** OLD ** Official Pikachu Critique Thread

[Legendary Pikachu]

EDIT #2: Why does he never shieldgrab you when he shields your fair? @.@ He always rolls away instead, lol. I don't think he grabbed you once that first match..... he could've had some jab cancel > grabs. Anyways. Just random thoughts from those matches.

He knows that. Before joining our crew, he was a reflexive roller. I mean, compared to before this video, his rolling has gotten a lot better (glad he's improving). But yea, those rolls were messups/he knows he should have shield grabbed or at least try jabbing whenever i was farther away. Also, I think that it may be partly because in a match before, since i normally n-air out of shield immediately whenever Ike is higher in damage, he got an early kill by rolling out and mindgaming a f-smash. All in all, he racks damage pretty good--getting the kill was the harder part and it was his focus at the time of the videos.

We can post up better ones whenever we happen to record our fights again.

About jab cancel to grab, as long as i don't land into his jabs (still have my jump), i usually jump out of jab cancels so nothing can followup those jabs except 2 more jabs, maybe a pivot b-air, or a perfectly buffered f-tilt (combined with my late jump)--it beats getting grabbed or smacked with other moves most of the time.

 

[PUNK9]

If you look on my channel i have new ones, im too lazy to put them here

youtube.com/imESAM

Only against Seibrik's D3 though

Were those the one's I recoarded ESAM?

 

[[FBC] ESAM]

Indeed they were PUNK

 

[PUNK9]

Indeed they were PUNK

Awesome!.
I just want to sayy. I took some of you're "tricks" And I'v been trying to add them into my Playing style, You're going to Winterfest right?
I want to get some good,oll, Pikachu advice from the best one in FL

 

[[FBC] ESAM]

I don't know what "tricks" you are talking about, but sure ill try to give you advice.

 

[Legendary Pikachu]

Okay so here are the Winners Semifinals against Devin, the "Marth of South Carolina". Lol, althouhg my first match sucked , i'd like to remember it as my 'reading session'--the later ones i was more on my toes. Match was close and a whiffed spike at the end gave me the game (whoo....). I think i have an idea of what i need to change... get hit less... lol ^_^: wha'tch you guys think? Be gentle ^_^.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEQ3KDqpAik ~ part 1&2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oarStK72RXY ~ part 3

 

[gallax]

you roll to much around marth ldpk. and u kept rolling into him too. i also saw way too many dsmashes. sometimes you had DI'd perfectly out of his dancing blades or he would space wrong and fair past you and you would instinctively dsmash, which isnt good since the marth di'd it right away. grab him instead. pummel when you grab then throw him. its much better for damage and it kills marth morale(trust me. me and razek play this matchup often and getting grabbed by pika sucks).

if i were you ldpk and i were to face this guy again i would just run up and shield then wait for his dancing blades to come out for easy damage racking. from there i would either grab him when he finishes it or roll behind him in between the swipes then fsmash him. i noticed he rarely stops his DB and is leaving himself open quite often. he also loves to fair/nair after using his dolphin slash to recover to the edge. so instead of charging your fsmash and waiting for him to sh off the ledge, shield whatever he does then grab him and throw him off again and tjolt him for a gimp(hard to do but totally possible). u should know that marth has terrible upb lag so once he htis the stage and you are fairly close, its a free hit/grab everytime.

 

[Urban Menace]

Uhh I have 7 matches lolol..but i mean the more the merrier right? anyway i have 5 matches vs a falco and then 2 vs a pit.
Vs. Falco:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAb4p07PmPA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_edH5EOCyoA&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mczK1dejqDk&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qidLXv-NAtg&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DclgyspEGqU&feature=channel

Vs Pit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdflONrSGr4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bma8Ij-AM34

 

[Legendary Pikachu]

I'll get you your vids in a little bit. I will post some of mine up later today.

