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What makes Pikachu top-tier?

homiedixon

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jul 24, 2015
Messages
18
I'd like to start by saying that throughout almost all of Smash 4, I've been a Pikachu main, and I've noticed that if somebody absolutely DESTROYS me when Im messing around with characters like Kirby or Palutena, I can just switch to Pikachu and at least be guaranteed not to get 2-stocked. I assumed it was just because I was most comfortable with Pikachu at first, because when I started using him he was mid-tier I think (though to be fair, I was going by eventhubs ranking and pre-Wii U release, so perhaps Smashboards thought differently).

When I look at Pikachu though, he doesnt immediately stand out as a top 5 character. He's short, lightweight, and his only projectile is pretty slow. Sure, he has amazing recovery and can practically get back to the stage no matter how far you're launched. Sure, he's one of the faster characters in the game. It just seems to me like his tier placement might be more based on how good Esam is. Im sure if there was a single Palutena main that was getting top 8 and such at big tournaments, she would be higher up, but it would really just be how good that one individual player is.

Like I said, as a Pikachu main I know how strong he can be. I've had too many matches to count where I would've lost if I didnt knock them off the top blastzone with thunder, but is there a more in-depth reason why Pikachu is considered so good?
 

Emuchu

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Dec 14, 2014
Messages
126
Location
Sunnyvale, CA
NNID
Emuchu
3DS FC
2320-6462-6471
I'd like to start by saying that throughout almost all of Smash 4, I've been a Pikachu main, and I've noticed that if somebody absolutely DESTROYS me when Im messing around with characters like Kirby or Palutena, I can just switch to Pikachu and at least be guaranteed not to get 2-stocked. I assumed it was just because I was most comfortable with Pikachu at first, because when I started using him he was mid-tier I think (though to be fair, I was going by eventhubs ranking and pre-Wii U release, so perhaps Smashboards thought differently).

When I look at Pikachu though, he doesnt immediately stand out as a top 5 character. He's short, lightweight, and his only projectile is pretty slow. Sure, he has amazing recovery and can practically get back to the stage no matter how far you're launched. Sure, he's one of the faster characters in the game. It just seems to me like his tier placement might be more based on how good Esam is. Im sure if there was a single Palutena main that was getting top 8 and such at big tournaments, she would be higher up, but it would really just be how good that one individual player is.

Like I said, as a Pikachu main I know how strong he can be. I've had too many matches to count where I would've lost if I didnt knock them off the top blastzone with thunder, but is there a more in-depth reason why Pikachu is considered so good?
Pikachu is considered to be powerful for two reasons that are very important to top-tier characters:
  1. He plays the neutral well. Thanks to his disjointed Fair, disjointed Fsmash, and Quick Attack as a combination mobility tool / zone-breaker (i.e., a move good at breaking through spacing techniques like poking and projectile spam), he can frequently be the first to score a hit in situations where people are jumping around and throwing out moves. His slow Thunder Jolt is actually an advantage here, as you can chase after it and arrive at your opponent as around the same time as your projectile does to punish their reaction (e.g., grab them if they block it, SH Fair if they jump it). He also has a great shield game, with Utilt, Ftilt, Dtilt, Nair, and grab all leading to great rewards in the event that Pika shields something punishable.
  2. He has excellent air options. His Utilt has a fast recovery and weak launch, making it good for juggling. His Nair has a powerful launch and comes out fast. Most importantly, he has Quick Attack. That means a few things: after launching, you can pursue people off the edge of the screen and still recover back with Skull Bash and Quick Attack, and also that Pika basically ignores the entirety of the ledge game when he recovers, making him a huge pain in the arse to edgeguard or juggle in general, as Pika usually has the ability to simply QA to land when he's anywhere. It's also impossible to react to where he's going, meaning you have to make a prediction and throw out an attack preemptively, or catch Pika's very brief landing recovery.
Pika's problem lies in his relative struggle to land that last Fsmash / Usmash and secure the stock, especially after losing Brawl Nair. But thanks to his ability to rack up damage and stay safe, he can often pile on the percent high enough to get a Nair / Fair kill offstage or land a Fair FF into Usmash. In addition, many of his aerials can stage spike, meaning most players choose simply not to challenge Pika in the air during their recoveries, giving him even more free reign to dictate the pace of edgeguarding situations.

In short, tier placement in Smash 4 is dependent on a character's ability to control the pace of the match--something that Pika does exceptionally well. You can't get close to him unless he lets you, and therefore you're always approaching Pika on his terms, making it easy for Pika to score hits and avoid damage.
 

