** OLD ** Official Pikachu Critique Thread

[Arikie]

Arkie,

Your Pikachu is great. I watched the first two matches with Marth and part of the first Snake match. I really can't think of anything to critique. You have good strategies, good tech skill, etc. All I can think to say is don't use skull bash to recover against Marth because he can gimp it pretty easily. Yet, you didn't even use skull bash that much in the matches.

Thanks, I'm getting ready to go to a tournament soon so I'm trying to see what my flaws are and who I'm best with.
The skull bash was an accident, I meant to QAC to the left back onto the stage. ( in the second video right?)

 

[Blitzmidfielder]

I can't QAC. The game doesn't like letting me do it. Maybe it's the controller...

Rewatching the videos, "GOD, I CAN FEEL THE CONTROLLER FAILURE".

 

[~Kyte]

no controller johns! >=(

 

[Piman34]

dont try to make me feel special kaylo, i'm on to you!!

 

[KayLo!]

Ok, so I kept forgetting about this thread..... x.x If any of the three people I missed would still like me to critique, just post a reply or PM me or something, and I'll get to it ASAP.

I would just do them all, but all of these videos are at least over a week old, and.... I dunno.... people improve pretty fast sometimes. You could all be pros by now. =O

 

[~Kyte]

so my pika got a bit better after gettin whipped by a few west coast pros... heres sum more recent stuff (there are sum lol what? moments, but i know wut they are =D)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4PxqMqgsEk&feature=channel_page - Vs Zelda Round 1
didnt do that great at first...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtBc1SRoBL4&feature=related - Vs Zelda Round 2
not much green green exp... it shows
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-soajPC3A0&feature=channel_page - Vs G&W round 1... smash spamming...unstoppable... 'dies'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEKO4XOv5oY&feature=related - Vs G&W round 2... seriously, how do you beat game and watch?!

there was supposed to be some vids of me doing pretty good against Waffz' link... but he refuses to post them cuz he dont like getting 2 stocked... ******* XD

 

[cllzzrd]

Hello other pika players. I would really like to become better at playing before I start going to tournaments this summer.

Also, sorry about all the background noise and conversations... we were playing in a classroom at school, and the teacher likes to give us grief.

vs. Pit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk4tcrv5OqQ

vs. Olimar - This is his best character
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59ZDg2V8MPg

vs. Lucario - Could someone explain if that was a glitch that killed me? I think the hitbox somehow reached underneath the stage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyW78Nyd49w

vs. DDD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxp5qivvI-Q

vs. Sheik/Zelda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_Q-ZiF_LWU

Any advice is welcome.

 

[~Kyte]

@cllzrd
ill only comment of the matchups i know anything about...

vs pit

you left yourself open to alot of punishment here, and had trouble ko'ing, also you defense was predictable.

well you dash attacked alot... thats really easily to predict and punish, try a SHFF fair, or pikastorming to mix it up, maybe even QAC if your confident with it.

as far as the killing goes, i personally use nair as my go-to kill move if i can it ***** face XD

oh, and less roll dodging

vs DDD

nice thunder ledgegaurding, not much that DDD could do against it, and if you jump first you could still hit him when he goes up real high.

you approach him really aggressively, and right in front of him, try to get behind him if you can, and stay away from the giant hammer >.<

on your chaingrab attempt to get him offscreen you hesistated a bit, he might have been able to get out with good DI

again, SH nair ***** face for killing people =O

vs sheik/zelda

try not to abuse pummel as much if your doing the chaingrab, i believe its 1 pummel per 25% to ensure they dont escape? someone correct me if im wrong on this one.

once he went zelda, you got camped very easily with the dins fire, skull bash and QAC are good options to get around this

when you dthrowed her at higher percents you tried to utilt, a uair will be alot more likely to hit her

lawl nice finish =D

but yeah, i dont know much about olimar, or lucario, and get whooped every time i face one... so ill refrain from commenting on those XD

overall though, try to tighten up your game, and make yourself harder to punish, also work on getting your kills

 

[cllzzrd]

@ ~Kyte

Thanks you very much! I hope to upload some more vids in a few weeks.

 

[~Kyte]

can't wait to see em! if only some of the better pika's remembered this thread exists... >.>

 

[Legendary Pikachu]

what?... do i count T_T.... what can i do? I just posted some videos on volt tackle tho... I need some critique on some of the close ones. I guess you could critique me here in this thread. :D

 

[KayLo!]

I remember. It just takes so long to do the critiques.... so I procrastinate.... x.x

I'll try to get it done tomorrow.

EDIT: LDPK, he means more people need to critique, not post videos, lol.

 

[~Kyte]

^^^^yup, it oughta be tough when its just kaylo doing it all the time -.- big props man

 

[Legendary Pikachu]

so my pika got a bit better after gettin whipped by a few west coast pros... heres sum more recent stuff (there are sum lol what? moments, but i know wut they are =D)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4PxqMqgsEk&feature=channel_page - Vs Zelda Round 1
didnt do that great at first...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtBc1SRoBL4&feature=related - Vs Zelda Round 2
not much green green exp... it shows
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-soajPC3A0&feature=channel_page - Vs G&W round 1... smash spamming...unstoppable... 'dies'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEKO4XOv5oY&feature=related - Vs G&W round 2... seriously, how do you beat game and watch?!

