ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- Back with another Why NO ONE Plays! This time we're gonna talk about another character who's rated extremely highly by a lot of players, yet there aren't as many players repping the little mouse as one would think. Let's talk about Pokemon's very own Pikachu!
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#SSBU #WhyNoOnePlays #Pikachu
I...play pikachu
No you don’t. You play Mii Brawler.
Wow, THE Pikachu has found this channel. Good job Vars.
@@firstwaddledee9182 The only Pikachu
@@VarsIII he IS the mii brawler
Mii brawler, BUSTED
“They can’t just stand there and take the thunder jolt”
Me, a Lucario main: aha, free damage!
An Incineroar main: free revenge stack
Not as a Ness/Lucas main but: mmm free heals 😋
i love lucario
G&W main: Free Oil Panic fuel.
As a Terry main: "Are you okay?"
“In a battle of stray hits, Pikachu will always lose”
I think that’s a succinct summary of the major problem with Pika’s gameplan. Smash isn’t a game about racking up damage, it’s about landing knockout blows. The damage is just a means to an end, and that end is fundamentally where Pikachu struggles to cash in against characters who have the mobility and/or tools to avoid being overwhelmed.
Very well said, I wish I said it like that in the video haha
@@VarsIII you could pin this comment since it helps reinforce the video even if it wasn't you that said it
This is a great summary!
@@Quackra Pretty sure he can only pin one comment. And as nice a summary as this is, it's hard to top ESAM dropping by. That said, if we all upvote it, it should live forever in top comments
says you
Moral of the story: esam has a horrible gambling addiction
He need to touch some grass types
@@Oreca2005 ayo?
@@Oreca2005I think that sounded a bit worse than you intended.
Im only saying this due to the comment above.
Pika is the unique case where he doesn't need cheese to beat you because all of his moves were simply designed much better than yours
I mean the pancake is kinda cheesy
@@gastrodonenjoyer999 If you stop looking at the pancake as cheese and start looking at it as frame data it helps a lot.
Doesn't matter that Ult frame data says Pika back air is -12. Unless you have a move that can hit his pancake, to you that move isn't -12.
That move is actually safe because you can't punish it. Rework that frame data in your head. Then account for what you can do instead.
Think of it like blocking a spaced sword attack. Yes it's negative on block so you can act, but that doesn't mean you can punish.
"OK that move is unpunishable but I have X,Y,Z options now to try to escape his pressure because there are A frames before he can hit me again, etc".
Hurtbox shifting, invincibility frames, and long range spacing, that makes moves safe that raw frame data says are not, exist in every fighting game ever. You just have to account for them in your frame data game knowledge.
Pikachu is Kirby but good.
I would argue that pikachu's "dirty trick up his sleeve," comes passively in the form of his absurd hurtbox shifting in literally all of his landing animations. Even on a normal landing, pikachu's body flattens out on the ground making him near impossible to hit, especially with out of shield options, and even more especially for out of shield options from jump. This trick is especially dirty when you take into account that the way shields and parries work in this game means that you effectively cant parry his landing aerials, and you cant punish them when he hits shield because out of shield options in ultimate are heavily centered around jumping to bypass the 11 frame shield drop window. This effectively lets pikachu swing aerials at his opponent essentially risk free as only a small number of characters have an out of shield option that can reliably connect on pikachus landing animations. Combined with his aerials having good frame data, and tjolt being a strong tool to condition jump and shield in neutral from his opponent means he can pretty safely tjolt, follow it in and smother jump and pressure shield at the same time with a landing aerial. If they get caught out of shield they eat a combo and if they stay in shield they cant punish pikachu for swinging unless they have something like a GnW up b, which is not a common thing among the cast.
I would argue this is completely irrelevant because pikachus problem is simply, getting the cheeky early kills all other top teir characters can get, literally all his pancaking animations do is merely improve his survivability. His pancaking animation gets him, plain and simple, straight up nothing in terms of cheeky unfair kills, only cheeky unfair dodges
This should be titled “why ONE plays pikachu”, there’s great reasons to play him and even better reasons to not…
I’m convinced ESAM is a lvl 10 cpu and you can’t convince me otherwise
Yes 😂😂
3 reasons
>Down smash in a crowd
>Thunder Jolt zoning
>Thunder smash in a crowd
I think Pikachu **DOES** have at least one exploitable weakness and that's his reliance on tjolt as a neutral tool. This is evidenced by the fact that the characters that are often considered his worst matchups, like Game & Watch, Ness, Samus, Snake, Mario and Pacman all have ways to neutralise tjolt, and if you're able to do that consistently you're on the right path to beating him.
Agree. Without tjolt he is left with an unfavorable combination of small range and average mobility in neutral. Although QA is still an amazing gap closer.
Well other characters can smash the tjolt or tilt it to hit it or reflect it. Peach & Puff can fly at angles where tjolt is not a problem.
He doesn't necessarily rely on t jolt. Neutralizing t jolt really only prevents you from getting steamrolled by pika a lot of times. Even without t jolt, he has safe aerials, really great burst range with quick attack and all of his good neutral tools start big combos. Ness and Gnw are the characters that are generally agreed to beat pika and having an easy answer to t jolt is just the beginning of why they win
Relying on a single move is not really a weakness if I had to try to give him one it would be his weight
As a pikachu main, I’d say Pac-Man and Mario is even but Doctor Mario is a crazy hard matchup.
