Chzrm3
Smash Ace
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2008
- Messages
- 625
- 3DS FC
- 3926-5442-3703
The point was what it always was. Pichu was garbage. Why do you want a piece of trash like Pichu back besides nostalgia? Is there a real reason? An actual way to make Pichu playable?
This might sound silly and a little ridiculous, but I actually really liked having an intentionally bad character in Melee. I was playing with some friends a couple weeks ago who don't really play Smash much at all (one didn't even know the controls), so I just messed around as Pichu the whole time. It was hilarious, and even though I'm a pretty competitive guy and these dudes were as casual as you can get, we all had a great time. They don't really know that someone like Kirby is just as bad, or that picking Roy or Mewtwo would also be tough on me. (Actually, my casual friends have always thought Roy and Marth were both really good, haha.) But even casual players recognize that Pichu is 'lolbad', so it kind of... helped them relax? I dunno. I'm always very careful not to make casual players feel uncomfortable, because I know that some people don't enjoy a competitive atmosphere. So Pichu's kind of a signal that even though I play Melee a lot, I'm not concerned about winning right now.
He really does work well as a nice "handicap", too. There's a handicap mode already, or you can also just run off the edge and throw away stocks, but people don't really like that. It's kind of degrading to say to one of my friends "Want me to turn on handicap mode? Want me to run off the edge and die?" They want to go at you with everything they have, and not feel like you're letting them win - so if you pick Pichu against a less skilled opponent, he can still go at you full throttle and feel like he's beaten you when he's won. A lot of my friends put up good fights, but when we fight I can 2-3 stock them reliably. I'm not trying to brag btw, I'm REALLY REALLY bad at Melee and get totally stomped every time I enter a tourney. It's just that relative to my friends, I'm a bit better. So when I pick Pichu, the matches get closer and my friends can come within striking distance/beat me.
There are other weak characters - you could just as soon pick Kirby and have an arguably tougher time against most people in Melee. But in Project M, the goal is for every character to be great, so in an ideal scenario, there won't be anyone who's on that level of 'bad'. It means that when the full cast of characters is in Project M, and there's no reason for us to turn on Melee anymore, I won't have a more subtle way of going easy on my friends without making them feel like I'm letting them win.
And with that void, Pichu becomes an interesting choice. A unique playstyle, a glass-cannon fighter, and an intentional/brazen handicap. Great for making people extra salty, having challenging matches against people who you're a bit better than, or just messing around with your more casual friends.
I do agree with Michael Jordan's well-written post, though; the Pichu debate is very emotional, and it's unlikely that we're going to change anybody's minds at the end of the day. Before we move on to Isaac (and yes! Let's talk about Isaac! I'm really curious about him! :D), I just wanted to share what the character means to me and a little bit about why I'll always love that lil' guy.
Sorry - in reading through what I wrote, I realized that it came off as kind of like I was trying to start up another debate about Pichu. I'm really not, I just wanted to talk about why I like him as a choice. I totally, 100% understand why other people don't want him in PM, though. This thread has made that very clear, haha. I think we're all at a point now where we can respectfully agree to disagree.
Now let's talk about Isaac! He seems awesome. I'm a little ashamed to admit it, though, but I've never played Golden Sun. <_< It's still on my list of games to play, but that list is expanding so rapidly that I have a feeling I'll never play his game.