Zelda 1: Since you won, I kinda can't REALLY critique it. If its a playstyle that you like, just stick with it and make it work is what I'll say from the get-go. However, some things that may probe hlepful in maybe another zelda fight or something are the following:
1) Din's fire if you space right is almost no danger (u-air, n-air, d-air WILL cancel it out, possibly b-air too) if you autocancel these aerials (my pick is d-air most of the time cuz its not main killing move and it has sh autocancel) You can almost always get in Zelda's face and add a quick u-smash or pressure. I am a jolter so I try to play attrition (rack up damage) whenever i am afar. You should be in control of the spacing (i.e. if you go closer... its no because of Din's or that you have to... its because you're wanting to go over there and whoop! :D). If they are forced to come towards you, its all the more better. I think zelda without din's is a little weaker in offensive pressuring, so once you have her running over, your advantage .
2) Zelda's recovery is very... straightforward. I liked how you gimped the last stock and attempted to gimp earlier on. What i try to do is space myself to a point where they are paranoid that i'll speed hug the ledge, so they'll use fyore's more. Zelda's MUST sweetspot the edge, that or go over--if zelda's di'ing back, just stay within speedhugging distance and the zelda is left with 2 options, di/attack to snag/clear sweetspot area (which is real risky and most of the time results in zelda recovering from right below if you get the speed hug right), or zelda using fyore's wind prematurely attempting to go over stage. Regardless, i should normally be in a neutral position, and if they use fyore's early, i'll just techchase and do whatever (kill with thunder maybe?), if they get close, I speedhug/invincible release and attempt to gimp her last and most predictable recovery angle. Remember to never let them have a free recovery, either death or more damage every time they land back.
Good pika vs. Zelda match

Zelda 2:
1) Maybe use f-air>u-tilt/dsmash/grab more than f-tilt as it combos easier and you recover fast if you miss?
2) Space the zelda according to you will... lol. She banked at right side in hope of her d-smash's crazy horizontal knockback to kill you early. Either expect it coming and punish her, or get her off that platform. Remember, you can still t-jolt the crap out of zelda, and don't let nayru's love intimidate you. I do lots of t-jolts (what can i say... i'm a jolter ) just to get the zelda in a reflecting craze and toss in a double jump t-jolt (that'll MISS her nayru's) and ff f-air and resume comboing since nayru's love lags (more than shine anyways T_T).
I like the gimps on last stock still and you got the vertical recovery gimp down. Have you ever tried using empty jumps and airdodges and double jumps to fake out an opponent? Just try doing that for 1 of the stocks and see how confused an opponent can get. Adding your normal followups after those spacings will deepen your options and frustrate their reading your moves.

g&w critque will come later.... i needa go to class...

 

[Santi]

I'll try to get something soon to get critiqued.
I need a lot of help :/

 

[Legendary Pikachu]

Game & Watch 1:
1) True honesty... you will just have to get used to Game&watch's moves. Even if you know the matchup and what moves to do, the moves require certain timing/spacing and requires your knowledge of game&watches moves/tendencies/lag. If he's above you, i bet at least 70% of G&W's will d-air. Why outbeat it if you can slug him from the side on the ground with f-smash. This is where f-smash for spacing really come in handy cuz it either will hit the d-airing G&W (assuming I/you have spaced enough to not get hit by it or the 2nd landing hitbox) or hit him shielding and pushes him out of d-smashing you > nothing or win for you :D.
2) As for when he's above you, just bait his d-air by being underneath and rolling to a side, just plain walking and shielding, or jump at him and airdodge while di'ing to the side. Punish accordingly (remembering that any smash can come out shortly after d-air). For me, i find that t-jolts have highest precent chance of not getting bucketed here because: 1) They just assume pika's don't use t-jolts against them; 2) Their other moves afterwards will hit you hard if you try to punish their d-air (they think they can rarely be punshed so why not just smashspam against pika anyways?); just throw in free shocks here and they'll either stop d-airing spamming (which is still good for you) or they do the other option of bucketing (in which you don't t-jolt or give em a free smash b4 lag ends). Technically the match is kinda off in g&W's favor so mindgames will win the match anyways.
3) Your aerials are multiple hits and pika can run/jump about as fast as G&W if not maybe faster, try to either wait until AFTER G&W's moves end/lag or assault and hit him BEFORE the move actually comes out. Need semi-ninja-like reflexes.
4) About the b-air... if you quarter DI or auto-DI, you'll likely dodge the last hit. Aim t-jolts at G&W's head if he's going offense (which will stop the b-air) or running/sliding shield doublejump-fastfall f-air in when he's doing a retreating b-air.

Needa to go brawl... i'lll add more later

 

[KayLo!]

Late critiques ftw.

@Kroova: I PM'd you with my short(ish, lol) critique, which iirc you received.
@Arikie: I think I remember your saying you're getting new vids soon, so I didn't critique yours. Can't wait for the new ones!
@Blitz: This is later than I intended, but I critiqued your vids anyway since you said you don't get to play often.

The people I'm critiquing in this post are: Blitzmidfielder, ~Kyte, and cllzzrd. I'm posting each complete critique as I go along, so if you don't see yours, come back in a bit and I'll probably have edited yours in.

