Smash 4 Character Opinions/Pikachu

Pikachu. The mascot of the Pokémon series. If Pikachu hadn't been chosen to be the icon he is today, the Pokémon franchise likely wouldn't have been nearly as popular as it is today. I mean, to be fair, he is the reason we haven't seen Porygon in the anime since the Indigo League series, but that's a story for another time. Anyways, let's break down his moveset and see what I think about it.

Moveset and play style
First off, Pikachu's jab. It comes out on frame 2, and can true combo into itself up to six times. This is very useful, not only to rack up a bit of damage, but he can also fill up his staleness cue with jabs, allowing him to keep his kill moves fresh when he really needs them.

Pikachu's bread and butter at low percents is up tilt, forward air and up air combos. These can quickly rack up damage, and if you're like my friends playing against me, you'll just sit there and think, "Wwwwow." Seriously, whenever I perform a long combo string, they always seem surprised that I pull them off. Good thing they don't play Fox, because they would be stuck for a while. Since they don't use DI, Pikachu's up tilt can hit Fox seven times in a row. Down tilt has a chance to trip the opponent, which can lead to a variety of follow-ups.

Pikachu also has a variety of kill setups. These include up throw into his down special Thunder, fast fall forward air into a forward smash, and even back air into forward smash.

Pikachu can also use down tilt to jab lock the opponent, which can lead to three jabs followed by a charged forward smash for the kill.

Pikachu is pretty light, which does mean he can get killed pretty early. He is tied for the 5th lightest in the game, with Fox, Olimar, and Kirby.

Pikachu's recovery is among the best in the entire game. Quick Attack covers a lot of vertical and horizontal distance, and is very difficult to intercept. Skull Bash can also be used for horizontal distance. Finally, Thunder can be used to stall Pikachu in the air.

My opinions on people who play Pikachu
Well, as for Pikachu mains, there's ESAM, and... Wait... Who else mains Pikachu? Noo, ESAM, Pikachu is not top 5. He's a darn good character, but not one of the best.

To be continued... I gotta go to class now.

Alright. Two tests and one speech later, I'm back.

Yeah, Pikachu isn't the best character. But if you main Pikachu, then you probably have a ton of unpopular opinions that you're not afraid to share. You're also perfectly OK with having all your choices for alternate costumes be yellow. If Charizard can be every color of the rainbow, why not Pika?

Pikachu is one of the harder characters to master, but not one of the hardest. I'd say Pikachu is up there with Toon Link as far as difficulty goes, but not quite Mega Man or Ryu tier.

Experiences playing Pikachu
Recently, I played a best of 5 Pika ditto with my friend. I picked the Shiny Pikachu with a Choice Band costume, which I originally incorrectly identified as the headband Brendan wears in Pokémon Emerald (which by the way is also in the game). So when I beat him 3-0, he blamed the headband. (He just got outplayed.)