 

[Arikie]

I have ~new~ videos for ^critiquing^ yay...
Its just friendlies, some day I'll bring in more serious matches but this is all I can do for now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUQK7ukNmD0 Siege - Gaw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4rm_mgADu8 Siege - Gaw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE3gc2P6lsY Siege - gaw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMuW1y2aNBU aquas - MK

I need to play a wider variety of people.... anyone in norcal wanna invite me to a smashfest? I'll bring my camera

 

[altairian]

I can't offer you a lot of advice cause I'm not that experienced myself, but a couple things I noticed against MK...first you should go for the shieldgrab on his glide attack pretty much always. Most of the time you'll get it. And if you can get the perfect shield on it obviously that's guaranteed. The only mindgame he can pull on you is flying past you or stopping before he gets to you, so there's no need for you to try to dodge it.

Also when you got that grab off the ledge after his side b, I'm pretty sure if you hadn't pummeled at all and just let the grab break, he wouldn't have been able to use any recovery moves still. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

That's all I've got, good playing =)

 

[derkapalooza]

hey guys here is are some vids of my friends pika....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvbYY8bFLy0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUhC6prKT-E

can anyone give him some advice to improve his game?

 

[Legendary Pikachu]

Uhh I have 7 matches lolol..but i mean the more the merrier right? anyway i have 5 matches vs a falco and then 2 vs a pit.
Vs. Falco:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAb4p07PmPA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_edH5EOCyoA&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mczK1dejqDk&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qidLXv-NAtg&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DclgyspEGqU&feature=channel

Vs Pit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdflONrSGr4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bma8Ij-AM34

*SIDENOTE: What's up with people posting videos to critique if they are already winning? O_O.... you guys do know that only like 2+ pika's are good enough and regular enough to come on the pika boards to critique "already winning" pika footage. This time, i'll provide some critique ^_^, but don't be surprised if in the future if people don't get a reply until a long time (if ever) especially if posters post WINNING footage for critique. It's harder to critique for one, and there's alway the 'don't fix it if it ain't broken' rule of thumb advice.*

So on the vids where you lost, menace, it was because the falco switched it up. He started playing defensively (which is what he's supposed to do). First things first, you have a GOOD pika... you know good u-tilt setups (probably have tap jump off), were pretty fluent in your QaC's, got good thunder gimps, used tilts and smashes correctly. However, although you have KNOWLEDGE and skill of how to use those moves and setups, I feel that your experience pales in comparison. Things that come with experience are matchup details (like against falco, you ALWAYS avoid the jabs and jab cancels... start QaC'ing behind him when falco turns on 'camp mode'... and pursuing him offstage for a gimp (if he's a fire-falco kind of falco), and learning how to read and react according to the opponent. It almost feels like, (not all the time, but quite a few times nonetheless) you have a preset pool of 'approaches' and you select 1 of them and go in. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but the main thing is you don't base your actions off what falco does most of the time, and personally i think its this little aspect that is costing you the game. Whether falco is rushing, lasering, jumping, offstage, or on ledge, your movements don't really shift as the falco shifts. You know pretty much all that pika can do already, its just making sure they land and are spaced and timed right and minimizing the damage you take. you almost never pursued the opponent offstage (except and ONLY with thunder). I think pika is versatile enough to whoops falco offstage even without thunder (you mainly just stayed in teh middle of the stage... even tho that particular falco was more of a "fire-falco" kind of falco. For those types of falco's, zap them once with f-air and sent them on their way to their doom with edgehogs and stuff.

I also want to note that the falco was a noob at the pikachu matchup in particular (with exception of edgeguarding). Edgeguarding aside, that falco did not: 1) Exploit his lasers, 2) exploit his chaingrabs>d-air spike/u-smash [what was up with his adding pivot shenanigans that don't work?], 3) Used fire-falco too much, 4) Too aggressive.

I apologize if i came off a little harsh, but i am critiquing it as if it was not a WIFI match.