Shout out the the Pikachu main I encountered online. Chained an ungodly amount of short hop back airs without messing up once, edge-guarded beautifully, and ended up three stocking me. I was incredibly salty at the time, and temporarily blocked them out of frusteration, but looking back, I unblocked them, and can't help but respect the skill.
Love the why NO ONE / EVERYONE plays series. All the analysis and commentary is always super on point and concise. Can't wait to see who's next in the series.
I’ve never been as happy as Pikachu is while doing a back-air 2:52
If you look at who is used by the top players, a lot of them have at least 1 reliable explosive option. Something that if they catch you will just kill you outright. It allows for explosive turn arounds that can negate being outplayed for a long time in one instant. Stuff like Steve Diamond/Anvil, Cloud Back Air, Byleth up B, Rob Back Air, Pyra Down Air, the entire design of Kazuya. These characters still have many of the required other tools to do well in neutral or combo or whatever, but the explosive factor means they are never far from catching back up or closing out the match. This is the one thing Pika really lacks. Pika can get sudden kills (as can any character), but they aren't free and easy. They typically require the right setups and execution, which is hard to get when you're on the back foot. Conversely, Pika's lightness means he can get blown up suddenly at even really low precents and a game he's been winning with his superior tools can suddenly flip back, invalidating all your work.
Someone really needed to say all this man, Pikachu is very good but the whole nerf-the-rat campaign felt like complaining about a character in the absence of someone who genuinely needed nerfing, a default pick - well what do you know, now we’ve got some truly nerfable characters
Only ESAM and America hyped up Pikachu, in Japan Pikachu isn't considered top 5... Pikachu's lacks clutch zero-to-deaths and no-risk killing moves. Most of his moves are great in themselves but together they give Pikachu lots of options, but they don't multiply his power and the safe attacks have very little pay back while the fsmash, thunder can be punished. Like tjolt in neutral moves the enemy away from the lightling loops range.
Back air loops can go fuck themselves
Yooo my favorite twitter user!
@@aoeu256 Japan is based.
Pika is overrated, but I found so much of this video to be silly. 'Honesty' is subjective and his definition of it was word salad.
That Temporal Tower music brought back a lot of memories. If anyone reading this hasn't played Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, DO IT! (you wont regret it!)
0:32 just a note, Raichu actually was in the team that won the pokemon world championship in 2016, and while that was sort of the perfect moment that came once, it's really not that bad
Yeah Raichu is still used in doubles. However in Singles Raichu is straight up awful.
@@ShotofCyanide1 fair enough
Even if it was used in a team that won a tournament once or twice, Raichu is still pretty awful overall. It doesn't come close to the viability of many staples both in smogon formats and VGC. Like it can be used if you really want, but it's far from viable and pretty bad overall. It's pretty consistently placed in the worst tier of the generation on smogon and in VGC has very low usage rates.
In fairness pachirisu won in 2014. Pokemon's vgc scene is great for producing random off meta picks that actually do well.
@@aquila0284 TBF in doubles Raichu is heavily meta dependent. So it's very good and pretty common when Electric types and Rain are meta. However outside those compositions it really doesn't bring much to the table.
Also yeah it singles it's practically useless.
To make an analogy with how Pikachu is viewed in Ultimate despite lacking results, this would like if nobody played Fox in Melee, with most players playing Marth and Jigglypuff because they're significantly easier to play, yet Fox was still viewed as the best character in the game.
Which is funny cause that's how Fox is viewed in ultimate...now.
@@dinghe6948 Who tf considers Fox #1 in the game
I misread it. Thought it said one of the best, not the best.
Though there are probably players who genuinely believe fox might be #1. Light Stans are probably in that camp.
@@rayless right? Clearly ganodorf is the best character in the game 🙄
@@dinghe6948 Well, no doubt fox is an extremely good character, but I don't think he works in this analogy (for Ultimate)
I've always known pikachu to be a top-tier and had a general knowledge of why but this video explained it very well and I have a much better understanding of WHY pikachu is so good and actually gave me some ideas of what to look out for when fighting one. Excellent video 👌
That whole part of fear being a huge part of pikas game plan reminds me of Esam taunting to cause MVD to air dodge due to the sound clip being similar to thunder.
I was hoping he'd do one on Kirby or Pyra Mythra but this works, i feel with pikachu it's because of the stigma combined with how hard he is, why would you spend ours learning the combos of a character only for everyone to hate or rage quit your games
Too much Kirby online also ure right about Pikachu, u learn a character and either you get rage quit on or you find a no skills spammer to ruin your streak...
Everyone and their mama plays pythra
Steve mains exist
Well everyone complains about mythra lmao
He's not that hard just mash the B button and you win that's how I won games
Spamming thunder jolt on ledge makes it for tether recoveries impossible to snap to ledge. That’s the one and only non honest part of him.
Great video overall! Just a couple of things.