Blitzmidfielder:

Kk, finished watching all your vids. Your Pika's pretty decent, and even better is that your videos generally got better and better as they progressed. A lot of the constructive criticism I wrote during the first match didn't apply as much during later ones, which means that you can recognize your mistakes and improve from match to match. That's a very good thing.

Here's my general critique. Match-specific comments will follow:

• Firstly, work on QAC -- its execution and your use of it. Not only did you mess up a lot (practice in training mode until you get it down!), but you QAC too aggressively and too often. You got punished for it a few times, and better players will punish you nearly every time.
  
  QAC is mainly a movement, recovery, and mindgaming tool for Pikachu. Against Ike and Bowser both (I didn't notice it with Falcon), you would QAC through them multiple times..... the pitiful damage that QA does to the opponent isn't worth the retaliation you'll get, especially from such heavy hitters.
  
  Don't focus on QAC so much. Develop the rest of your game first, and you'll be able to better realize where you can incorporate this very situational tech.
  
  
• You pause. A lot. After making a hit, you tend to just stop and stand there, which makes you an open target and interrupted a lot of your combos. Practice getting fluid with Pika's attack strings so that you can seamlessly go from one move to the next.... and just speed up your game in general. If you're not attacking, try to keep moving so that you're not a standing target for the other player. Jump back, tjolt, run forward, run back.... make smart decisions about where to move, but keep it movin' nonetheless.
  
  
• Too much usmash. It's got a lot of startup lag, making it easily shieldgrabbed, and utilt is usually a better option. Usmash is better saved as a kill move only, although using it on Bowser at very very low percentages was okay since it chains into other moves and even itself on heavies. (Imo utilt is still better, though.)
  
  
• You use ftilt very well, which is impressive. A lot of people forget about it in favor of fsmash, but ftilt is faster and has pretty good knockback.... it's a great move if you know how to use it. Good job!
  
  
• Mix up your ledge game. You nearly always ledge attack, but Pika has plenty of ways to get off the ledge.... rolling, QAC, ledgehopped aerials, etc. If you always ledge attack, your opponent will quickly realize this and shieldgrab you every time.
  
  
• Punishing.... you need to speed up your punishment game. When your opponent whiffed an attack or didn't space well, you would often just wait for him to get back to a neutral position before attacking again. Don't give him that luxury. If the other player messes up, punish with a grab, fsmash, or whatever during their lag to keep the pressure on them and make it harder for them to get their momentum back.
  
  Example: first match vs. Bowser @1:02, he charged an fsmash while you were behind him, and you just rolled away.
  
  
• Too much dash attack and too much bair. Dash attack has poor knockback, damage, and cooldown lag, so it's almost never a good choice. Bair is one of my favorite moves with Pika, but when your opponent is in the air above you, uair > fair or uair > nair is usually better.... at the very least, you can do uair before you bair.
  
  Also remember that bair can be DI'd out of and punished, but since your opponent didn't seem to do this, I guess it was appropriate for damage racking. Just know that it won't be as great of an option against better players.
  
  (It's still hella fun, though, and can be used.... just not so often.)
  
  
• Work on DI & momentum canceling so you can live longer. Stealth Raptor wrote an excellent section about it in the Generating A Win guide: http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=225527
  
  
• You roll a lot. Sometimes I wasn't sure why you were rolling.... try not to do it unless you have a reason for doing so, because rolling/spotdodging is very punishable if you abuse either one.
  
  
• For regular, unbuffered dthrow CGs, don't pummel in-between grabs. Your friend didn't break out of them, but he could have at some points because you were refreshing the grabs' knockback with pummels. You want your grabs to be as stale as possible for unbuffered CGs -- counterintuitive, I know.
  
  
• Your combo game is decent, but you can extend some of your combos to rack up more damage. Fair > grab > dthrow > reverse utilt > uair > uair/nair/fair works really well, especially on heavies like Bowser.... sometimes you can even get in two utilts before you uair at low percentages. Remember that uair combos into itself, after which you can usually hit them with nair or even fair to start the process all over again.
  
  
• Lastly, always remember to practice good spacing. Your fair spacing is actually really good, but you tend to tjolt close to the opponent where they can easily punish you if you miss or if they shield/powershield the jolt. You also missed a few usmashes, which left you wide open. Know the range of Pika's attacks and your opponent's so that you can attack safely and not put yourself in a horrible position if you whiff.

And now, match-specific comments:

Match 1 vs. Bowser
- You did a good job camping/combo'ing Bowser through the platforms in the very beginning.
- @3:00: nice jab > trip > fsmash, hehe.
- When you usmash > thunder, the opponent is going to DI usmash 99% of the time, so thundering in place won't work. You'll have to chase them with either QAC > thunder or walking/running and then thundering.
- You should have grabbed more this match, especially to punish all of his Fortressing, dsmashing, and fsmashing.
- Excellent use of ftilt.
- Bowser can't do much about thunder when he's in the air. Use it more against him.

Match 2 vs. Bowser
- Fthrow CG on Bowser would have worked better.
- More grabs/combos would have made this match easier for you.
- You would fair and then shield a few times when you could have grabbed or utilted after the fair.
- Learn to avoid Bowser's smashes. Pika's light, so he dies really early against Bowser, especially without proper DI & momentum canceling. You can't afford to get hit so often!
- Lol @ the ending.
- During this match and the next one, you started using thunder vs. Bowser more. Yay!

