Pikachu has great aerials that can combo and rack up huge damage, but they are hard to pull of consistently, in terms of reactions and inputs. He is predictable out of shield because his best option is jump.
![pikachu poor mans spacie pikachu poor mans spacie](https://files.gamebanana.com/img/ico/sprays/oldmanpikasmaller.jpg)
He is weak in and out of shield because he has a short grab and he can easily be grab killed because of his low weight.
![pikachu poor mans spacie pikachu poor mans spacie](https://d2eehagpk5cl65.cloudfront.net/img/q60/uploads/assets/mc/2016_07/Pikachu3.jpg)
One mistake can lead to death due to his low weight, and it is easy to make mistakes since Pikachu has such precise hit boxes. He is medium speed in his attacks (except aerials) and movement. He has low attack priority meaning he loses hit trades. Pika is below average in most categories. His Up B grants no invincibility frames either, meaning it can get interrupted during startup. The timing and the angles can cause a lot of miss inputs that result in death. It allows Pika to go offstage and challenge, but that is high skill & high risk. It is incredibly hard to punish and almost guarantees recovery if used perfectly. Since Pika is so precise, it can be hard to get the combos started and completed. You must hit 3+ hit combos consistently to rack up enough damage. However, it is very difficult to get good combos, especially against small characters with fast speed. Pikachu can keep more active hitboxes out than most characters, and combo his weak multi hits together. His primary benefit, in my opinion, is his combo potential. Pikachu's benefits are insanely good, but they are not easy to realize. Pikachu is an extremely precise character and very difficult to play consistently. His range in general is very short, meaning you must be very precise. Several of his attacks start behind him, making them difficult to use. He has very few disjoints so he can't trade well. His ground attack's are slow and punishable. His grab is very short and easy to whiff. His damage is mediocre unless you can get frame perfect combos consistently. His kill power is mediocre and he doesn't have many easy confirms. His weight is very low so he can be an easy kill if you make mistakes. Pikachu's movement speed, ground & air, is mediocre. Pika struggles in and against shield, primarily because his grabs are so short and slow. He can't grab effectively, he can't use his ground attacks, and his dodges are very short. If Pika get's grabbed it can mean death if the enemy has a kill throw or a bury, because of Pika's low weight. Coming out of shield is predictable for Pika because his most effective option is jumping. Dair is too slow but it occasionally shield pokes. Fair and Bair are good on shield, but they can be hard to space properly.
#PIKACHU POOR MANS SPACIE FREE#
His ground attacks, except downtilt, which is very short and can be hard to hit, are almost totally useless on shield and give a free punish to enemies. Furthermore, shield pressure is very hard with Pikachu. IMO that alone makes him weak against and out of shield. Pikachu has a really bad grab range and 1 mediocre kill throw. The best option out of shield or against a shield is grab. Pikachu struggles immensely in hit trade scenarios or any scenario where two players are committing to an attack around the same time. Also, many characters have invincibility attacks, but Pikachu has none. His multi-hits only do around 3% per hit, so they get nullified by any hit with 13% damage or higher. The majority of his attacks have average start up time, so he struggles to beat most characters to the punch.
The majority of Pikachu's attacks have no disjoint at all, so disjoint attacks beat him in trade scenarios. He has very few engine advantages in his favour.Īs I have learned more about the mechanics in Smash I have realized that Pikachu is a very low priority character, meaning he can not easily go toe to toe with most characters. I have been maining Pikachu since the start of Ultimate and I have to say that Pikachu is a very hard character.