1. Pikachu can circumvent most guess > take your stock situations with amazing combo game. On the majority of the cast, he can combo into uair bridges which is reactable on DI mixups and SDI. So, in theory, grab, or landing nair, rising uair > nair, bair > uair > nair, utilt > utilt > IDJ uair > nair, and dtilt (trip) all lead to nair loops on Joker. Since nair loops are reactable to DI and SDI, pikachu can true combo into uair bridges and take Joker’s stock. While being to circumvent the need to guess and condition to take a stock is an advantage, it creates a HUGE time sink and execution check that is almost unparalleled by any other smash character. The inputs themselves are fairly difficult, but it’s the reacting to DI and SDI and adjusting/knowing the exact combo route to still guarantee the kill, that is a level of mastery, not even ESAM demonstrates in bracket consistently.
TLDR; I think your description is a great reason for why the character relies on his execution, which taking into account human error and the time needed to develop necessary execution skills, is inconsistent at best or simply not worth most players’ time.
Super TLDR; super high skill ceiling (both in terms of execution and expression of fundamentals), super high skill floor (fundies and execution)
I have always been confused about this one. Pikachu is undoubtedly one of, if not the strongest character in the game with no clear flaws yet many people don’t play him. This proposition of always having to think and think hard certainly is interesting but I wonder how true pros would find it.
Undoubtedly may be a strong word, and fortunately, opinions seem to be catching up to how little PIkachu has to show for it.
@@JosephJohns-xi1qb it’s a strong word but one I stand by, and dropping a character on a tier list because no one plays him makes little sense to me. I know that is not the only reason, but it’s to common an explanation used for it for me to agree.
Unfun to play
I wouldn't say he's the strongest he's not stronger then Sephiroth
@@SamuelJohnsonYT Sephiroth is strong, but stronger than Pikachu? I wouldn’t say so.
I definitely see what you're trying to say with Pika's downsides. I think he does have amazing option coverage, consistent kill setups, and straightforward ways to close out stocks at higher percentage though (dash attack, Up Smash out of shield, and dash back F Smash come to mind). I think the main issue is what you alluded to earlier in the video about the skill and mental stamina required to pull all this stuff off consistently at top level. Similarly to what you said in the video, the best analog for this would be Sheik in my opinion. Perfectly executed Pika/Sheik (maybe add Joker to that list) would be the most unstoppable force in the game, besides maybe Steve (but we'll have to see how that goes with tech and counter play). To be clear, while I follow the Ult meta religiously, I am certainly not a top or even high level player. But I think that perhaps a lot of pro players don't want to admit that they don't have the ungodly level of skill and mental stamina required to play Pika in this way, so you hear things like, "Pika is broken, but he just doesn't click with me." Which is honestly understandable. It may end up that the so called "perfect Pika/Sheik" that I'm talking about is unattainable by human players to the extent that it isn't consistently viable versus top players playing characters that get results without as much extreme effort, skill and consistency. The technical ceiling for Pikachu and Sheik particularly is probably higher than any other character in my opinion though.
Basically the same as Sheik. Pikachu and Sheik have a lot of potential but people can't consistently win both neutral and execute his DI dependent combos.
Up throw also kills way earlier than it has any right to. Puny little rat out-throws metaknight literally dive-bombing you from orbit.
Yup, this
Huh... I had never thought about it that way, but I think you're right! I've been playing pika for like 2 decades now and I've always found it odd that I can almost _always_ win my first match up against friends [when playing pikachu], and usually the second, but always end up getting wrecked after a few games. It may very well be that he's just so exhausting to play!
nah most technical is shulk bc dial storage theres a consistent 0 to death w dial storage that is near impossible to pull of but is brutal to do bc u literally have to be frame perfect the entire time
Something I find genuinely interesting. I keep track of the character data from the coinbox tournaments, and most characters in the agreed upon top five are pretty commonly played. Steve (1) Aegis (3) Joker (7) Wolf (8) R.O.B. (10) and fellow top tiers like Snake (11) and Kazuya (12) being played about 2% of the time. Pika, is just barely in the top 20. King K. Rool and Dedede get played more than Pika at the coinbox. I just find it interesting that a character so unanimously know as one of the best in the game gets played less than low tiers.
Because a majority of Smash Ultimate’s player base just holds forward for a dub. Best things for that are swords or other big/easy to land hit boxes. You don’t see sheik/Pika/Fox because the risk reward is counterproductive toward 99.9% of the strategy for ultimate’s player base. No one wants to work that hard when they can lean on characters with easy flow charts and still accomplish something.
Every last one of those characters have a ridiculous BS factor apart from Pika. That's why.
You're making me want to see a Sheik/Joker/Pikachu meta show up in a few years.
Would be better than Steve/Aegis/Min-min that's for sure
@@VarsIII There are barely any Aegis’ at top level. Quit lying to yourself.
@@mordeymay3739 ??????? Sparg0, Cosmos, Shuton, Mkleo. Hello?
@@VarsVerum Sparg0 dropped Aegis, Leo barely plays them, Shuton also plays Olimar, and Chokemos has no consistency.
theres a lot more top aegis' than sheik, joker or pikachu@@mordeymay3739
Before premier: People don't play Pika for a reason another commentator pointed because of the stigma that he is hard to play. He's not that hard but people are afraid to play him or simply choose not to.
