, he wont need all of these ideas. Most of them are ideas that individually if given to Pikachu, will help him a lot. Some of them will be marked with an " * " indicating that they are considered minor changes that can be stacked on top of the other * marked ideas in this post.

F Air:

1. After 50% all hit boxes from frames 14 to 24 need more hit stun or forbidden SDI properties. This makes it so targets cannot crouch cancel the move and give Pika the option to L cancel before the last hit and go for a grab, or another follow up to continue combos.

*2. It seems like he loses horizontal momentum during this attack.

QAC changes:

1. Give him back his 3.02 QAC, but to balance out its recovery usage make it so he can only QAC both dashes if he starts the move from the ground. The air version will only be able to QAC the first dash. This makes his offstage recovery the same as it is now, but gives him onstage movement and follow up options. There is nothing unfair or unbalanced about him being able to do this especially when you have characters like Ike and Sonic who can basically do the same thing but much easier. In fact Zelda's teleport has differences between the ground to ground and air to ground versions. Ground to ground teleport cancel recovers much quicker and she can do another one almost immediately. (I'd know, I main her now.) Keep in mind however that Pikachu's QAC into another QA will have him starting in the air unless you waveland which takes even more time to do. So that right there limits his ability to abuse second dash QACs, even further balancing its use.

*2. If PMDT still feels that Pikachu's second dash QACs will be unbalanced with my 1st suggestion, then here is another idea. When Pikachu hits someone with the QA hitbox, put them in longer stun or in the forbidden DI state. The stun time should be accommodated depending on the targets percentage. This will allow Pikachu to get some follow ups at higher percents.

3. Shorten the startup of grounded QA so OOS QACs are possible. This will also allow punishes on wiffed moves in neutral since Pikachu's speed doesn't cut it when he has to get really close to do anything good. Next make QACs Jump Cancelable. This is honestly the only buff he needs that will complete him. He can quickly close the gap into an upsmash without having to wave land or he can JC grab which will really help since his grab range is terrible. Everything else on the post will be irrelevant.

4. Combine 2 and 3.

Side B/Skull Bash:

1. Right now this move is useless and I'd rather not have it at all. I've been told its a "good recovery option" but thats a lie. It has too much end lag and it cannot grab the ledge. QA is a much better option since its fast and sweet spotting is easier when I dont have to accommodate for side B's end lag and adjust my angles afterwards. As an attack, its completely useless. Give him the ability to cancel charging the move while also saving the charge so he can use it for combos, tech chases, hard reads, or an ACTUAL RECOVERY OPTION. Luigi's side be is the perfect example of what Pikachu's side be can be used for.

1.5 Change the animation of the grounded version to the anime version of Volt Tackle with the same frame data.

*2. Shorten the end lag on hit confirm (except shield) and the end lag on the air to air version. The air to ground and ground to ground end lag is fine and makes sense.

*3. Place the hitbox on his head, not his chest. Its called skull bash. I dont know why this wasn't already done.

Msc. Changes:

*1. Remove the tail hurtbox during his dash animation or at least make it much smaller.

2. Make his dash speed faster. At least equal to or close to Lucario's

 

[ForgottenLabRat]

I actually think that the first idea for QAC is great, being able to double QAC from the ground only. It self moderates because you have to jump cancel it so you can't just go zipping across the stage so insane like in 3.02 but gives him the mobility he needs as well as not making it free to recover. Great idea.
They need to reduce endlag on dash and Side B (Or JC like I said) because those moves are genuinely terrible.

 

[InfinityCollision]

Pikachu is already hype. Actual hype, not crowd-pleasing "wow <free kill confirm of your choice>". Players not fully delivering on that and/or you not seeing it isn't a problem with the character, nor does it merit an overhaul of an already well-designed character. Creative, precise use of a dynamic moveset offers immense potential for demonstrating skill and creating hype. It will come with time.

Pika's design will always have niche appeal in terms of playerbase. There's nothing inherently wrong with that.

I also can't help but note that some of your suggestions strongly imply a lack of understanding regarding the character's gameplan and means of execution. QAC can already contribute to shield pressure (QAC crossups into aerials for example), and uair can already function as a horizontal combo tool in a way that compliments his other options, rather than potentially overlapping with them.