Match 3 vs. Bowser
- Your grab usage really started to get better in this match. Very good.
- You also started comboing out of fair more often. Also good!
- There were still moments where you could have extended your combos, but you did much, much better than in the previous two matches.

Match 4 vs. Falcon
- When dthrow CGing Falcon, don't pummel. He could have gotten out sooner if he'd DI'd away and jumped or DI'd into you and footstooled.
- Edgeguard Falcon! His recovery isn't so great, so it's relatively easy to keep him off the stage. Just don't get stage spiked by his up-b.

Match 5 vs. Ike
- Waaay too much QAC in the beginning.
- CG, camp, or get inside and combo Ike.... don't try to fight him at mid-range because he outranges Pika by far.
- I didn't really try to critique this video much because, no offense, but your friend's Ike didn't seem to be as good as his other characters.

Overall, decent Pika. Record more videos when you can and post them so we can see your improvements!

~Kyte:

(To be added soon.)

cllzzrd:

(To be added soon.)

 

[Arikie]

I have new friendlies, these are from last Friday. although on Saturday I went to a tourney(TAG monthlies XX) and got a bit better, these still show my current skill.

Critique/rate/watch/etc please and thankyou for you're time =D
If you don't like the sound/music/whatever just mute it and listen to something else.
Uploaded in HD. If you want to add annotations just ask me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erwzYJKtkwU&feature=channel_page
pikachu-lucario(tman) smashville

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D5kumr-TJg&feature=channel_page
pikachu-lucas(pain) FD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvrEUgd1LbM&feature=channel_page
pikachu ditto final destination blue=(Arikie) green=(DS/ninja)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSP5sK5jhTI&feature=channel_page
lucario(tman)-pikachu

 

[stevensteve]

kaylo, u seem to give really good advice. do u have any vids of yourself playing? i am interested in watching them :-)

 

[KayLo!]

I didn't forget about your critiques, guys. I'm just being hella slow with them..... x.x

kaylo, u seem to give really good advice. do u have any vids of yourself playing? i am interested in watching them :-)

I don't have any recent vids, unfortunately. The only ones of me on YouTube are from when I first started playing Smash competitively, so I really, really suck in them compared to where I am now.

I'll try to get some recorded this weekend.

 

[IxxI]

Yeah. He doesn't really respect me, but I want to help him. As a result, he doesn't take the advice I give him. Maybe some advice from his fellow pikachu mains will help.
These are relatively old videos, but he hasn't improved at all. Please leave critique.

12/19/09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxBJPPnK4gw&feature=channel_page

3/19/09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJYvOM_IxQA

 

[Mokbi7]

I have a capture card match that i found
could someone give there insight on this

 

[King~]

eh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23K38YvkC4E

sigh, got worked both of my last stocks

 

[Mokbi7]

aha alright here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEzdxVcouwI

 

[Bruce]

eh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23K38YvkC4E

sigh, got worked both of my last stocks

You never really utilized your QAC. You always just let yourself hit the ground, when several times what you should've done was full hopped a reversed tjolt or done a quick nair, or perhaps QAC'd again to safety to set up a tjolt and a new approach.

 

[Mokbi7]

You never really utilized your QAC. You always just let yourself hit the ground, when several times what you should've done was full hopped a reversed tjolt or done a quick nair, or perhaps QAC'd again to safety to set up a tjolt and a new approach.

i usually do most of the time but when in battle something totally else comes to mind
ill work on that more thanx

 

[Pika_Cam]

Yeah. He doesn't really respect me, but I want to help him. As a result, he doesn't take the advice I give him. Maybe some advice from his fellow pikachu mains will help.
These are relatively old videos, but he hasn't improved at all. Please leave critique.

12/19/09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxBJPPnK4gw&feature=channel_page

3/19/09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJYvOM_IxQA

Ok, I know this is a little bit late in coming, but I just noted a few things that would help your friend.

First of all, he does moves he can be easily punished far too much. He smashes most of the time instead of using tilts, although I did notice some tilts incorporated into his game. He needs to conserve his smashes so they don't go stale, like when you got to very high percents with Snake. He uses too much thunder on the ground, and when he tried to make a wall with it, he put himself on the wrong side of said wall. If he's going to do that, he needs to make sure there are no platforms underneath and that you are on the opposite side of the thunder so you won't be able to approach him very easily. Also, he consistently finishes his quick attack in midair and gets punished. I don't think he knows how to quick attack cancel, so he may want to look that up and practice it. He uses senseless skull bashes that also get him punished. Teach him to only use that when recovering. Most of the match, all you had to do was wait for him to attack your shield or do a laggy move to get in a free grab or hit. He may want to play more defensively.

Against Snake, he can chaingrab, which I don't remember him ever doing.

Other than than, he needs to learn more combos that set up pika to get the kill. He also needs to learn to bait and predict his opponents better.

 

[Rocky18]

youtube disabled my music so i uploaded it again.In this multicharcter combo video there is a pikachu version.pls comment my pikachu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybYZgbaml_Y

 

[M15t3R E]

Rocky18, when you post videos here we expect them to be matches in which you use Pikachu and you are looking for constructive criticism. Not much for us to tell you about this video since it doesn't fit the description.
.
.
.
Nice music, though.