Edit: After watching the video I do agree, the only dishonest thing about him is the hurt box shifting but that's more physics than kit. It reminds me of Lucina, she's not busted because of kill power or foresight, she too needs the step 1 and 2 to win the game. Hence why people dropped her, a little too boring.
I get frustrated when fighting Pikachu in all honesty, but thinking back on it I can't really call any of my losses against pika as cheese or BS. I was just genuinely outplayed
That pfp tho
>If you lose the "I know you know that I know that you know"
WOW just like in actual pokemon comp where switching and predicting a switch can be massive momentum swings.
Pikachu was my main in Smash 4, because Smash 4 had like no combos and very slow movement, and Pikachu was one of the few characters that could combo and wasn't too badly hindered by being slow. And I dropped him for Palutena, a widely considered low tier in that game. Funny enough, Palutena became a top tier by simply reducing the landing lag of her attacks.
The way I look at Pikachu is, rather than having one or two cheese moves and a bunch of okay moves, he has all good moves and no cheese moves.
“Pika has no dirty trick up his sleeve”
Pancaking and up B disadvantage breaking option would like to have a word with you
I don't really think that Pikachu is really needing or even wanting the opponent to be scared of him (even though it helps). The problem with Pikachu is that he's hard, really hard and can't rely on stray hits. The reason why Esam is so good with him is because he's stuck with the character for 3 games now and takes the time to lab out EVERYTHING he can and even with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the character, it's still hard to get every piece of damage out of every interaction. Pikachu is the biggest time sink to main and that's why I think people don't play him.
So basically, Pikachu is like the Terran race from Starcraft: Brood Wars, where if you can play really well, you can dumpster most everyone else, but if you slip up once and give you're opponent an opening and they exploit it, you're pretty dead. Players like ESAM and Flash makes the game look easy, but keeping that perfect defense is incredibly taxing to most people.
Terran in SC2 as well.
Zerg isnt more OP than Terran per se, but Zerg is WAY more forgiving when it comes to mistakes, so pretty much every top pro that isnt Maru plays them. You uniquely have to play immaculately as Terran. Since if your trades against Zerg arent great (even if they were favorable on paper), they'll recover much quicker than you and gain the momentum. And TvT is often a slow, mentally agonizing trench war where one mistake is the end of the game. ZvZ by contrast, is really volatile and often tends to be a series of coinflips, but it's at least mercifully fast as long as it doesnt go into a big Roach vs Roach phase (which usually is followed by lots of Lurkers and siege warring).
While ESAM overrates Pikachu a bit, he's still a top-tier with tools and strengths most characters would kill for, but people dont play him since he's just so damn unforgiving and precise. Same reason MKLeo dropped Joker, despite Joker being easily Top 3. They're mentally exhausting characters to play, and without having the best kill power, their matches are often too long and taxing when characters like Pythra, Wolf, Cloud, or Roy exist (who can all get the job done with more room for error and can more reliably end matches quickly).
Pikachu is actually kind of notorious for his great option coverage, mainly because of thunder. He can cover low recoveries and high recoveries at the same time with thunder. His ledge trapping is also amazing due to his ability to force options and condition. Throw out fairs to cover jump, t jolt to pressure ledge hang, and forward smash for everything else.
“Everything that makes him good does not explicitly and totally undermine any other member of the cast. Essentially, Pikachu is a very honest character”.
Um excuse me? The edge guards? Pikachu vs every heavy ever?
Make no mistake Pika has BS gimp but it isn't universally applicable to the whole roster nor is it braindead to execute i.e. Kazuya
Back in the day thunder jolt, was called thunder shock.
When a no one plays turns into everyone plays
What do you mean! We have lots of Pikachu players like uhh [thinks for a bit] Esam, r-right? And uhhh ummm E-Es-Esam
Who is E-Es-Esam!?!? I've never heard of him
People saying people don't play Pika because of stigma but yet Steve, Pythra, Sonic, Joker, ROB and Roy mains are a dime a dozen, reality is that the character is too damn hard and those are just the facts. Answers to opponents kits doesn't necessarily mean solidified solutions for winning the game, Pika still has to kill with unreliable finishers and NOT get just poked a little as a lightweight that more often than not brings opponents to very threatening high rage percents. In a game that has a mental rock, paper, scissors fashion of reads sometimes you as a player regardless of character will lose that hand, it is inevitable for everyone and such whiffs often mean serious punishment for this character, Pikachu cannot even afford trading with near any other character in the game. So in terms of matchup theory on paper, absolutely no doubt a top character no questions, it is Pika's best advantage after all. In practice, real-time gaming you are simply better off learning other less demanding characters if you are just going for consistent results and that is why no one plays this lil guy. You know how much people pick this dude up and drop him just as fast? You probably know one. People don't even counterpick secondary the rat because of the technical demand, when people more often pick fucking Shulk as a counterpick over Pika than you just know this dude is too hard.
Why would you even wanna nerf a character you only see in bracket once in a blue moon?
“Pikachus honest” and “one button neutral” don’t belong together
Came here to say this, T-jolt forcing an option at any time during neutral is EXTREMELY powerful and its being underplayed here.
Forcing someone to pick an option every 2 seconds and simultaneously covering space with one button at such a low commitment is absolutely not an honest priviledge.
"Oh you want to punish my back air? Let me just make some pancakes real quick"
@@Mufnman64 That's why gnw a counter better cook
Pikachu is honest?