Wouldn't mind side-b getting touched up but that's about it, and even that isn't really necessary. It does what it needs to do, and making it JCable on hit is not a good way to expand that niche. Nor is "more tech in combos" a good philosophy for design. It needlessly raises execution barriers and implies excessive focus on the ability to push buttons, something that should be regarded as a barrier to the more important and interesting aspects of the game rather than something deserving of special focus in design.

 

[SuperUltraHyperOrochiPika]

...

Unless you have mained the character, experienced many different match ups and used him in tournaments, I dont think you or anyone has enough understanding or experience to say Pikachu or any character should be this or that.

Pikachu is not a great character anymore. 3.02 had the best Pikachu by far and even then, he wasn't top tier by any means nor was he even close to being considered OP or broken. QAC on both dashes didn't make him broken or OP either, but it did make him a PM worthy character. 3.5 and 3.6 just copied and pasted melee Pikachu and gave him a good bair and a QAC on the first dash that doesn't really help with much. QACs on both dashes truly made PM Pikachu. It was an ability that fixed his problems that he suffers from right now. When you compare him to the other PM characters he doesn't measure up at all. Throw Bowser, Dedede, or DK at him, yeah he will destroy them. Anyone one else and it turns into either a low percent gimp game or high percent hard read game. L canceling Pikachu's Fair before the last hit should work like Fox and Mario's dair and that would open him up to follow ups and pressure that he doesn't really have. Or give the last hit of fair less knockback but more hit stun. QAC on both dashes should be limited to the grounded version while the air version only gets 1st dash QAC. Pikachu doesn't have any powerful aerials that kill below 100% so his follow ups from a second dash QAC would still require the player to rack on damage. Another idea is giving his first jab more hit stun so he can use it for frame traps and jab grab follow ups. If the player mashes his jab, all other hits will do their normal light hits.

 

[ForgottenLabRat]

So what you are defining actual hype as is showing off skill with precision in interesting ways. This can be true, but it is really just showing off, not creating hype. It is a more analytical was of looking at hype, but that isn't right. Hype is about crowd pleasing insane combos that look and feel cool and exhilarating. By your definition, C. Falcon isn't hype which is ridiculous. Sure he isn't even half as technical as Pika, so I suppose that doesn't make him this gentlemen hype of pure skill. Hype is such an abstract thing that it is impossible to quantify like what you are saying.

Not to discredit the PMDT, I am sure pikachu took hundreds of hours to get to where he is today and it is quite amazing, but that doesn't mean he is perfect. Right now Pikachu feels like a Frankenstein version of 65, melee, and brawl, with 0 smash4. He might be as hype as he can be with just using 64,melee, and brawl, without the ability to use smash4 due to Nintendo relations. This isn't a character overhaul, it's turning this mesh of other games pikachu into PM pikachu. I have also forged this opinion after much experimenting for myself as well as watching many many videos of Axe and Anther in melee and PM, so saying, "it will come with time", would be applying to them more than me.

OF COURSE this my opinion, I'm taking dozens of youtube videos of these top tier Pikachu players and making a claim about hype a whole concept from that. And of course you can have your own opinion about this. I'm sure you could see hype being a number like Falcon with a 9 and DK with 7 (random numbers people), and that's fine, but I am looking at Pikachu using data rather than just person experiences.

 

[InfinityCollision]

Pikachu is not a great character anymore.

Where exactly are we drawing the line on "great" here? I'll grant you that he has a few bad matchups, but I'd probably put him in the top 15.

QAC on both dashes didn't make him broken or OP

QAC2 was really good in ways that were never fully explored or appreciated by the mainstream in 3.02, like a lot of things of that era that have since been removed or altered. Whether or not it made Pika as a whole "OP" is subjective, debatable, and entirely irrelevant because it completely disregards the matter of design. It made sense in a 3.02 meta, but QAC2 would be out of place right now. If Pika needs buffs to keep up with whatever 4.0 brings then I'd prefer they start by exploring means to make his bad matchups (ICs, Peach, Falco, etc) less bad in ways that don't significantly alter his good matchups or overall playstyle. Maybe it'll eventually come back (wouldn't hold your breath), but not as the game stands right now.