 

[Rocky18]

i made a new thread but a mod closed the thread and told me to post it here

 

[Stealth Raptor]

my kahoka vids will be up soon, including my mm's with anther. i thought i got 2 stocked way more then i did o.o

 

[PikaPika!]

Me vs Chibo's Rob in a MM @ apex
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV0fur_Q724

 

[KayLo!]

Big Belated Critique Post.

Super late, but I went back and critiqued everyone that I missed no matter how old the videos were. If what I said no longer applies, ignore it, but hopefully I can help everybody at least a little bit.

Still working on getting some replays of myself recorded, btw. Everything I have on my Wii atm is either really old or wifi matches.

The people included in this critique are:
~Kyte
cllzzrd
Arikie
Jedstwiilite
King Yoshi
PikaPika!

People who I DID NOT critique are:
Mokbi7: You were playing a CPU, so I didn't watch your match. Come back with vids versus a human player.
Rocky18: It was a combo vid, and in the first 30 seconds, I saw no Pika, so I didn't finish watching. Come back with videos of actual matches.

Now, the critiques!

~Kyte
General Summary: Your Pika's decent. There are definitely things you need to work on, but imho you have a lot of potential to be good if you iron out a few of your more problematic habits.

• First off, you have a classic rolling/spotdodging habit. I always feel bad saying this to people, because I have it too, but it's a horrible, horrible habit that will get you heavily punished by skillful players..... I know this from much experience. In particular, you tend to roll back and forth through your opponent a lot when you get forced into close-range combat, which makes you a prime target for dsmashes and reverse fsmashes.
  
  Break the habit ASAP.
  
  
• You use your tilts well, especially ftilt. A lot of better Pikas neglect this move, so kudos for incorporating it into your game.
  
  That being said, although I like your fair > ftilt combo, you use it perhaps a little too often. Mix up your fair followups according to the character and the situation (i.e., are you going for damage racking? the kill? etc.)
  
  
• Sometimes you'll repeat moves several times in a row even after they whiff.... I saw it happen with utilt, fsmash, and nair. Unless you're doing it for a reason (advanced mindgames?), never repeat moves if they don't work the first time, especially laggy moves like fsmash.
  
  
• After you get hit, you tend to always DI back towards your opponent. It's a common thing for inexperienced players to do (even I still do it a lot)..... but when the other player knows you're going to come back towards them, it makes it that much easier for them to hit you.
  
  
• You SD a lot.
  
  
• Your combo ability: I have a feeling you know what Pika's combos are, but you have a hard time executing them fluidly. Often you'd try to continue a combo, but you'd pause and therefore do the next move too late or try to go for something past the percentage where it will work.
  
  Practice getting Pikachu's various low-percentage combos down on different characters, then once you can do them all without having to pause and think about it, practice following your opponents' DI and adapting to what they do. It's the best way you're gonna be able to rack up lots of damage quickly at low percentages.
  
  
• Work on proper momentum canceling and not wasting your second jump during your recovery.
  
  
• Mix up your approaches. Especially in the G&W match, you approach with fair nearly all of the time, which is extremely punishable on block if you don't cross it through your opponent. Predictable = bad. It's harder to set up approaches with tjolt against opponents like G&W and Zelda, but try SH'd dairs, dtilt OoS, or baiting with retreating fairs/dairs and punishing their reaction.

Match-Specific:

vs. Zelda 1
- You spent a lot of time in the air above Zelda, which is the LAST place you want to be. Focus more on getting her in the air above you, because she's very vulnerable from below.
- Around the 2:00 mark, you did a pretty good job punishing Zelda's attempts to get back to the stage.
- Too much dash attack. It sucks, don't use it.
- Bait Zelda's reflector. It has hella cooldown lag, so you can abuse this and use it to rack up free damage.
- Honestly, had your opponent been better at recovery, they probably would have won.
- You did the roll-through-the-opponent thing a lot here, which caught you a few dsmashes to the face.

vs. Zelda 2
- Lol, Green Greens.
- More dtilt would be useful against Zelda. Many times you'd end up at dtilt-range from her but opt for rolling into her or whiffing a grab instead.
- You bair into the ground a lot. The hitbox right before it hits the ground surprises a lot of opponents, but it's still very laggy and easily punished. If you're gonna bair, do it on a full hop so that you'll land laglessly.
- Your dsmash > thunder was nice! Realizing your opponent can't DI out of dsmash is like a gift on Christmas. =X
- If you play this Zelda often, learn to DI out of her smashes, especially fsmash (which is MUCH easier to DI than usmash). If you SDI down on usmash's first hit, you can often end up next to her and punish.

