PIKACHU Amiibo Guide

PIKACHU

AVERAGE TIER

I've worked with him quite a bit and he reads and adapts pretty well. But because he can be trained poorly and has a few issues, I dont feel he's as strong as I thought he was initially. This amiibo is starting to feel dated. While it seems Nintendo made fixes to some of the terribly broken amiibos like Wii Fit/Kirby/Yoshi, they seem to have neglected the issues holding back Pikachu. As my amiibo collection has risen I've seen Pikachu struggle and I've seen him outshined by quite a few of the newer ones. With Pikachu you really want to train him to do a lot of aerials as well as grabbing. He is very quick so he's able to evade a lot of damage while getting in for easy grabs. A lot of amiibos struggle with his speed and end up with tons of damage before they can do anything. Using his neutral b to wrack up damage is also very important, it gives him a far range option to help draw enemies to him or lead him into an aggressive dash attack. He also uses this skill to gimp off the stage and amiibos get gimped easy by it if they have poor recovery. Problems that have arisen with Pikachu involve too much of one move and can really make this amiibo meh. If you're the type of player that likes to spam down b for damage and kill opportunities, do not do that with this amiibo, you will break him if you do. I've seen him down b on top of a down b he was doing it so much. He misses the majority of them and gets punished really hard. It leaves him vulnerable because of the lag and considering how squishy he is you need to be mindful not to use that move too much or it will ruin him.Using down b is hard coded into him and he will use it even if you don't.  It really needs to be fixed so he doesn't put so much priority into it, because it's destroying his potential. When my collection was much smaller I thought Pikachu was an amazing addition, but since so many great amiibos have been released he has definitely fallen to the bottom of the pack. I think Pikachu's Amiibo is outdated and needs some work, his priority of the down b can really ruin him, and though people have had success with this amiibo, he's extremely easy to mess up.

PROS: 

• Strong AI
• Very Adaptable
• Has Long-Mid-Short Range Options
• Quick and Small
• Hard to Hit and very slippery
• Can Rack Up Damage Quickly

CONS: 

• Can Become Defensive If Trained Poorly(Not good for a Pikachu)
• Will Spam Down B if you aren't careful
• Has Trouble Killing other amiibos
• Very Squishy
• Struggles in Free For All/Team Matches
• No Kill Throws
• Doesn't realize his Thunder Bolts get blocked by platforms

TRAINING MUSTS:

• Neutral B at Long Range and show him how to gimp with it
• Utilize all aerials
• Use down b sparingly, very sparingly
• Grab and pummel often, he is a grab king and because of his speed he can get grabs easily
• Make sure he knows his kill options or he will struggle to get kills