SSBM/Pichu

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Introduction

Although originally designed to be the worst character, like most of Melee's development, things didn't go as planned, with Pichu carving out a niche for itself in the upper echelon of the low tiers. Pichu is a clone of Pikachu, with whom they share the basic outlines of their gameplan. Both are relatively linear pixie types perpetually forced forwards, towards the enemy, by their minuscule hitboxes and inability to control space. Unfortunately, Pichu is almost strictly worse than Pikachu, with a slower dash speed, less versatile up air, and the lowest weight in the entire game. As low as 63%, Fox's up smash will kill Pichu off the top of Yoshi's Story, even with impeccable DI. Pichu's attacks also lack range, which means you'll get outspaced by most other attacks. Pichu's most notorious, although not necessarily most impactful, flaw is its self damage mechanic: every time Pichu puts out an electric move, even on whiff, it inflicts damage on itself. So is there any hope for this forgettable mouse?

Pichu has a lightning-fast dash, with incredibly fast and active hitboxes. Pichu nair comes out on frame 3, is active for 25 frames, and has the lowest landing lag of any aerial in the game. Although Pichu's comically low weight means it can't Crouch Cancel attacks for a long time, Pichu does have the lowest Impact Landing Lag in the game, and therefore can act out of Crouch Cancel 2 frames faster than any other character. Combining these strengths, Pichu's basic gameplan is to sheathe itself in SHFFLed hitboxes (usually nair) and rocket around the stage horizontally, like some kind of little cannonball. It doesn't matter how little range your moves have when you're on top of your opponent at all times. In a game like Melee, this can be a surprisingly versatile strategy. But without the moves to shift gears when the situation calls for it, Pichu's ability to compete rides or dies on the effectiveness of this one, repetitive approach, and very few characters don't have at least one good answer to Pichu's one good question.

Pichu is handicapped by a skeletal move pool, with many moves ranging from niche to borderline useless. Pichu, in contrast to Pikachu, has a weaker and slower up smash. Also, Pichu's up air lacks the tail flip and tail spike property of Pikachu's up air, leaving only the juggle hitbox. These weaknesses results in situations where Pichu struggles to find kills at a reasonable percent. Playing vs Pichu often ends up being a war of attrition, one where Pichu cannot afford to make any mistakes due to its incredibly low weight.

Ultimately, Pichu is a functional but meager character with a rushdown playstyle largely overshadowed by its far superior clone. With such direct competition, it's no surprise that Pichu sees some of the least tournament play of any character...but, then again, perhaps this makes it perfect for a certain type of player.

Strengths

Weaknesses

The Speed of Lightning - A fast dash allows Pichu to shoot across the stage at lightspeed and drag its aerials with it. The tradeoff is that this locks Pichu into committal and highly predictable horizontal arcs whenever it leaves the ground. Small Hurtboxes - Pichu is the smallest character in the game, which grants bonus evasiveness. When it jumps or lands, Pichu turns into a pancake, low profiling many attacks. Spammable Aerials - Pichu's landing lag is generally even lower than Pikachu's, helping it minimize the downtime in between its good aerials. Amazing Tech in Place - Although every other character's tech in place is invincible frames 1-20 of 26, Pichu and Pikachu have a tech in place that's invincible from frame 1-24 of 26. Solid Throw Game - Pichu's up throw leads to a chaingrab on spacies and nair on most other characters. It can also down throw to set up tech chases.

Catastrophic Risk-Reward - One of the least impressive punish games in Melee attached to a character with the worst possible traits for fighting blow-by-blow. Pichu dies earlier than anything else and does pitiful damage per hit. The math is always against this character Self-Damage - While it only applies to about half its moveset, Pichu does chip damage to itself just for using moves. Some of these, like its recovery, can't be avoided, and some, like pummel, would otherwise be very welcome but are made very unattractive Low Range - Pichu's main neutral tool, nair, has a tail hitbox that rotates with Pichu. As a result, half of the time that the attack is active, the hitbox will be behind you with your front vulnerable to any kind of attack. Poor Tech Rolls - Pichu has the shortest tech rolls in the game, resulting in situations where the opponent can either cover 3 out of 4 options with a single attack Lowest Weight - Pichu is the lightest character in the game, even lighter than Jigglypuff. It dies off the top incredibly early, and doesn't have the ability to Crouch Cancel or ASDI Down attacks for as long as other characters. Also as a result of weight, Pichu suffers longer hitstun than any other character in the game.

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