About the pit matches, learn how to read diffferent opponents and when they "shift modes". Every single brawler (most of them at least) have distinct mentalities when playing. For pits, they either arrow and reflect (full camp mode), retreating aerials like n-air and f-air (semi-camp mode), and advancing attacks like OoS grab and aerials stuffs (aggressive mode). Professionals and the best players try to MASK these different 'modes' so that their opponents have a hard time telling them apart. Some people can mask these modes so well, they seem to be in constant attack AND defense, but NONETHELESS, these modes do exist (even amongst the best of the best). Against pit, if he is in camp mode, you should sort of be in aggressive mode (jumping and running under arrows, maybe more QaC). If he is in semi-camp mode you should try being in camp mode (semi-camp mode baits the aggressors into traps and vulnerable spacing.... jolts would work more often against this mode). If he is in aggressive mode, shield grabs, retreating jumps and punishing aerials are better. When pit is offstage, thunder will only work if he is GLIDING. Pit cannot stop himself in time (requires 4+ frames to exit glide) before running into thunder and pit cannot airdodge during glide. Otherwise, pit will reflect thunder (and killed you that one time). I do have to agree that pit is better than some (used side-b instead of down-b to reflect thunder before teh boom [which is physical] came out. In all other cases of pit offstage, being under him and waiting for a response (airdodge, second jump, attack, or glide) and attacking afterwards is teh best. Pit's d-air (which is the only thing that can hit you if you bank under him while recovering) has lots of lag when it misses in air so take advantage.

hey guys here is are some vids of my friends pika....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvbYY8bFLy0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUhC6prKT-E

can anyone give him some advice to improve his game?

Lol. DK.... I recently won a tournament in North Carolina and the Donkey Kong PR person and I fought in teh grand finals (wow.... that NC donkey kong beat 2 snakes, 1 mk, 1 marth, and 1 DDD to get there). Your friend is pretty decent in terms of pika knowledge. I can tell that he's more or less a pika main (which is always a good sign). But the main thing i noticed is that your friend is not aggressive enough (when he should have been at times). I saw a lot of 'empty jumps' where you friend just jumps twice only to NOT do anything and land before dodging and spacing. Of course, I understand that you friend might have been trying to read the next move or psyching his opponent out, but against DK, if his front is towards pika (as opposed to Donkey Kong's back....) then DK CANNOT DO ANYTHING against pikachu's f-air. Your friend didn't do nearly as many f-airs as he should have. Only DK's u-air can hit pika during a point-blank f-air but u-air has lots of lag and can be punished later when you psych the opponent out. Alway s go for those easy f-airs especially when donkey kong can't defend them without turning his back. I have ALL the videos of my grand finals that i am going to post in Volt Tackle sometime soon against our NC PR DK main. It's pretty entertaining at the very least and are recent footage of a not-so-common matchup ^_^.

EDIT: Here's the beginning of my DK match vids: http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?p=9128345#post9128345

 

[bigman40]

Do what you guys always do. I have lots of other matches I lost, but I clearly didn't do good in those like I did in this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qQ3MEFnPoM

 

[Legendary Pikachu]

Do what you guys always do. I have lots of other matches I lost, but I clearly didn't do good in those like I did in this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qQ3MEFnPoM

hm.... You played decently well... I'm guessing you are not so used to Yoshi's Island as a stage?

My rules of thumb against snake:

1) Revolve winning around gimping him (cypher grab gimp or off the top with thunder)
2) If snake's front is facing you while in the air, he can only f-air or n-air or pull grenade and you can telegraph the n-air.... Otherwise, it's almost a 1/3 chances of getting a good read (which are really good chances against snake ^_^). If he nades, grab him and b-throw (he'll most likely second jump b-air so respond with thunder or something). If he f-air's, he's a noob and deserves to die ^_^. If he n-airs, then... um... iMprovise depending on height ^_^.
3) When snakes are on low platforms, they tend to pass through using b-air (which you should always have a lookout for) so punish the lag that occurs afterwards.
4) I noticed you u-air'd all the time when you got snake into a juggle. Throw in some b-airs cuz that'll inflict some mental hurt and add some edge to your juggling game.

Overall, you did well against a high tier.