I almost choked on my pancakes. XD
Good translation of him describing a lot of Ultimate players: carried by their main or support characters you don’t have to work hard to understand. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on Peach/Daisy.
“He has no cheese.” *quick attack noises in sm4sh ensue*
I would argue Pikachu’s back air is absolutely a dirty trick up his sleeve. It comes out super fast, combos into itself, and most egregious of all it pancakes underneath everyone else’s moves!
I’m a pikachu main and basically spamming the lighting rain move makes you invincible
that temporal tower theme
I thought no one played him because of the stigma. I've heard a lot of pros say he's broken bs character. Gets away with stuff for free because his size. I could go on, but it just seemed that people didn't have any respect for the character and people that played him. However people play the hell out of Steve and I think that characters disdained even more so maybe I'm off.
Yeah, I'd say legitimate complaints actually get people to play the character more
We've seen a lot of people come into pikacord saying they're looking for a new high tier to pick up, and they're looking for some tips. They almost all eventually fall off.
honestly, i'm still waiting for why no one plays banjo. i do have some of the ideas why no ones plays him. i'll write them here in a brief text, so that the comment isn't long.
1) his design:
banjo is a Trapper and a Hit and Run character (yes, he is not a zoner) who excels at conditioning his oponent, keeping a constant presure and escaping any situation that he is in pretty easy. he also has a pretty good ledge trapping game and has a really high recovery, with a pretty fast and disjointed down air that makes him fall down, alongside good kills set ups and pwerful kill options that you can set up without problem.
in exchange he loses the ability to make combos relaiably, banjo loses the ability to combo reliably. his combos are powerful when they connect but they depnd completely on tha stages he is in and his combos are most of the times 2 hits in a row, it is hard to do 3 or 4 combo with banjo and the combos are strings, meaning that they are not true.
2) banjo's DLC privielege:
banjo is a DLC character to begin with. meaning that you need to spend 6 more dollars to actually play him and many players will not do that, so they need something that call their attetion to buy him and banjo is sold mostly for his nostalgia factor and his moveset reflects it.
banjo lack any DLC privielege, he only has one gimmick that is wonderwing. wondering is good because it powerful and invencible, meaning that wonderwing can't be challenge buy anything, but you can only use five times per stock. this makes wonderwing balance but takes away some BS and makes him more honest.
Compared to the character that was revelead alongside banjo, hero, banjo seems far less of a DLC character.
3) banjo is a mid tier/low tier:
Banjo and Hero are not as good as the other DLC characters, often considered the 2 worst DLC characters. hero for his incosistency, but our focus is banjo. he is a pretty exploitable character once he is unable to presure with anything, he becomes easy to predict. and while he can run away, if he can't come back to fight he just won't be able to play his neutral. this hurts his game plan, because when is predictable, he loses so much presure so quickly because he uses his wonderwings and without them he loses the game.
4) banjo is boring:
banjo's game plan is boring for many players. he set up traps to condtions his oponents, then makes a shorts string to pnish his conditioning and repeats. when he is not in advantge, he needs to run away. but when he is back in neutral he repeats the same pattern until you make trap that leads into death. this how banjo is played optimally and for many is not fun.
if you ever wondered why people play hero and not banjo, here is why. hero luck factor makes him always fun and enjoyable to play and watch, banjo is sometimes fun to play and really hard to have fun to watch.
this the reason last point is the main reason why no one plays banjo. he is not fun to play optimally for many, and as a banjo player myself, i can confirm that. i do enjoy play banjo because i found to make him more fun for me, but is not his optimal strategy, and i do not enjoy playing that type of games all the time. i like banjo but i know that that how play it is not the way intended to play him.
Awesome video!! Would love to see a Why No One Plays Villager/Isabelle in the future. Personally I think villager is underrated and both AC reps have the most creative move sets.
usually the “why no one plays” only applies to top tiers
Mate they are mid tier and aesthetically they aren't cool. That's why people don't play them.
... actually, Pikachu isn't that hard now that I think about it for more than 2 seconds.
All of his smash attacks are strong and have great utility, his aerials can carry opponents around the stage *with ease* (and I really emphasize *ease* because they are all fantastic), an incredible recovery that also has combo potential, and an up throw that not only kill-confirms into Thunder at early percents, but also kills outright later.
And let's not forget his infamous HURTBOX SHIFTING, basically giving him a chance to have his aerials go completely unpunished.
The community thinks he's hard because he has a lot of difficult tech, like up air bridges and lightning loops. But besides the loops, that tech isn't 100% needed to do well with him. Honestly, after playing him for about two months, I think he's an easy character! Pichu is much harder.
(Made before watching the video)
I think there are three overlooked aspects in the video and you kind of edge up against one of them. First, inconsistency with some of his strengths. Hurtbox shifting is definitely a huge boon to Pika and is a big reason people get frustrated with calling him cheaty... but it isn't a tool which can be relied upon as a player, so on the flip side, they aren't able to "abuse" this in a meaningful way. Second, meta has definitely shifted since the game's release and people outright approach less (a lot more midrange) and characters have appeared with a lot more disjoints and lower kill confirms. Third, "optimal" play for Pika because of this is to essentially force approach with jolt spam and lots of patience, which is not a popular style of play, especially when a character like Fox or Roy can do it "better". The latter two points are also why you've seen a hard falloff in the popularity of Mario.