vs. G&W 1
- Learn how to tech dthrow consistently. It makes fighting G&W 10000x easier. (Okay, maybe not that much, but it definitely helps.)
- Remember that his fsmash lingers. Don't run into the end of it.
- @0:23, you... fell into G&W's fair?
- You tend to use laggy moves right in G&W's face, and with his spammable, powerful smashes, that's not a good thing. In the beginning of the match alone, you used a non-canceled dair, Skull Bash, and dash attack at close proximity.... way too punishable.
- At around :57, you dsmashed and missed the thunder kill opportunity afterwards. Then you tried to follow usmash with thunder, but usmash is madd easy to DI..... better thunder setups are utilt and the last hit of dsmash.
- Around 1:20, you got caught up in ledge shenanigans. Don't jump into the ****; instead, let go of the ledge at a backwards angle, jump away, and QA back to the stage OR ledge attack/roll through his dtilt.
- @2:00, you missed your utilt followup.
- Later in the match, you got into a much better groove with your combos and did pretty well.

vs. G&W 2
- Still using too many laggy moves at close range.
- @0:37, if you're going to bait G&W's bucket and fill it some, it's generally better to wait until higher %s where you can punish with a killing move and take a stock off.
- @1:30, you uthrow'd and then did.... nothing? He was in hitstun long enough to get off a thunder kill, or you could have punished his bucket pull.
- However, good job getting the nair kill soon after!

cllzzrd
General Summary: Oookie, I was a little confused by your videos, actually. For one, your matches were played with four stocks, which on its own isn't too strange but..... after watching for a bit, I questioned whether you'd turned up the damate ratio for these games. o.O Some moves seemed to kill extremely early, and it wasn't clear whether it was because of very bad DI or increased damage.

Either way, I did a very general critique for you, because if you did turn up the damage, that changes things a lot. If it was just weird DI, I'll go back and redo your critique on request.

• The biggest thing I noticed was that your primary moves seem to be roll and dash attack. This is very, very bad. Pikachu has a lot of low-percentage combos, a very good grab game, excellent bait & punish options..... and dash attack fits into none of these. It's laggy, does little damage, has no followups, and when combined with an overabundance of rolling (which is also extremely punishable), you leave yourself wide open at every turn of the match.
  
  Control the urge to roll. It has its place, but Pika -- just like any other character -- has plenty of better movement options.
  
  And don't use dash attack. It's balls.
  
  
• Pit isn't heavy, so you can't double utilt him. Continue the combo with uair.
  
  
• You did extremely well DI'ing out of Pit's jab and Angel Ring, but again, this could have been a side effect of increased damage....
  
  
• Learn how to DI properly. You almost died by Pit's ftilt at 90% from the middle of Battlefield, and the angle you got launched at was pretty funky. Once again, I'm not sure if you turned up the damage, but this and other moments seemed a little strange.
  
  
• Against Pit, you actually did pretty well stringing attacks together and using Pika's full moveset. My guess is that because of Battlefield's platforms, Pit ended up above you a lot, giving you chances to utilize moves like uair, bair, and nair.
  
  
• Control your tjolt use a little better. Sometimes you'd let Battlefield's platforms get in your way, which left you open in tjolt's cooldown lag.
  
  
• Work on your QA control. You messed up QA/QAC a fair amount of times.
  
  
• Good ftilt use in the match vs. Pit, but try to incorporate more dtilt. It's faster than fsmash but still has pretty good range.
  
  
• Aside from the match vs. Pit, your Pika is too grounded. Pikachu has a fairly good aerial game..... his air attacks are speedy and string together well, so get comfortable with it and learn how to use it. You did much better in the Pit match when the platforms forced you both into the air at times.
  
  
• Learn when to thunder. You whiffed a lot of them.

Arikie
General Summary: I have some bad news for you, Arikie.

At first, I watched your old videos and critiqued those by accident, then realized my mistake and moved on to the new ones. And I gotta say: compared to your level of skill before, it almost seems like you've gotten a little worse between the two sets of vids.

I think your problem is that you're playing too many opponents who let you get away with things. You didn't lose in any of your recent videos, even two-stocking in most of them, but the fact is that if you keep playing people who are obviously far below you in skill, you'll fall into some very bad habits and probably fall victim to predictability. Then, when you play more experienced opponents, you'll get completely buttraped.

In your older vids, your combo game was good, and your punishing grab game was pretty on point. In your newer vids.... not so much. You got very repetitive and extremely campy, and your playstyle as a whole morphed into one that will not be effective in a more serious competitive environment.

My suggestion? Play better people and record matches of yourself losing. That's the only way we can accurately critique you. It's hard to analyze your skill when you're sandbagging and winning with scrub tactics.

This isn't meant to be offensive. I just hate to see a Pika with such potential not playing to his highest ability.

Now, your critique:

• Work on implementing proper momentum canceling into your game. It'll help you live a lot longer.
  
  
• You've gotten extremely campy. Your game is now mostly composed of: spotdodge, roll, tjolt, thunder, and dsmash. This will not work against good opponents, especially those who play characters with absorbers/reflectors and people who can powershield consistently. Not only that, but tjolt and thunder have lots of cooldown lag, and dsmash is easily DI'd out of.
  
  Pikachu has so much more to his playstyle. I know you know this, because you used nearly the full range of his moveset in your earlier videos. Go back to doing that even against less skilled opponents, because if you start sandbagging and playing down at their skill level, it'll eventually become habit. Better opponents will take advantage of that.
  
  
• Less spotdodge > dsmash. It works, but eventually they'll catch on and punish the spotdodge.
  
  
• There's not much more I can say because, like I said, you played very campy and didn't work with much of what Pikachu has. I also stopped watching after the second match because your opponents were obviously much worse than you.