 

[bigman40]

I actually hate Yoshi's Island as a stage. It's my ban every time, but if I meet someone I have to spend a ban on other places, I can still manage playing on YI decently (fact: I like Lylat more as a neutral more than YI). Thanks for the tips. I really need to learn more MUs cause it's hurting more than ever now that I want to get my pika up to my yoshi. Hopefully, I'll be getting a match recorded when my Pika is in top shape.

 

[PUNK9]

Do what you guys always do. I have lots of other matches I lost, but I clearly didn't do good in those like I did in this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qQ3MEFnPoM

Ok, I just wanna say, Great job!. I love the Pikachu:Snake MU.
Just asking tho, when you had a grab, when snake was at like 30> Why didn't you CG?
That's what makes this MU even, is Pikachu's F-throw&D-throw CG on Snake
Anyway,Like LDPK said, with you're u-air's.Wafter the first U-air, you can use n-air, another u-air, f-air, or b-air depending on you're opponents position to you.. Also in the MU WATCH OUT FOR u-tilt,
That thing kills at like 115% Effing Scary.

In the MU, only things that you can rely on to kill snake, is gimping, and Thunder Spikeing,(if he is one of those snakes that recovers high)

Other wise, in this MU, just play it safe, and Alway avoid the nades xD

lol
anyway, great job tho :D

 

[altairian]

Do what you guys always do. I have lots of other matches I lost, but I clearly didn't do good in those like I did in this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qQ3MEFnPoM

Be careful being predictable with your SH Fairs. Right at the start you got some easy damage because you retreated an Fair back toward him and he tried to chase you. You did the same thing like 15 seconds later and he shieldgrabbed you. I think it happens again a couple times later on too where you're retreating an fair and he expects it or you just end up landing too close to him and he can easily ftilt you.

Also, there was one point where the snake dropped a nade at his feet and then immediately got a dthrow on you. Snakes will ALWAYS expect you to roll away. It's the natural reaction to avoid getting blown up by the nade. Standing up and shielding/jumping is probably going to be a better option than rolling, especially if you have the lower port (which you did in this match if I'm not mistaken?)

Try using more thunders when he's above you. Early in the game you had a really good one get effed over by the platform and got punished for it, and I think that scared you away from trying it again. You had a couple opportunities for thunders on the right side of the stage that you just kinda stood there and waited for him to come down. Even if you don't hit with it, thunder will make people be a lot more cautious when they're above you.

Just a few little nitpicky things I saw, hopefully it helps =)

 

[Legendary Pikachu]

Oooh! Oooh! me next! Do me! ^_^ (at least on the 2 that i lost... I'd like to hear other's opinions ^_^)

Duke 12/5 Biweeklies

Winners Finals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQZZR1x_LCA 1 LOSE
~ What I look like when I cannot read my opponent yet... *calibrating my sharingan ^_^*
$ Dedicated to anyone who likes to see me get beat up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpB7ldPRDbQ&feature=response_watch 2+3
~ Learned that this guy has a lil hard time against camping.... *I'm his worst possible opponent, then*
$ Dedicated to campers. QaC finish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2MDBX4Bcqc&feature=response_watch 4LOSE+5
~ Seen enough of his tricks... Witness me at the peak of my reading skills ^_^(match 5)
$ Match 5 is dedicated to Stealth Raptor

 

[PUNK9]

Oooh! Oooh! me next! Do me! ^_^ (at least on the 2 that i lost... I'd like to hear other's opinions ^_^)

Wow O.O Campyy xD
Lmao, I love fighting DK's, Even tho I never fight a 1/2 decent one.
Anyway. The only one I can bring up some advice from is the one that is dedicatied to campers.