3.5 and 3.6 just copied and pasted melee Pikachu and gave him a good bair and a QAC on the first dash that doesn't really help with much.

Both of those changes are huge. Get creative, push some buttons in new situations, see what happens.

By your definition, C. Falcon isn't hype which is ridiculous.

I originally said "wow dthrow->knee". Now I wish I'd left it that way.

Falcon's optimized punish tree is braindead as ****. Why do you think "air wobble to rest" was such a popular joke a few months back? The stream monsters finally figured it out. The hard reads can be cool, sure, but that's not what he's actually about. If skillful play (not "showing off") was more readily seen and understood then this probably wouldn't even be a point of discussion, but sometimes the really good stuff is easy to miss.

 

[Psyant]

Really with Infinity on this one. Pikachu is near perfect in PM how he is imo. He is already a character that is fun to play, fun to play against and entertaining to watch. He isn't "Wow Stomp Knee so hype!" flashy, he is flashy in a more subtle "Wow, that was precise/fast" kind of way. In terms of tech he is already one of the more technical characters and doesn't need to be convoluted anymore than he is right now.

His design is also hella good for getting away with some polarized aspects without having polarized matchups or being annoying to play against, while also still being very similar to his Melee design, familiar but better. He's pretty much the ideal for a buffed Melee character and I don't think adding "PM-like" stuff to him is neccesary when it might corrupt that and he's already in a good spot right now in terms of viability. Skull Bash or DA could maybe be changed, but if he stayed like this now for the rest of PM's lifespan he'd be absolutely fine imo.

3.5 and 3.6 just copied and pasted melee Pikachu and gave him a good bair and a QAC on the first dash that doesn't really help with much.

This isn't really true. PM Pikachu has tons of useful and well designed buffs that people rarely ever mention when discussing him.

So in PM, he has Bair, which is incredible alone and gives him so many more kill confirms and expanded punish, spacing and edgeguard game, and was pretty much giving him the biggest thing he was missing in Melee. He also has QAC, which you all know about and would fill a page if I discussed all the options that open up from posessing it. What else does he have?

He has a better Dthrow that expands his punish game off a grab hugely on non-fastfallers, which aids one of his biggest flaws in Melee (low reward for winning neutral on non-fastfallers). It can also chaingrab a group of characters his Uthrow can't. He also has a Fthrow that further compliments his chaingrabbing game, being able to chaingrab a select few characters more severely. So his grab game is much better, and combined with what he already had is probably one of the best in the game in PM.

Let's look at aerials next. People talk about Bair a lot, but there's another buff here that's less obvious but almost as important. In Melee, not only did Dair have like twice the landing lag, but more importantly the landing shockwave was worse than useless, sending people nowhere but often cancelling out the knockback of the Dair itself, allowing people to hit you for free when they should have gone flying. In PM, Dair's landing hitbox is insane. It has good range, shield stabs incredibly often, and has high base knockback that beats CC and allows it to combo into other attacks, combined with the lowered landing lag. This is huge because if you have played Melee Pikachu to a decent level of play you will understand this solves one of his biggest flaws in being vulnerable to his opponent just CC'ing when he's directly above them. In Melee he can't really do anything in that situation but risk a laggy falldown Uair to get them off the ground, which is beaten by shield or pretty much any attack. In PM, fastfall Dair away, and if they do anything but move out of the way you get a free hit due to it's un-CCability and extreme likeliness to shieldstab. It's crazy good.

He also has a much better Fair (again previously near useless in Melee besides fairly rare gimp setups) that combos into pretty much anything from a SHFFL, including one of the strongest vertical kill moves in the game in Usmash, at any %. Also very worth mentioning is that his Uair does like twice the damage in PM, meaning juggling people with it is worth more than a stale 2% a time like in Melee. So overall his aerial game is MUCH better than in Melee. His strengths are better (Uair racks up damage much quicker), and his previous biggest aerial game flaws (poor range, weakness to CC, unable to defend his landings well) are solved via PM Bair and Dair.

