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Pichu in Ultimate: Joke character again or Buffed?

Sean Wheeler

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My best hopes would be that Pichu's attacks deal stronger knockback to compensate for the damage penalty. The attacks don't necessarily have to deal more damage than Pikachu's attacks, however. The knockback increase would also reference Pichu's Pokedex entries in that it can't store electricity very well, and can give even adult humans a big shock.

For one example, Pichu's Thunder could deal 15% damage, just like Pikachu's Thunder. However, Pichu's Thunder would deal stronger knockback (maybe something like 60 BKB and 90 KBG) to compensate for the 2.9% damage penalty that Pichu receives.
Yeah, that could work. I mean, if they don't change up Pichu to have some advantages, he would end up on the bottom of the tier list. Actually, maybe he should still be bottom tier so that players could humiliate players who main top tier characters.
 

MERPIS

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Yeah, that could work. I mean, if they don't change up Pichu to have some advantages, he would end up on the bottom of the tier list. Actually, maybe he should still be bottom tier so that players could humiliate players who main top tier characters.
Just looking at pichu now, I can tell you he won't be bottom tier he has way too many things
 

Starbound

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In Mewtwo's clip, Pichu is chasing him and catches up really quick while both characters are in full dash and Mewtwo has a substantial lead in distance.

In Melee, Pichu was slower than Pikachu for whatever stupid reason. But now it seems like Pichu's mobility is kinda crazy, putting the character in the Top 6 of Dash Speed in the game (assuming that the values aren't changed from Smash 4, this would mean he's at least as fast as Greninja now). With the stunning tilt, Pichu may be a legitimate character now.

And that's exciting.
 

DaDavid

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My best hopes would be that Pichu's attacks deal stronger knockback to compensate for the damage penalty. The attacks don't necessarily have to deal more damage than Pikachu's attacks, however. The knockback increase would also reference Pichu's Pokedex entries in that it can't store electricity very well, and can give even adult humans a big shock.

For one example, Pichu's Thunder could deal 15% damage, just like Pikachu's Thunder. However, Pichu's Thunder would deal stronger knockback (maybe something like 60 BKB and 90 KBG) to compensate for the 2.9% damage penalty that Pichu receives.
The damage penalty should definitely be rewarded. I agree that knockback would be a better buff than raw damage, but either way they need to make it so that, compared to Pikachu, you throw out fewer attacks but with greater reward.
 

meleebrawler

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In Mewtwo's clip, Pichu is chasing him and catches up really quick while both characters are in full dash and Mewtwo has a substantial lead in distance.

In Melee, Pichu was slower than Pikachu for whatever stupid reason. But now it seems like Pichu's mobility is kinda crazy, putting the character in the Top 6 of Dash Speed in the game (assuming that the values aren't changed from Smash 4, this would mean he's at least as fast as Greninja now). With the stunning tilt, Pichu may be a legitimate character now.

And that's exciting.
Pichu having a slower dash was probably another one of the symptoms of Melee being rushed, like Doctor Mario actually being faster than Mario.
The ftilt only trips, as the electric effect is mainly aesthetic and Pikachu got that too.
 

Jedisupersonic

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I don't think Pichu will be more of a joke character than Wii Fit Trainer, she still doesn't seem to have any range or hitboxes that make any sort of sense.

Plus Pichu at his core does have standard Pikachu stuff.
 

meleebrawler

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I don't think Pichu will be more of a joke character than Wii Fit Trainer, she still doesn't seem to have any range or hitboxes that make any sort of sense.

Plus Pichu at his core does have standard Pikachu stuff.
Some people may bring up Melee Roy as a counterargument to ''being a clone of a top tier also makes you at least not bad'', but that
isn't likely to happen unless your attributes are almost universally weaker.

Pichu may or may not be stronger than Pikachu on the offence, but I can see him being amazing at avoiding hits with things like the huge distance
he now gets on Agility and the bounceback on Skull Bash.
 

ottobot

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I wouldnt mind pichu being a joke character, but if he is i just hope hes the unquestioned bottom of the tier list. Joke characters like that only work if theyre bad enough that winning anything with them is truely an accomplishment. Also because if pichu is bad and anyone is worse then pichu id feel really terrible for that character's mains.
 