Well first off, right from the start you started t-jolting, Great!!, but jump when you do them, It cancels alittle bit of the lag,

Also a saw a few times were you had a great set up for an n-air, f-smash, etc, but you just jumped away and sent another t-jolt. Whenever you have a set-up, go for it,

Like for example, you and DK were at the island part of Delfino, and you CG'ed DK one way, and when the island was starting to slope down, you just tryed to CG again, but he jumped out of it, that would have been the perfect time for an u-smash follow up, and then when you got him in a CG again going the other way, same thing. I ALWAYS end my f-throw's [[CG or not]] with a U-smash, It's guentreed %, (Depending on the % you're oppenetet is at anyway)

Um, Also, when you FF F-air, and you had teh chage to combo to a d-smash, or grab or something, you just jumped but and T-jolted.

Other wise, Great job tho *thumbs up*
You have an extremely Impressive Piakchu :D

 

[altairian]

Ummm LDPK my only advice is don't SD at 12%

And also you lost game 4 not game 3 :o

 

[bigman40]

Vs Albino
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mEX-9-jFDA

Vs Artdude
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qbRDVowoKc

Vs Musa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT7NnsiU-oE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YptaLMo1QnY

Matches just before I realized something very important about my style of play.

 

[gallax]

hey some quick things to incorporate into your style bigman:

1- when you get right behind your opponent and their back is facing you shield and wait for their spotdodge then its a free grab everytime. if they dont spotdodge they are either going to shield or run away. if you get hit by an attack that means either you forgot to put up your shield or you chose to get behind them at the wrong moment. and also watch out for OOS shiz if your opponent does shield and you havent grabbed in time

2- when ddd is in the air and u know hes going to be offensive you want to get right under them. they are either going to do 1 of three things(bair/inhale/airdodge into ground>grab/utilt) read your opponent and pshield the bair>grab or force an inhale and punish with something or dsmash if you dont think you can punish their airdodge into ground

3- never tjolt a ddd near the edge and DI towards them. its a free grab for d3 everytime. DI away and off the stage and use your amazing recovery to prevent any damage you may sustain from getting grabbed.

4- when grabbing the edge, if you want to use a quick move do not dair unless they are on the stage. just hit away and use your nair. its much faster and more knockback. plus it leaves you below the edge and gives you plenty of room for a safe recovery.

Edit:

Watched the rest of you videos and noticed a lot-

1- you never crossover your opponent(land behind them). learn to airdodge behind and different ways to get behind the opponent. watch some of esams vids. he does it a lot.

2- the snake didnt know how to shield tjolts. you should have recognized this and tjolted the entire time and run away. when you tried being aggro you were really predictable and easily punished. the snake wasnt too good at handling his nades either. that is totally your advantage. learn how to run up at the snake an p-shield his ftilt then spotdodge his second attempt(if he does it). everytime snake ftilts he moves towards the direction of the ftilt and its easy grabbing from there. snake is wrecked hard once you can grab him. up close the snake never predicted your shield and never grabbed you when you had a nade in your possesion or when a mortar was falling overhead. and i doubt he would have been able to grab you if you were shielding in front of him(baiting anything of course).

3- use different throws once your opponent is at high percents and pummel more. your fthrow was staled a lot and you forget about dthrow and bthrow and uthrow which would have put you in a better position and them at higher percents.

Edit 2:

1- I just realized another thing!!!! i never see you use your jab. you need to experiment with it and incorporate it.

2- a real nice spacing tool is dtilt>fsmash too. you'd be surprised how many times it works.

AND ANOTHER THING:

i dont see you reading your opponent. i just see you using pika and not reacting to your opponent. you need to start watching your opponent more intently and predict where they are going to land after being in the air or when they are going to shield or spotdodge, etc... i do see a lot of good stuff from you. but it could be better

 

[Legendary Pikachu]

what gallax said

I agree with not enough "reacting against" the opponents moves.

 

[bigman40]

****. Lots of info for me to take in when I play another tourney tomorrow. Either way, I'll have this college semester to practice up that stuff, and hopefully I'll get some improvement.

 

[gallax]

mos def bigman. i know you can do it and be a top player XD

hope you do well today too bro.

 

[Urban Menace]

Thanks LDPK, sry about sending the ones where i was winning...i just thought the falco matches would be better seen as a set, etc. So uhh..Sry about that and ill only send losses when i need help lol...Thanks again

 

[bigman40]

mos def bigman. i know you can do it and be a top player XD

hope you do well today too bro.