People don’t play Pikachu because people suck at this game. Why work so hard with a character when you can achieve adequate gameplay with one much easier? Ultimate’s meta will shift to harder characters over time. Right now, it’s a sword fighter simulator.
It seems like common sense to play a character that is good and easy rather than a character that is good and hard, ultimate is a game where this is especially true as we've seen with the current meta shift and with how difficult the game can be in general. Why pick a character that requires consistent peak mental when you can play a character that requires much less.
@@s0me_dood essentially a rehash of my comment but I agree nonetheless
Title: Why NO ONE Plays Pikachu
Video: people playing pikachu
Audio: Explaining why pikachu is good
The difficulty of execution is another thing that heavyly hinders Pikas success. You could kill with one hit at 0% if you execute the Nair loop into Upair Bridge perfectly but none of his combos are autocombos, of which you only need to learn the inputs to pull of, like Rob for example. You need to always concider the DI and environmenr while threading a needle.
Raichu was a key part of the team that one the Pokémon VGC world championship in 2016, so it’s actually pretty good.
At the end you said that the only one step plan that pika has to close out a stock is up throw, but that’s not true. Pika dash attack is deceptively hard to punish if thrown out in neutral as it is fast, has low end lag and pika can run away or rely on his small hit box to dodge any whip punishes. It doesn’t kill super early, but I think I heard Esam say that it kills at 140 with good DI. It is a pretty good stock ender if you can’t find an edge guard or combo.
Aaaaaaaa the Mystery Dungeon music :')
As a casual with Pikachu as my main, I 100% agree with the force the opponent to react strategy. It works pretty well, and feels like a natural way of playing the character.
I wouldn’t have suggested Pikachu for a “Why no one plays” but yeah, as it turns out, I do get outpaced a lot by the competition when I play as him though.
but when you _DO_ win? I bet that victory tastes extra sweet :)
Edit: a trumpet section starts playing in a distant sports stadium. Did... did I say something?
Ah, the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon music in the background. Vars has good taste.
would've liked to see some stats on how much pikachu is played compared to the rest of the cast
A Why no ones play Ike could be insteresting, I feel like it would be cool to see how his revelance in the meta progressively disapperead
"Why no one plays pikachu" probably because there's 50 billion characters in this game
But it is weird that the so called top character is played by almost none of the pro players.
I did a 12-CPU tournament in SSBU including Pikachu who just missed the playoffs by one spot. The top eight advanced.
Pit was dead last, do him next please!
This was so validating. It’s so annoying when people equate “good character” with “easy character”. And I agree Pika is pretty honest, he’s just really good. The one thing that’s a little bs is thunder.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon really has lovely music
Kinda funny how you said t jolt was one of the best projectiles in the game but then say it's honest. I mean, it can still take stocks by gimping recoveries with it's great angle and pika's pressure is incredible solely because of it. It's his "when in doubt, do this" move because it lets him do everything. The fact that it has zero knockback makes it even better since he can combo into it at any percent.
I think also a thing that affects pikachu is that he has to always think when playing a decent player, this can be mentally exhausting.
Can you do “why nobody plays duck hunt” I feel like he’s a cool character that I see almost never
In short; he has options for all situations, but he can only implement them one at a time and HAS to predict his opponent in every interaction to stay ahead. Being one of the best balanced and well-rounded characters in the game when the game has this many characters with busted shit is a detriment in comp play.
I am once again asking for a why no one plays ridley
No dirty tricks?
Pancaking and 0 to deaths would like to speak to you
I honestly still enjoy playing Pikachu as a “secondary”. I’m by no means a pro, I’m just a casual who plays with friends online and offline. But I love his movement and how you can get into a good rhythm with him. I do think the whole pancaking thing should have been fixed but so it goes
He's one of those characters that are not very fun if you're not playing well, but when you're really having a good day it's SUPER satisfying to use pikachu.. that little mouse can do some crazy crap!
I actually think not-being-humanoid in a fighting game is a big factor for low selection. Some kind of psychological thing, perhaps.
I will say that I can agree with your definition of pikachu being honest, however THAT down air doesn't deserve to be what it is, the hitbox is ABSURD and that spike is way stronger than it should be, the fact he can combo INTO it is also just.... Lol
Now, I'm curious about something. Despite being a very good starter choice and consistently strong character, I'm wondering why Lucina is rarely played at top level, I feel like the only exceptions are Protobanham and Mr E. She appears surprisingly unpopular, and I'm sure there's more of a reason than her being boring that I wonder what insight you'd have on her!
Doesn't Nairo use her in tournaments?
i’ve put fuckin hundreds of hours into pikachu but he just doesn’t have like that clutch factor if you ask me. Like in heated last stock situations, he’s much harder to land that killing blow with because he’s so reliant on setups to kill below 150
hmm that a very interesting take i always kinda thought that about pikachu but i was never able to put it in words
POKEMON MYSTERY DUNGEON MUSIC
You'd think with how everyone complains about Pikachu being broken, unfair, and stupid (good), they would play the broken, unfair, and stupid (good) character and win. (Then again, no one plays Joker, so....)
