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Pikachu Brings The Thunder!
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is huge. Not just in terms of hype and importance and sales potential, but just in terms of sheer stuff. The Nintendo Switch mascot fighter features over a hundred stages, nearly a thousand songs, and too many Pokemon and items and Assist Trophies to think of crammed onto a cartridge you can plan on the go or on a TV. When you have as many big franchises as Nintendo, putting them all in one game will make that game is very big boy indeed.
But the biggest, most exciting thing about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is its mind-blowing, heartwarming roster of playable characters. Fighting games pride themselves not just on the strength of their mechanics but the strength of its fighters, especially in a crossover fighters like this. And Super Smash Bros. Ultimate crushes all rivals by including every single playable character from the across the four previous games in the twenty-year-old series. Include the new combatants and so far we have over 70 fighters to wrap our heads around. We’re excited, but we’re also intimidated. So to get ready for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, every day, character by character, we’re creating the ultimate guide to all of its characters. Today’s fighter: Pikachu.
Who Are They?
At this point Pikachu is probably more famous than Mario. Nintendo and Pokemon are certainly connected. The Pokemon games are some of the most beloved exclusives on handheld Nintendo hardware. But Pokemon, with Pikachu as its face, is also its own semi-autonomous entity with fame and fortune that has nothing to do video games. When you think of Pikachu, when you picture this adorable electric mouse monster and hear it say its own name, you’re probably thinking of the anime.
Smash History
Pikachu was one of the original eight Smash 64 characters and brought with it a bevy of Pokemon content to the franchise. Players could grab Poke Balls and summon monsters to the field. Throughout the series we’ve seen multiple Pokemon stages based on towns, elite gym battles, and even floating balloons shaped like Pokemon. Pikachu is the mascot for all of it, appearing in every game. In America at least, Smash 64 only came out a year after Pokemon’s smash hit Red and Blue Game Boy debut.
What Looks New in Ultimate?
By far the most important change to Pikachu in Smash Ultimate is the addition of Pikachu Libre, complete with wrestler costume and heart-shaped female tail. Gameplay-wise things seem pretty similar on the surface, but tweaks to numbers and Ultimate’s general gameplay style appear to make the already strong Pikachu perhaps one of the best characters in the game. Shout out to Pikachu main ESAM on YouTube who has been a great source for many of these competitive insights.
Our Hopes?
From a balance side, we just hope Pikachu isn’t as dominant as it maybe appears to be. But Smash Ultimate Pikachu has already surpassed our expectations for raw levels of cuteness. Oh, and if spamming Thunder could somehow become less effective in casual play, that would be fantastic as well.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate releases Dec. 7 for Nintendo Switch. Until we can play more for ourselves, changes we talk about here are mostly speculation. For more thoughts check out our Smash hands-on as well as cool Switch games to play that aren’t Smash Bros., because those definitely exist.
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