Does being first at a sucky turnout count (8 people)?


Anyways, Here are my matches in winner's finals. I know I need to work on my CG (I'm off timing right now). Just note other things that would help even though this Falco wasn't that......spectacular...

Winner's Finals (Crazy - Falco)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taeWqgfRqm8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0PL7aTzh0U

 

[gallax]

yeah that falco was a decent player. wasnt spectacular but there are very few great falcos out there. truthfully without that cg you wouldnt have beaten him bigman. its obvious that all you want is that grab and hes gonna make you miss quite often.

again you werent reacting to your opponent. you were just tjolting and he was finding ways to get you to tjolt then beat you after you did. and the falco was crossing you ever quite a bit. what you should have done was get away from him instead of spotdodging. a really good falco would have waited for it after he ftilted or whiffed his first grab. but he was smart enough to hold down jab button and make sure you wernt going to catch him in a bad spot.

you also need to work on your SDI. you shouldnt get hit by that many jabs in a row. you can also spotdodge all of falcos jab>grab

 

[bigman40]

I did the Tjolt intentionally to get my damage high to end his CG at 40%. I know I did it out of reaction at other times, but the initial times were for my benefit.

As for the grabs, I mainly kept going for it cause he only airdodged into the ground. That gave me a chance to continue my CGs if I missed. And he didn't mix it up at all each time he got out.

While I don't have good Falco exp, I still think I would've beaten him. The last match was example of it cause he picked it to stop me from CGing. I should've mentioned my intentions from the getgo since w/o any info, it just looks like I was playing dumb and straight forward. Nonetheless, I just want advice on predictable patterns (except the ones I did intentionally) that I need to fix. That would help me much more right now.

Edit: actually, I should've never put up these vids. They were nothing close to how I normally fight. Sorry for wasting people's time.

 

[gallax]

naw man these are actually good to watch. and looking back at them i saw ur intentions of grabbing when he was AD'ing into the ground and u were right trying to predict that and punish. also ill give it to ya with taking the laserz for damage so that the cg will be nulled. that was good stuff staying away at low percents.

ill look through them again though for ya bigguy and see if i can notice anything that u do.

 

[ElNoNombreHombre]

Alright. I finally got some videos to put up here. I feel like I've plateaued on my pika ability, so hopefully I can get some advice on how to start going back up again. Hopefully YouTube will be done chewing on them when someone goes to look at these.

Warning: They're all WiFi, and I don't have the homebrew channel on my Wii (yet, new SD card reader should allow me to rectify that), so all I have is the "live"recording. I'm still learning the tools I'm using, so a couple are a little off-sync with the audio.[/videographyjohns]

These were just a bunch of friendlies (though we were both going for critique material, so it should be reasonably demonstrative of our abilities), so there was no stage strategy (at least on my part), just "pick one and hope you get it."

ElNoNombreHombre vs. Sonic Storm

1. Round 1 - Pikachu vs. Sonic at Smashville
2. Round 2 - Pikachu vs. Pokémon Trainer at Pokémon Stadium 1
3. Round 3 - Pikachu vs. R.O.B. at Yoshi's Island (Pipes)
4. Round 4 - Pikachu vs. Sonic at Final Destination
5. Round 5 - Pikachu vs. Sonic at Delfino
6. Round 6 - Pikachu vs. Sonic at Battlefield
7. Round 7 - Pikachu vs. Sonic at Final Destination

Spoiler

And not to worry about having to critique wining videos... sheesh. I'm 1-9 against him when recording our fights.

If you're only going to look at one or two, my recommendation is rounds 1 and 5 (despite the video hiccup), in that order. I feel those are probably closer to me playing at my best (which isn't saying much). The last two were just... bleh.

Thank you in advance.

 

[PUNK9]

Alright. I finally got some videos to put up here. I feel like I've plateaued on my pika ability, so hopefully I can get some advice on how to start going back up again. Hopefully YouTube will be done chewing on them when someone goes to look at these.