But anyways, before premiere: I think it's just because there's this weird collective agreement that Pikachu is really hard to play. His combos, like the Lightning Loops and 0-Death near-ledge combo, take some practice to get in a real match, but everything else he's so privileged in. I personally think it's weird there aren't many Pikachu players even at low levels because Thunder Jolt, N-air, B-air trains, and deep edgeguards are so easy to be comfortable with. At top level, you do have to master his combos which again, takes some labbing, but outside of that, Pikachu is just easy to pick up and play. Perhaps it's just the whole "Pikachu is really hard to play" mentality that pushes people away, when in actuality, "Pikachu is busted." At least, until you run into a Game and Watch, Samus, Ness, or Mario--who is fairly common at lower levels. That's my take, though.
After premiere: "Pikachu is honest." That's one controversial take, I tell ya lol
Anyway, I didn't really think about how Pikachu doesn't have a "win button" outside of B-air trains, unlike G&W and Mario, and Pika pretty much covers only one or two options at best. Also, it's true that many top players aren't really afraid of Pikachu because they're prepared for him (Marss beating Esam several times in what should be a terrible matchup for ZSS, comes to mind), so Pikachu players have to be absolutely on point with everything to take the set. I guess that's where the "hard to play" comes in, huh?
Because Pikachu takes skill to play and players simply don't want to do that
@@SonicTheCutehog Depends what level you're at. If you're at a high/top level competitive play, you do need to lab combos. But at a mid/lower level (elite smash online mashing or lower pools at a tournament) he's insanely easy. Multihits are really far more carried than you would expect because it means you can do a rising aerial, fastfall while the hitbox is still active, and have it be relatively safe on shield because you can also decide to cross up or drift back. Having rising aerials that are relatively safe against shield is an insane privilege that lots of multihits have, and Pikachu's back air is one of the best because it also has pancaking. That move is near impossible to punish online, and what's more if it lands you get an easy bair chain. Don't even get me started on thunder jolt.
@@JacobPDeIiNoNi I'm taking about competitive play, which is what this video is also talking about
Yeah Pikachu has combos at early%, but he can't combo into his kill moves from say 40%. All of Pikachu's moves don't have full coverage. His tjolt in neutral takes opponents away from his early% combo percentage. He doesn't have super-safe kill moves.
damn bro, i just wasn’t skilled enough to not get hit by t jolt offstage as mac
Agree with everything lmao. Been calling Pikachu one of the most honest top tier for a while.
When launched you can get a double neutral Special when landing for a surprise shock
Nice taste in video game music btw
I would argue that fox is another character from 64 that has been consistently good throughout all smash games. The worst he has ever been was mid tier in Brawl, in Smash 4 and Smash 64 he was high tier, and in Melee and Ultimate he was and still is top tier, top 1 in Melee and top 5 in Ultimate at that.
As a Pikachu main since Melee, you were speaking facts the whole video 🤣
Underrated comment
Melee pikachu is more broken with upair strings and other tools to prevent opponents from getting back to the stage, he also can jab-lock you, and chain grab you. However, melee Pikachu is slow and has a bad grab and his fsmash range is much shorter.
As a metaknight main, yiu describing pikachu's struggles feels similar to a large degree. Sure meta has burst options, but all leave him vulnerable af if they fail. Its all about the reads, and each one will make or break a game
Reads is the worst way to play the game really if you play to win.
Because I don’t feel like getting yelled at when I play with the boys
Pikachu does have a clear weakness: Bad range on his normal attacks. He gets spaced out easily. This in combination with so many multi hits and bad stray kill moves + lightweight make Pikachu not THAT good. Those weaknesses aren't that bad on their own, but they work together to really hurt the mouse.
I would agree with you on everything except the kill moves to a degree. He has good kill power on his finishers. The problem though is the consistency of those moves do to several factors. Lack of a true setup (Up-smash, Thunder), sourspots (F-smash), and inconsistency with multihit moves (F-air).
Up B exists 🤨
Honestly I think pikachus weakness is ppl have gotten better at playing the mu
@@xanander4693 up b with Pikachu? Not really a kill setup or a kill move
@@xanander4693 Pikachu will go down a similar path like he went through smash 4
@@Smashfan92 you said he had a lack of range and gets spaced out easily. But up b is unreactable and can win him neutral for free.
I used to main Pikachu in brawl, but as a "child" the only thing I did was roll then troll people
I really like this series. I think an episode on Greninja could be really cool because I think Gren is a viable character but I don't see anybody playing him. I would love to see an episode on him.
I'd say Fox is also another character that's been consistently good in every iteration. Even in Brawl which is probably his worst incarnation he was still upper high tier and one of the few characters that was considered to have an even MU against Meta Knight.
NO ONE has an even matchup against Brawl Meta Knight, not even Pikachu. I'm sure you meant a -1 matchup which is good enough.
@@N12015 Actually towards the end of Brawl's competitive lifetime he was indeed starting to be considered to have an even MU with MK. Kind of a shame the scene died when it did and we didn't get a chance to see the meta develop further to see if that was actually true.
i had a dream last night that i picked up pikachu is was so weirdly out of place never even thought about it in my life…
13:50 that's such a smart recovery from Pika, holy crap. You wouldn't notice unless you were a top player or knowledgeable on Smash tech.