There's even more. Let's look at specials. Besides QAC, Thunder has less lag and greater cloud height, which enables it to hit at times it'd miss in Melee. T-Jolt is incredibly superior to it's lackluster Melee incarnation and massively aids his neutral game. It has so much less lag that combined with B-Reversing it can be ran along behind/inside as an "armored" approach, and hit confirm into grab or a kill move, or just force the opponent into a disadvantaged rock paper scissors where you cut off their response to it. Do you know how few characters get this kind of privilege from a projectile? Any projectile that can hit confirm into grab alone is insane. QA also has less landing lag now. So, specials are better all round, besides Skull Bash, and T-Jolt being good and useable is on the same level of buff as Bair and QAC.

Grounded moves are where he's pretty much the same as Melee, though Dtilt and DA hit slightly harder now. This is fine. Maybe Utilt could be looked at if you really had to nitpick a problem with his grounded moves, but overall he's good.

Then you can go into stuff you can do with the differences in the game engine he benefits from so much. B-reversing his better specials, RAR with his new Bair, and in the future maybe more crazy stuff like RAR Nair to crossup > grab, or autocancelled Nairs which are possible because in PM because of landing detection differences. So much stuff. He has a bright future ahead of him.

Anyways, long post, but just wanted to bring to light a little how much good the PMDT has done this character. They pretty much gave him everything he could have wanted to shear off his more critical weaknesses without making him overpowered or annoying to play against. If you think he's not flashy enough that's alright, but he has already gotten a lot of love in PM and is definitely not Melee Pika with just a new Bair and QAC like a lot of people seem to think. This is just my opinion now, but I think he's great as he is, and if you want some big flashy showy character you should probably look somewhere else. He definitely has his own brand of impressiveness and it's a big part of why I play him, but he's never been a artificial hype character like Falcon in any of the games.

 

[Choice Scarf]

Basically want Psyant said. I agree about how Pika's kit allows for a good amount of creativity, and you can really see how Anther's play in particular has diversified from the Melee base. I still wish Pika had a bit more hype but I don't believe it's a lack of what the character brings to the table balance-wise. For me it's a combo of A) I'm a scrub still struggling to control the character and wish I had more options to compensate for his design weaknesses and B) I think Pika's simple character and playstyle design gives an aesthetically underwhelming and sometimes bland impression. It's probably mostly A, but I can't help but feel B every now and then.

With all of the recent SFX upgrades, a lot of Pika's electric moves sound much beefier and just better, so maybe continuing this trend with GFX and animation tweaks would help Pika give a more appealing impression. I have been a staunch advocate of getting Up smash to look more like Iron Tail, but I could imagine other things like QA making afterimages instead of generic light effects, or a more explosive looking thunder splash. And probably another personal thing but it would be great for some more distinctions with the way some moves look and feel. Why do Fair and Dair look like the same move, or how is his F-smash being a small surge of electricity coming from his cheeks somehow more powerful than Dash Attack or Skull Bash where he full body tackles the opponent head first?

 

[SuperUltraHyperOrochiPika]

BWhy do Fair and Dair look like the same move, or how is his F-smash being a small surge of electricity coming from his cheeks somehow more powerful than Dash Attack or Skull Bash where he full body tackles the opponent head first?

If I had to nitpick at Pikachu its this. Why does the electricity GFX during F Smash stay not properly follow the hitboxes? For example, the full length of the graphic comes out before the actual hitboxes do and then it continues to linger at full length longer than the hitboxes stay out. I only figured this out because on many occasions I was pissed off by the fact the my F smash clearly was on him even tho it was a late in the attack, but hitboxes disappeared before the GFX.

Next nitpick is this. Why is the hitbox on skull bash/Side B, small and hell and placed on his stomach/chest and not his head?

Why is QA nothing like the original QA in the Pokemon games? It lacks priority and QA is basically a fast priority version of tackle. I always thought his QA was agility because it looked more like agility than quick attack.

Last nitpick. By giving Lucas the ability to power up his smash moves by charging his powers, why didn't they do something similar with Pikachu's charge taunt?