-
Welcome to Smashboards, the world's largest Super Smash Brothers community! Over 250,000 Smash Bros. fans from around the world have come to discuss these great games in over 19 million posts!
You are currently viewing our boards as a visitor. Click here to sign up right now and start on your path in the Smash community!
Why did it take so long for Pikachu to be considered (close to) top tier?
- Thread starter Quillion
- Start date
Cubelarooso
Smash Lord
That's not how video games work. It's about what tools a character actually has, not what archetype they're supposed to follow. Pikachu just doesn't have the safe autocombos or versatile gimmicks of Melee's top tier.
See: Pichu.
See: Pichu.
Quillion
Smash Hero
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2014
- Messages
- 5,642
Pichu is at least an intentional joke by the developers.
666blaziken
Smash Journeyman
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2013
- Messages
- 419
Just because pikachu is a fragile speedster doesn't mean that he is a top tier, because there are characers in melee that fit this better. Fox for example has a better combo game, better camping game, less likely to be killed off the top, and has a higher tech ceiling which means more options. Pikachu also has exploitable weaknesses such as an awful fast fall speed (get's comboed really easily if the DI is slightly off), almost the smallest shield, gets chaingrabbed by sheik, and his best weapon (his up air) is basically a more versatile but inferior shine. However, pikachu is still good, has the most powerful up smash and most versitile uair, nair combos into anything, and pretty strong throws (with his tiny grab range), so he is really fun to use.
ChivalRuse
Smash Hero
^ This. Pikachu is a pretty technical character. Barring Pikachu's nair (and you could argue, uair), his moves are very precise and have to be spaced with care. Also, he is just very fast and so he is hard to control. His up-b sweetspots take lots of time to master (which is a critical part of the character), and most people didn't want to put in the time to what used to be considered a low tier character. Axe was the exception to this.
proxibomb
Smash Clown
Old post. lmao
Pika has this weird aura to him where some people think he's a top tier, but he's really not. What you're looking at is Axe pulling off quite an amazing Pika. Pika could possibly get better, who knows. Pikachu's weaknesses are heavily keeping Axe back, and he still has yet to find out how to escape those weaknesses, if he'll ever do so.
For a character to become a high tier, the character has to be consistently good at MUs, have good tools for MUs, and must have lots of proof that the character actually does well in those MUs. The problem with Pikachu is (besides the loads of weaknesses) is that we simply don't know how high the character's skill level gets. We only have one top professional player right now.
So far, all we'd need to further research and make do with the tools Pika has is just to play him. We'll see where he goes. More players = Better research on character.
Pika has this weird aura to him where some people think he's a top tier, but he's really not. What you're looking at is Axe pulling off quite an amazing Pika. Pika could possibly get better, who knows. Pikachu's weaknesses are heavily keeping Axe back, and he still has yet to find out how to escape those weaknesses, if he'll ever do so.
For a character to become a high tier, the character has to be consistently good at MUs, have good tools for MUs, and must have lots of proof that the character actually does well in those MUs. The problem with Pikachu is (besides the loads of weaknesses) is that we simply don't know how high the character's skill level gets. We only have one top professional player right now.
So far, all we'd need to further research and make do with the tools Pika has is just to play him. We'll see where he goes. More players = Better research on character.
Last edited:
Sarej
Smash Cadet
Alright real talk real fast, you can't compare uair to shine because shine is the best ability in the game no questions asked. No move compares to it.
Pikachu vs Fox if you can SDI uair isn't nearly as bad as most make it out to be once you have the tech skill level of Axe because you can combo the ever living **** out of Fox and the edgeguard game as Pikachu vs Fox when Fox is off stage is arguably better or as good as Puffs. I wouldn't say the Fox matchup is really where Pikachu struggles to be a top tier but more down to the Sheik/Peach/IC/Puff matchups. Can Sheik still do **** to Pikachu on PAL like she does on NTSC? Like if not it again makes me feel awful that we play NTSC and not PAL in the US.
Pikachu vs Fox if you can SDI uair isn't nearly as bad as most make it out to be once you have the tech skill level of Axe because you can combo the ever living **** out of Fox and the edgeguard game as Pikachu vs Fox when Fox is off stage is arguably better or as good as Puffs. I wouldn't say the Fox matchup is really where Pikachu struggles to be a top tier but more down to the Sheik/Peach/IC/Puff matchups. Can Sheik still do **** to Pikachu on PAL like she does on NTSC? Like if not it again makes me feel awful that we play NTSC and not PAL in the US.
Comet7
Smash Lord
fox still wins vs pika by a decent amount
sheik can't CG pika and up air won't kill so pika probably only loses it by around 40-60 or 45-55. he still loses neutral because sheik can still "lol f tilt".
sheik can't CG pika and up air won't kill so pika probably only loses it by around 40-60 or 45-55. he still loses neutral because sheik can still "lol f tilt".
Psyant
Smash Apprentice
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2014
- Messages
- 155
- NNID
- Psyant
I play in PAL and Sheik is still pretty bad. Most Sheiks over here are very good at reaction tech chasing and you'll still take quite a bit of damage off tech chase regrabs and such if you get grabbed, especially with Pika's poor tech rolls. The main benefit of playing against PAL Sheik is that you can sometimes live for a long time because she can't dthrow fair you to end your stocks easily unlike NTSC.