DI-ing out launches you further, obviously, but not everyone knows that DI-ing up when launched horizontally does that too. DI-ing down, regardless of angle, also decreases launch distance.
With that in mind: The Pika had the opportunity to recover vertically to the ledge, but if they got 2 framed that would possibly get them killed for it because of the increased knockback from holding up. So instead, they Quick Attack up and left, then up and right to the ledge, which is *OPTIMAL DI* if they were to actually get hit by that 2 frame.
Stuff like this is why I LOVE watching top players compete. Being able to see the 9000 IQ plays they do and understanding their thought process or decision making is so freaking cool
Btw both DI up increases your launch distance, DI down decreases launch distance, regardless of the angle. The reason players don't just DI down for everything is because certain angles are more effective for surviving than just straight down
"Pikachu is honest" is something I wasn't expecting to hear. Though reasoning is valid. It's just that the existence of quick attack shuts down so much of what makes most other characters special, or be able to do their normal game plan which feels very dishonest to me.
I picked up Pikachu for a little over 100 matches in Smash 4, and Pichu is my secondary in Ultimate which means I'll look at the differences between Pikachu and Pichu from time to time. I gotta agree that he ain't the easiest. Pichu is absolutely stupid when you know what you're doing, but Pikachu's range makes him significantly more safe that he feels OP.
With that said, the best player I know has been playing Pikachu since 64 so his inputs are amazing. Then during Smash 4 when he took my advice (more than most other people), and later went to tournaments and still continues to improve during Ultimate, he just absolutely demolishes everyone he sees and he moves like ESAM does. Never seen someone make such massive improvement before, since I used to be able to beat him with any character with ease, now he's the best player I know.
There are some characters I just can't play against him like Ridley (who is usually a very easy win button), since some characters just don't have any way to pressure Pikachu, and Pikachu can just wait out/react to anything more sluggish characters do and punish accordingly.
Currently I have only 3 characters that can put up a fight against his Pikachu and sometimes win, but will probably lose because he's that good:
#1 Sephiroth - My current main. Pikachu can struggle with swordies sometimes, and Sephiroth strengthens my best strengths as a player, and nullifies some of my weaknesses as a player. Also similarly to Joker, he's popular but hard to play properly at higher levels so most Sephiroth players are really really bad at him, so it's always a shock to people that play me.
#2 Meta Knight - Smash 4 + early Ultimate main. There is a surprising amount of similarities between the two of these characters. Always leads to intense fast paced matches so it's one of my favorite matchups (sadly he's the only Pikachu player that puts up a good fight though so I don't see it often). I always try to do at least a few Meta Knight matches, he's always the "fan favorite" of the more competitive minded friends I have, and I did a lot of teaching for my Pikachu main friend as Meta Knight.
#3 Lucario - Smash 4 duo main + Ultimate main 6 months after release 'till Sephiroth came in. When you know how Pikachu works, it can be hard for him to get KOs, and I'm a player that usually survives for a long time compared to most people anyways. So while Lucario usually dies earlier than he did in previous games because everyone kills so much earlier in Ultimate, his aura actually gets to come into play. Also, aura seems to have a mental effect on more competitive players when they aren't used to dealing with Lucario, and I don't blame them because I used to have a mindset of hating aura before I learned to have a different mentality towards it so I now love aura. It's just different states of his gameplan.
I have a few theories
1. The huge roster
2. Adaptation and realization that Pikachu has more flaws than people think
3. More prominent characters that fare better
4. Pikachu's most difficult matchup is truly a uphill battle for a top tier
well... at least 3 was kinda close
me a pikachu main getting recommended a video saying im an outcast
Can't wait for "Why Everyone Spams Kirby's Down B." Bc there is a SOLID 50% chance anyone who starts playing Smash will do this
Damn
He has all the frame data in the world but not enough cheese
"Pikachu, Mewtwo-"
Shows Pichu
Anyone else think that one on the Mii Fighters would be funny?
(Also, one on Lucario? In reaction to me telling them I'm a Lucario main, someone on discord said that Lucario mains are rare, and I want to know why.)
Honestly I feel like a video on the Miis would basically be way moreso about the weirdly harsh stigma around them rather than their actual viability in-game. (granted Gunner and Swordfighter ARE pretty mid and even Brawler isn't top tier)
@@GoofyfanG56 correct me if I'm wrong (which I most likely am), aren't Miis banned in tournaments because of the variable specials?
@@yusheitslv100 That was back in Smash 4. And it was not only due to that, but also the fact that the Mii's size in Mii Maker actually adjusted their attributes (small skinny Mii very fast but weighs low, fat tall mii weights a lot but slower) and for some reason that was too much for some people so they were selectively banned.
In Ult tho now they just have same attributes no matter how the Mii is sized in Mii Maker. All they have is custom moves. So now people let them compete as they please with any set of moves. It helps that, since they're the only ones with custom moves now, it feels more like their own gimmick (yknow something like Arsene or Hero Down B) instead of being associated with custom moves for every character (which were straight up banned in Smash 4)
Pls do why no one plays ice climbers because I’m an ice climber main and I think that’s interesting that no one plays ice climbers