Gibbs

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jun 5, 2015
Messages
186
He also has a great shield game, with Utilt, Ftilt, Dtilt, Nair, and grab all leading to great rewards in the event that Pika shields something punishable.
Pika's shield game is actually super lack luster compared to a lot of the cast. His tilts out of shield are really slow considering their range. For instance Marth can Fair or Bair out of shield before pika can even put out a hitbox from a tilt. Nair and Bair are our greatest on grab responses out of shield. Bair is the only thing fast enough with a little range, but it doesn't auto cancel out of a SH so using it is a great risk. As a result a large percent of the cast has really safe ways to poke at our shield.

Sure we're not as free as Weegee, but if you horribly mis-space on our shield, then maybe we get a 20% string. Mis-space on Luigi's shield, it could be 50% or the end of a stock.
 

Soul.

 
Joined
Jul 7, 2014
Messages
19,659
To be fair, being short is actually good. We make most attacks whiff due to Pika's small size (especially when crouching) but that's all there is to it. The only thing we lose on with being short is range, which was always one of Pikachu's problems. We only have a few moves that are safe on shield, like down tilt. Said move is a great tool for us in neutral.
But yeah, our shield game isn't as good as others are making it out to be. As said before, NAir and BAir are our greatest, but I see NAir being used the most. FAir isn't safe due to the hitlag, and I think this makes opponents get our of their shield faster and punish.

Results are one thing, but honestly with "how good" we're perceived as, I don't know where else would people put Pikachu in a hypothetical tier list. We're good, just not the best. In customs we are better than in default just because of *Heavy Skull Bash's existence alone. It just seems like, to me, tiers are 'softened' in this game due to how simple most characters are, unlike Brawl/Melee/64. Pikachu's lack of representation/results has to do with the fact that it's "hard to master."

This is kinda related and unrelated at the same time, but despite us being deemed 'top tier,' our matchups with certain top/high tiers may not be in our favor. This mostly goes to Ness and Luigi as they are both good characters that give Pikachu trouble; Ness for his disjoints (FAir is one), back throw, PK Thunder's existence, his f5 NAir which is good out of shield and up air, which is strong, and Luigi for the huge reward he gets from a grab despite Fireball receiving 3 more frames of endlag as of Ver. 1.1.0, which previously he could use them to get the grab. I don't think this nerf changes anything, but for the most part, we do well with everyone else.

*Thunder Wave too, but I feel it was just used for the infinite lol.
 

Cylent

Smash Cadet
Joined
Feb 23, 2015
Messages
46
Location
Louisville, KY
NNID
Cylent.x
I think a lot of it comes from his speed and his combo skills.
He can low profile a decent portion of attacks from a lot of high level characters.
He has a keep spacing tool (neutral b)
And he has good kill options (although sometimes he can have trouble killing) ?
And his quick attack to n-air is a great approach, and so is short hop f-air.

Pika has a lot of tools to deal with fast characters, and can juggle the heavier ones pretty well. He can cover a variety of options and has early kill potential.

That's why I think he's top tier.
(I'm probably missing a lot, but oh well.)
 

mercy

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Mar 9, 2008
Messages
198
Pikachu is not top tier he is high tier at best. He has no answer for the most dominating aspect of the game- the shield. Whereas, the other top-tier characters- ZSS, Sheik, Rosaluma- can safely space their attacks around this dominating force.
 

Nocally

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Jan 26, 2011
Messages
210
Location
Denmark
3DS FC
3840-6058-2117
Pikachu is not top tier he is high tier at best. He has no answer for the most dominating aspect of the game- the shield. Whereas, the other top-tier characters- ZSS, Sheik, Rosaluma- can safely space their attacks around this dominating force.
ZSS also has some trouble against shield because of her lackluster tether grab.
 

mercy

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Mar 9, 2008
Messages
198
Tether grab still beats shields. Tether grabs are problematic because of their insane end lag not the slightly-longer-than-regular-grabs startup. Also, ZSS has quick aerials that she can safely space around shields. Not to mention her awesome KO potential. Pikachu has none of these.
 

Ninj4pikachu

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Jul 19, 2015
Messages
336
Location
Arlington Texas
But what pika does have is arguably the best disadvantage state in the game next to shiek coupled with one of the best neutrals thanks to quick attack. The only thing keeping pikachu fair is his lack of kill options.
 

Simperheve

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Oct 20, 2015
Messages
143
Location
Jolly ol' Britain
NNID
Simperheve
Pikachu is probably a high tier instead of a top tier. Most of the points about great neutral and stuff have already been covered. One thing I would expand on is that Pikachu does have kill options, but they all come with the drawback of being situational (reliant heavily on %, rage, teching, DI and defending character) and a high risk / technical overhead. Coupled with Pikachus rather meh range and okay-ish OOS game puts us firmly in the high tiers.
 
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