Mario & Sonic Guy

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I really hope he’ll be powerful with rage. If not, then he’s hopeless.
The rage mechanic won't help Pichu if it's light enough to get KO'd before the mechanic starts to kick in. And considering that it's the lightest fighter in Melee, I expect it to continue being the lightest fighter in the whole Smash Bros. series.
 

MercuryPenny

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The rage mechanic won't help Pichu if it's light enough to get KO'd before the mechanic starts to kick in. And considering that it's the lightest fighter in Melee, I expect it to continue being the lightest fighter in the whole Smash Bros. series.
there's not much to lose from camping with AC fair and thunder jolt if you're in kill percent anyway, theoretically

camping to get rage would no doubt be stronger if it still scaled like in smash 4, but regardless, it's an option
 
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timrtabor123

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Worth mentioning that joke characters have a history of getting buffed in Smash going off the transition from N64 to Melee for Jigglypuff.
 

Turnips and Daisies.

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I don't think Pichu will be more of a joke character than Wii Fit Trainer, she still doesn't seem to have any range or hitboxes that make any sort of sense.

Plus Pichu at his core does have standard Pikachu stuff.
I feel like they might nerf the core Pikachu stuff enough to make it bad...
 

TaranTr

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well in the pichu gameplay videos he only gets 1% damage for each electric move, so that's better i guess.
 

MERPIS

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He's actually looking to be an actual viable high tier and that is freaking scary. Does any one know if he has a good aerial outside of dair spikes? Or what his combo game is like? Or what his good kill moves are like?
 
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Guynamednelson

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Does any one know if he has a good aerial outside of dair spikes?
It's good news for Pichu if his nair is just like Melee.
 
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ADYBE

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Smashwiki made a whole list of Pichu’s changes: he has been buff a lot, grab range, agility, ftilt, fsmash and even dair. I’m sure he will get at least middle-high tier.
 

MERPIS

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Smashwiki made a whole list of Pichu’s changes: he has been buff a lot, grab range, agility, ftilt, fsmash and even dair. I’m sure he will get at least middle-high tier.
Pichu is a little hard to make bad without the mentality of "Joke character" which is something they got rid of after brawl. Like pichu is a fast, small, combo heavy, character with a projectile and a good recovery, there's no way a character with all those can be anything lower than mid tier. But he actually has kill power now too in nair, up smash, thunderspikes, dair, and probably fair now(?? Someone confirm please) He's going to be so damn good even with the self harm thing. I'm sure that if pikachu gets the top 5 treatment, pichu won't be far behind since they're largely the same character but just with little things that make them different. Sure pichu has no range but neither does pikachu and where pikachu has QA combos, pichu has nair chains like in melee, which is just as scary seeing as how fast nair is. and the whole self harm thing isn't as much of a big deal any more since in melee it did like 5 or 6 percent to itself every attack but now it's only like, 1 or 2 percent maybe 3 at max. I doubt it will play that much of a role outside of maybe dropping it a spot or two lower than it could've been if it didn't have the self harm. I honestly can't wait for high tier pichu he looks so good.

Oh and we STILL have that ridiculous side b that kills so early
 
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Homelessvagrant

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Here you can see bair fair and nair. Looks like pichu has his old nair which is pretty sweet. Unfortunately the feed quality sucks. Doesn't seem like we have good quality pichu gameplay yet (I mean who would use Pichu in a tournament?)

 

ADYBE

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Did you saw Zero ssbu tier list analysis video ? Pichu is in the top of hight tier. You go so far little boy.
 

MERPIS

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Did you saw Zero ssbu tier list analysis video ? Pichu is in the top of hight tier. You go so far little boy.
Zero is an actual piece of garbage in the way he said if you can play pikachu there's no reason to play pichu. As if there isn't people out there who like weak characters like pichu over the literal king of shilling, pikachu.
 

Thatonehelper

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Though I do not agree with how he said there is no reason to play Pichu, he may have meant that from his tournament 1v1 perspective, he sees no benefit from using Pichu over Pikachu.

Well, do take all the tier lists and opinions with a grain of salt. This is all speculative. For all we know many of the characters we see may be altered. ZeR0 was even changing the tier list as he made the video.
 

Teeb147

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Well it looks like pichu has a really hard time getting a ko :/
I hope it's just because kill setups havent been found, but I will say it's a bit disappointing.
Seems good at racking up damage to some degree at least.
 
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