Discuss Pikachu specific gameplay here.

I noticed Thunder has its SSB4 properties now. Nice touch.

I think the new traction adjustment actually makes Pikachu's Dash Jump-Cancel Up-Smash slide further. Shame his Up-Smash still has a bit too much start-up.

And I swear Quick-Attack Cancel feels faster. Not like how fast it is in Project M, but definitely faster in general.

Thunder now Meteor Smash, this can be great for comboing. Thunderjolt has been nerfed, good thing.
Overall Pikachu still looks like a potent fighter, he hasn't been nerfed too much, he still looks very solid.

F-smash has a longer start-up delay. Also u-air seems buffed, it reliably sends an opponent a downward trajectory and can kill at medium-high %s.

Has anyone noticed Pika being the size of Mario? It looks weird and disportional :/

Also, that Smash 4 meteor smash

Mario is short lol, yet Ash is shorter. Please shrink him. (Please disregard that statement.) Otherwise, Pikachu would be able to avoid everything.

Pikachu wasn't one of the characters that was resized, it's just Mario's a short character and some of Pika's poses make it look bigger than it is.

that pikachu nerf

thunder not being able to KO anymore. Axe would be soo sad.

and his chain grabs with down grab gone dissapointed on Pikachu's changes.

Uuh, sure Thunder can't ko off the top anymore but there are probably lots of new combo possibilities now, and you can meteor smash an opponent with it. So Axe wouldn't be that disappointed lol.
Axe might not even play Pikachu if he played SSF2 as it's very different from Melee Pikachu.

Anyway, Pikachu wasn't only about getting chain-grabs...The biggest nerf imo is thunderjolt's nerf...Which is more than welcome tbh and was necessary.
Again, people have to stop getting disappointed for broken characters getting nerfed, that's how 0.9b is : more balanced.

Why does the backwards hitbox of Pika's tail hit like a semi spike? lol

That's more like his past incarnations. His tail had many hitboxes and he could hit a spike from behind if he wanted.

Wait, what?

Since when does that make sense?

Mmm....

been like that since Melee. I've got to say though Pika got hit kinda hard with this update, not to where he's unuseable but to where he's not nearly as good as he used to be. From what I've seen though, other than the SSB4 Thunder (which I don't really like tbh), he seems kinda solid, Nair is still relatively good, and the Uair is ridiculous. Only thing i miss besides Thunder is just pika's kill power, given the multitudes of disjoints in the game Pika's going to have to work to kill when he doesn't edgeguard, though his Quick Attack Cancel and up-b in general seem a lot smoother.