Match-Specific:

vs. Lucario 1
- Too much roll/spotdodge. Lucario has those firey, lingering hitboxes, so spotdodging and rolling around him is a dangerous habit (and not good in general anyway).
- Too much camp, but he let you get away with it.

vs. Lucas
- I was interested to see if you'd camp less since Lucas can absorb, but you still used WAY too much tjolt and thunder. Again, he let you get away with it.
- Saw a mini-jab edgeguard.... nice.
- This Lucas sucks at recovery.

Jedstwiilite
General Summary: Pika needs work. Imo, in general, you don't seem to have very good control over your character.... you like to throw out a lot of random attacks and just sort of hope that they hit or that your opponent will fall into them. I can see that you're trying, though, and that you have an idea of what you should be doing..... you just need to work on translating that knowledge into skill in the actual game.

• Against Snake, you never really seemed to be conscious of where the explosives were. You got blown up a lot, which is a problem, because Snake racks up damage at a much higher rate than Pikachu does -- and he takes a lot longer to die. You MUST avoid getting hit by his mines and grenades and tilts as much as possible, because after relatively few hits, you're in kill range.
  
  Just remember to keep an eye on the entire field and remember where he's dropped C4s, planted dsmashes, etc. Don't get mindgamed into them, and don't run into them thinking, "Oh, it's just one grenade." It makes a difference.
  
  
• Like I mentioned before, you have poor control over Pikachu in general. Your QA skill leaves a lot to be desired, and you made a lot of mistakes like reverse tjolting by accident or Skull Bashing or jabbing when you clearly meant to do something else.
  
  Work on getting your character to do exactly what you want him to do. You can't afford mistakes like this, especially against heavy hitters like Snake.
  
  
• You throw out a lot of moves at random, even when your opponent is on the other end of the stage. I noticed this a lot with thunder: you'd thunder from far away, maybe hoping that he'd just run into it??
  
  That doesn't work, unfortunately. (I wish it did!) If you're going to mindgame someone into thunder or fsmash or whatever, you have to set it up. If you're trying to bait a reaction, you generally have to make it look like you're in range when you're really at a safe distance...... halfway across the field is way, way too far and nowhere near believable.
  
  
• You whiffed a lot of laggy moves right in Snake's face. Non-canceled dairs, bairs into the ground, grounded tjolts.... you were very ftilt fodder for Snake way too many times.
  
  
• Less Skull Bash for recovery. Generally, QA > Skull Bash unless you're momentum canceling, recovering way up high, or know for a fact that they can't get there in time to punish its ridiculous cooldown lag.
  
  
• Roll spam is bad.
  
  
• You want to keep Snake in the air as much as possible. His ground game beats Pikachu's, imo, so unless you're going for grab ****, try to utilt or dthrow him above you and harass with uair combos. Also abuse his bad recovery.
  
  
• I saw that you were trying to go for combos, especially out of your grabs, but you're just not fluid enough at it yet. Work on it, and when you get a grab on Snake, either CG him or combo the hell out of him while you can. Pika needs all the damage on him he can get.
  
  
• As far as actually getting grabs, you need to be faster with your grab punishment. Many times you were too slow, and the lag from a missed grab usually means eating an ftilt/utilt.
  
  
• Too much running usmash. Easily shielded and punished. Only use it as a surprise kill move or to punish very laggy whiffed attacks.

Match-Specific:

vs. Snake 1
- Grounded tjolts vs. Snake aren't the best idea..... in fact, grounded tjolts in general aren't something you wanna use too often.
- You did well edgeguarding Snake at ~1:35ish, but you staled your nair. Against a fatty like Snake, that's a bad thing.
- Stage spike at the end.....

vs. Snake 2
- You had some thunder setups, but weirdly, when you actually should use thunder, you hesitate.... =O
- Uhh, don't get your shield broken by grenades.

King Yoshi
General Summary: You're a scrub. GTFO.

Jkjk. <3 You actually didn't do that badly against Olimar, you just.... made mistakes and got punished for them. You pretty much seem like you know how the matchup works, tbh, so most of what I'm gonna say will probably be old news for you.

• Be careful about whiffing attacks in Oli's face (dsmash, nair, fair). You'll get grabbed.
  
  
• Don't chase/run after Olimar. His pivot grab ***** children.
  
  
• Learn which way to DI his different attacks (even though they all look the same......... ). I feel like you could have lived fairly longer if you'd had better DI -- minus the weird kills like the walkoff on Delfino and the spike.
  
  
• I could tell you were trying to keep Olimar in the air above you, which is the correct thing to do. Good jarb. You also did really well punishing him with grabs.
  
  
• When you get nervous at close range, you fall into a spotdodging habit. It wasn't major, but it's something you should watch out for in the future.

Match-Specific:

vs. Olimar 1
- Very nice first kill.
- Skull Bash ftl @ the end of your first stock.
- You were doing sooo well, but then.... you.... got spiked. That sucks.

vs. Olimar 2
- @End of first stock: oh god, super hax-range hitbox on Olimar's usmash.
- Ouch. You got really badly punished for a string of whiffed attacks at the end of your second stock near the walkoff.
- Beginning of Oli's last stock: lol, don't try to grab during his invincibility.... XD

PikaPika!
General Summary: Watch out for those nairs.