Warning: They're all WiFi, and I don't have the homebrew channel on my Wii (yet, new SD card reader should allow me to rectify that), so all I have is the "live"recording. I'm still learning the tools I'm using, so a couple are a little off-sync with the audio.[/videographyjohns]

These were just a bunch of friendlies (though we were both going for critique material, so it should be reasonably demonstrative of our abilities), so there was no stage strategy (at least on my part), just "pick one and hope you get it."

ElNoNombreHombre vs. Sonic Storm

1. Round 1 - Pikachu vs. Sonic at Smashville
2. Round 2 - Pikachu vs. Pokémon Trainer at Pokémon Stadium 1
3. Round 3 - Pikachu vs. R.O.B. at Yoshi's Island (Pipes)
4. Round 4 - Pikachu vs. Sonic at Final Destination
5. Round 5 - Pikachu vs. Sonic at Delfino
6. Round 6 - Pikachu vs. Sonic at Battlefield
7. Round 7 - Pikachu vs. Sonic at Final Destination

Spoiler

And not to worry about having to critique wining videos... sheesh. I'm 1-9 against him when recording our fights.

If you're only going to look at one or two, my recommendation is rounds 1 and 5 (despite the video hiccup), in that order. I feel those are probably closer to me playing at my best (which isn't saying much). The last two were just... bleh.

Thank you in advance.

Ok, I onlt had time to watch one video, which was Round one, and I have alittle bit to say.

1. B-air, do not use it that much, I saw you get punished so many times for using it, DO NOT use it to approch. Which I saw you do at the begining of the match, Bad idea.

2. Recover low, Recovering low is the best thing for pikachu, (Imo) And go for the ledge, don't just land on the stage with all that lag from the free fall. If oyu are going to recover straight to teh stage and not the ledge, recover high, and QaC, into the stage and buffer a jump or something to make sure you have the least lag as possible. (but just fyi, don't do this all the time, very punishable.)

3. Around the 1 min mark. I saw that you hit Sonic into the air, and you jumped and d-air?. 80% of the time, just thunder in that situation, and the other 20 % bait the air dogde out of them and punish the air dodge.

4. I like the buffer N-air from the SH, very nice.

5. around the 3:30 mark, you had sonic in a grab and you f-throw him, and then you ran up to n-air him?. When You grab ANYONE, and thier at that low of a percent, (and you can't CG thenm) just f-throw<Up-smash, its free %, and when you have a 100% set up, go for it, dont try to mind game, all the time, go for the percent that you know you're going to get,

Over-all, Great Piakchu, just work on those things ;D

 

[gallax]

yeah one thing that i rarely see any pikas doing are crossovers. same with you hombre. crossovers such a great asset in fighting games like this thats its wise to use/abuse it

 

[ElNoNombreHombre]

Ok, I onlt had time to watch one video, which was Round one, and I have alittle bit to say.

1. B-air, do not use it that much, I saw you get punished so many times for using it, DO NOT use it to approch. Which I saw you do at the begining of the match, Bad idea.

Yeah, I knew this one was coming. I don't normally spam bair like that because I know how punishable it is (even if my opponents sometimes run away from it ). A good chunk of those, though, were me screaming "TURN AROUND PIKACHU!" because what I really wanted was a fair, but kept facing the wrong way. Though, I did intend a larger than usual usage of that move because of it's priority and I know Sonic > Pika in air priority.

It's a bad excuse, I know, but that's what was going through my mind at the time.

2. Recover low, Recovering low is the best thing for pikachu, (Imo) And go for the ledge, don't just land on the stage with all that lag from the free fall. If oyu are going to recover straight to teh stage and not the ledge, recover high, and QaC, into the stage and buffer a jump or something to make sure you have the least lag as possible. (but just fyi, don't do this all the time, very punishable.)

Yeah, I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking at the time. I got nothin'.

