Pichu (USBIV)

Pichu is a downloadable character in Ultra Smash Bros. IV and makes his second appearance since Melee. He was confirmed at the first wave of DLC's alongside with Snake and Ryu. Still he was the most hated and unviable character in the series, Pichu comes back with tons of improvements and gives him a chance one more time. Generally, in the Pokémon series, Pichu is the first pre-evolution form (baby-type) of Pikachu (third is Raichu) and possesses the Electric-type.
Pichu is known to be a semi-clone of Pikachu. Comparing these two, Pichu is much lighter and deals less knockback but deals same damage as Pikachu by comboing. They are both agile in speed but Pichu is a little slower than Pikachu. However, Pichu still receives damage to himself (1% at electric attacks) but he has a great air mobility in the air than Pikachu. Pichu is a little bit floatier. Pichu has a slightly different moveset than Pikachu due to have new three special moves (including Agility). Pichu uses Agility. It doesn't deal damage like Quick Attack but goes further than Pikachu.
Pichu's voiceclips are slightly changed, due to changing actors. Shoko Nagakawa reprises the voiceclips, who acted him at the movie Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life, instead of Satomi Korogi, who voiced him in Melee.
Pichu ranks the 35th place of the 103rd in the tier list, putting him at the high tier classment (B+), before Meta Knight and after Bomberman, making him for now a viable character at the tournaments. This is huge rise for Pichu being the second worst character in Melee (G, bottom).
Pichu receive plenty of buffs. Pichu possesses a great air agility with a great air mobility for comboing. He uses his headbutt as up-air to finish opponents into the blast zone and possesses a meteor smash on the down-air when sweetspoted. He also ranks to be the strongest character in the game at rage percent thanks to his self-damaging and electric attacks. His forward-smash and up-smash are great finishers. Pichu's size is noticable small and effective against opponents because he's difficult to grab or catch him.
However, Pichu still have some flaws. He's a light character and can be launched easily. He still deals electric damage to himself similar to Melee, that rises more percent to send Pichu away easily. This also makes Pichu's gameplay difficult. His down-smash doesn't deal great knockback at higher percents. His grab game is no longer possible for chaingrabs like in Melee. His back-throw is not very effective for comboing utility like in Melee. Most of his tilts ends a little bit later than Pikachu making the opponents air-dodge upcoming moves easily. Overall in his matchups, Pichu is decent at the tournaments thanks to his strong rage effect that he has. This is also the only adavntage that Pichu has to win against various characters.
== Changes from Melee ==
Pichu receives a lot of buffs and a mix of nerfs. It's slightly different comparing to Pikachu.
===Attributes===
*Speaking of asthetics, Pichu's idle animations, taunts and victory poses are different from Pikachu's.
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===Ground attacks===
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*Pichu's up-tilt has a different asthetic. Instead moving his tail, like Pikachu, he hops with his arms up in the air, moving his head up and down. His head is his hitbox (like Squirtle in Brawl).
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===Aerial attacks===
Most of his entire moveset, Pichu's aerial attacks are the most noticable element than changed his moveset and his asthetics.
*Pichu's forward aerial looks similar to Pikachu. Based on hitbox skills, it hits opponents multiple times similar to Sonic's forward-air. At the end of his move, Pichu gives a little electric shock.
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*Pichu's back-air asthetics are similar to Ness. He gives a hard kick back with his two foots and tail.
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*Up-air is Pichu's headbutt, similar to Ness and Lucas.
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*Pichu's down aerial is a drill move, similar to Jigglypuff but then with his head instead. It hits opponents multiple times with a electric shock at the end.
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*Pichu's neutral air's asthetics are slightly different from Pikachu. He rotates more diagonally, comparing to Villager and Duck Hunt Duo.
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===Grabs and throws===
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*Pichu's pummel is a headbutt.
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*Pichu's back throw has only one rollout instead of two.
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===Special moves===
Pichu has now a new variety of moves to improve his moveset:
Move: 	Percents: 	Description:
Neutral Special	Neutral Special	Neutral Special
Nuzzle 	 	Pichu paralyzes opponents like Zero Suit Samus' Paralyzer. But instead of a gun laser, it goes like Pikachu's Thunder Jolt with a small hitbox and gains less speed and range. It doesn't go on walls. It also has more ending lag.
Side Special 	Side Special 	Side Special
Fling 	 	A move used in Pokémon, moves like Diddy Kong's side special, Monkey Flip. It has only a sweetspot. Unlike Skull Bash (the previous ability that he had), you cannot charge it anymore. You can act after side special but you can one perform this move once.
Down Special 	Down Special 	Down Special
Discharge 	 	It works differently. How more Pichu moves with his agility and attacks, how more electricity he gains and affects opponents for good with electric attacks, but deals more damage to himself faster (1.5% at electric attacks). When Pichu is staticly charged, he can use Discharge to strike opponents with big damage. Discharge is actually a essential way to leave the static electricity and be as normal, similar to Wario's Waft.
Up Special 	Up Special 	Up Special
Agility 	N/A 	Dashes at a blindingly fast speed in two directions that can be selected via the control stick. Unlike Pikachu, it travels more distance, good for recovery. However, it doesn't recoil any damage, moves slower which it makes more predictable to gimp, and doesn't deal any damage.
Final Smash 	Final Smash 	Final Smash
Zap Cannon 	 	Charges a large electric energy ball and then unleashes a electric beam going towards the other side of the blast zone, giving an inflicting amount of damage. Unlike all of Pichu's electric moves, this move doesn't recoil damage.
==Trivia==
* Pichu's up special, Agility, is the only move that is reused from Melee in this game.