 

[bigman40]

Some videos so I can get some tips. He's still young and undeveloped, but I'm working on it.

This is from friday against BigLou.

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

I have 2 more uploading that are a tad older (about 5/6/09).

These two are gainst my friend, we play each other constantly during college (lol 8 months of playing each other) so we know each other's games inside out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akNPznDfghQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8JgXIfQTM8

If these two aren't working when you click them, check again later. They're probably still processing.

 

[Trypt]

Pikachu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egpNKxmz4R4

The channel is youtube.com/sinowns

More will be uploaded later, thanks.

 

[M15t3R E]

Bigman- I believe you have great control over your Pikachu (err... Raichu). It's good that you keep constantly moving to put your opponent on edge. Do try to attack more from the air, though. Also, on the ground, space more with dtilt.

Trypt- Not much I can tell ya. You tend to throw out random attacks like mistimed thunders and charged skullbashes from across the stage and it makes me wonder if you're just playing around. Not trying to be mean, but watch Pika videos we have in our archive and try to get a feel for Pikachu.

 

[Kirin]

Bigman I just have to comment and say that I really like your Pikachu. I watched all three videos and enjoyed them all. Great work, but possibly try setting up for more Thunder kills? Your opponents often lived to high percentages, and I think you could have taken them out earlier with a well-timed Usmash > Thunder. I could be wrong though.

 

[gallax]

so bigman. i was watching your vid vs biglou and i noticed a few things that need work. but before i get into it i just wanna say that you have a very very good pikachu. biglou is just amazing at reading people and executing attacks.

the most important thing you need to work no more is your DI. i noticed a few times where you could have DI'ed away a little better and gotten out of a few attacks. watch your DI and try to stay away from luigi since he does outprioritize us. and same with your DI/momentum canceling. immediately uair>skullbash if you think you are gonna die. you could have survived longer with your first stock.

i wanna see moer spam!!! im implying your tjolt. XD

a few more things i would like to see more of: oos nair &pikastorming & DSMASH
if you add these to you arsenal your pika will improve dramatically. adding an oos game to your game will give you a ridiculous boost in your metagame. and pikastorming is awesome to learn in general and for mindgames damaging and edgeguarding mindgames. also, use your dsmash more. it comes out really fast and punishes laggy moves really well. it doesnt matter if he can di out of it. its still really good to use. example, @ 3:01 you should have dtilted or DSMASHED.

another thing that i realize is that you are really predictable recovering from the ledge. if you watch your vid again notice how biglou spaces himself back from the ledge so your fair's wont hit him. he just waits till its safe then bam. a dair or w/e he does to you to knowck you back. try jumping off and tjolting a few times and qac up and over him too. or just jump and land on the stage in front of him. airdodge onto if you want.

do these things and i guarantee you will be as good//if not better than biglou. you alreasy have your fsmash spacing and dtilt usage down and a great utilt combo game. your fair's are space omg so well.

 

[bigman40]

Post

I'll be sure to work on my air approaching. Thx.

Post

Thx. I'm normally used to waiting till high percents since I main Yoshi (can't kill efficently till 150%). So, it kinda transgressed into my Pika. ^_^;

i wanna see moer spam!!! im implying your tjolt. XD

a few more things i would like to see more of: oos nair &pikastorming & DSMASH
if you add these to you arsenal your pika will improve dramatically. adding an oos game to your game will give you a ridiculous boost in your metagame. and pikastorming is awesome to learn in general and for mindgames damaging and edgeguarding mindgames. also, use your dsmash more. it comes out really fast and punishes laggy moves really well. it doesnt matter if he can di out of it. its still really good to use. example, @ 3:01 you should have dtilted or DSMASHED.

another thing that i realize is that you are really predictable recovering from the ledge. if you watch your vid again notice how biglou spaces himself back from the ledge so your fair's wont hit him. he just waits till its safe then bam. a dair or w/e he does to you to knowck you back. try jumping off and tjolting a few times and qac up and over him too. or just jump and land on the stage in front of him. airdodge onto if you want.

My pikastorming is kinda slow (I think I'm a frame or 2 slow when pushing the C-stick), and my Nair timing isn't too great. I'll be working on those.

For your example, that was a Dsmash lol. Look again at what happened. I Uair baited into a Dsmash; I just did it at the tip of it's range.

And good point on the recovery. I just truly noticed it, and I see where most of my dmg/deaths came from. Gotta work on it and not die soo much x_x

 

[Kirin]

I got some videos up for critiquing. Unfortunately, I have no one to play against at the moment, so I had to play against level 9 CPUs. Hopefully you all can still give me some advice, as I'd like to get some before this Saturday, when I'm going to a tournament.

I have not been able to find out how to get the extended replays yet, so these all had to be under 3 minutes. Because of this, I only played to 2 stocks to try to fit them in. After I had saved a few, I recorded them with my camera and put them on Youtube. Here they are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KYhlhOyG2k (vs CPU Wolf)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnqSvfrZqhI (vs CPU Marth)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWItQcd5ODE (vs CPU G&W)

I made some stupid mistakes, namely the times I suicide in the Wolf and Marth matches, but I've never done that in a real tournament. Thanks for any critique you all can give!