3. Around the 1 min mark. I saw that you hit Sonic into the air, and you jumped and d-air?. 80% of the time, just thunder in that situation, and the other 20 % bait the air dogde out of them and punish the air dodge.

I just remember thinking "thunder's not gonna work here" and tried something else due to not knowing what else to do. Any suggestions on how to implement that last 20% in that situation would be helpful.

4. I like the buffer N-air from the SH, very nice.

Thanks.... I just wish I knew what part of the match you were talking about (I assume it's somewhere between 1:00 and 3:30).

5. around the 3:30 mark, you had sonic in a grab and you f-throw him, and then you ran up to n-air him?. When You grab ANYONE, and thier at that low of a percent, (and you can't CG thenm) just f-throw<Up-smash, its free %, and when you have a 100% set up, go for it, dont try to mind game, all the time, go for the percent that you know you're going to get,

I do do this a lot, but I keep misjudging when I can and can't do it on which characters at what percents. I tend to get a lot of air with that. I just need to do it more, I guess.

Over-all, Great Piakchu, just work on those things ;D

I'm glad you think so. Hopefully one day I'll get up to micro-Anther competence.

yeah one thing that i rarely see any pikas doing are crossovers. same with you hombre. crossovers such a great asset in fighting games like this thats its wise to use/abuse it

Thanks for the pointer. I think I saw you (or someone) making a point of this earlier, so it has been on my mind, but old habits die hard (probably because I can't figure out how without getting killed in the process). I'll try to do that more.

I greatly appreciate the input so far. If anyone else wants to take the virtual red pen to my pika, please, be my guest.

 

[Pika_Cam]

yeah one thing that i rarely see any pikas doing are crossovers. same with you hombre. crossovers such a great asset in fighting games like this thats its wise to use/abuse it

Cross overs?

 

[ElNoNombreHombre]

Cross overs?

It's where you get behind your opponent, and they're caught looking the wrong way, I believe.

 

[gallax]

It's where you get behind your opponent, and they're caught looking the wrong way, I believe.

exactly. the character that exploits crossovers the best would have to be wario imo due to his horizontal mobility in the air.

with pika this can be just airdodging behind or spacing a fair so that when you land you get behind them or simply just landing behind them.

 

[Frio]

Well I'm back from taking a lil break from brawl. I got a match up I kinda need help with though :/.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1Rf99MyMt8

 

[Legendary Pikachu]

Well I'm back from taking a lil break from brawl. I got a match up I kinda need help with though :/.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1Rf99MyMt8

Matchup-wise, more grabs are always helpful. Most of the time, whenever you did some T-jolts to rush up u-smash or just a running surprise u-smash, MK would mostly shield them. Try mixing in some plain dashgrabs instead of u-smash and see if that helps.

Against that MK player specifically, I would bet money that pika's d-smash gets the MK player flustered. It feels like the opponent has a weakness against pika's d-smash because he rarely got out of d-smash instantly, got KO'd once, and always lost his momentum for a lil' bit after being spit out. I would suggest recognizing which opponents still get owned by d-smash and abuse it firmly against them when i get an opening.

As for the d-air camp, try going clear under (cuz MK is not likely to come falling d-air on you... it lags him slightly) and u-airing him. If not, an occasional QaC through and down-back will get the MK flustered sometimes when doing more d-air spam.

I feel that more grabs, abusing opponents weaknesses, and the right spacing/approach against d-air spam will give your game some new options. Feel free to tell us what works for you ^_^.

Also, I noticed you QA recovered over the stage instead of sweetspoting quite a few times. That would probably be the source of some trouble you've been experiencing. Try getting used to sweetspotting (so you don't kill yourself... let go of the down to sweetspot QA going downwards). As for any fear of getting gimped, you could input towards the ledge and buffer up everytime--that's what i do. Even if I buffer up after the side QA input, if it registers the sweetspot, then it'll sweetspot and i won't go up; if for some reason the opponent gets there first, the up buffer will register and you'll go up and all you have to do is DI the rest of the fall onto the stage and you're safe ^_^.