Pikachu

Pikachu (ピカチュウ, Pikachu) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. All Stars. Its return to the series was confirmed on August 23rd 2018 during E8 2018, while it was also among the first wave of amiibo. Ikue Ōtani reprises her role as Pikachu's voice actor, albeit via recycled voice clips from Melee and Brawl.

Pikachu is currently ranked 15th out of 58 on the tier list, placing it in the B tier. This is a minor drop from its ranking of 8th out of 38 in Brawl, though its status as a high-tier character has remained intact. Pikachu's positives include its fast overall speed, excellent approach, good neutral and combo games, and excellent recovery. However, it is burdened with poor survivability and very unimpressive KO potential. As a result, Pikachu has a high learning curve and minimal high-level representation compared to other high-tier characters, but it has nonetheless achieved notable tournament results, mostly thanks to ESAM.

The competitive community's overall opinion of Pikachu has been volatile since SSB4 's release. Initially, it was widely seen as an average character, but after a number of impressive tournament showings by ESAM, including his brief period of retirement having added to the "mystery" of Pikachu's potential, it was seen as a top 3 character by players like ZeRo and ESAM himself. Incidentally, this perception was further cemented after an extremely close Winners' Finals set at Super Smash Con between them.

Over SSB4 's lifespan, public opinion on Pikachu's viability swayed again. Many considered Pikachu's ranking on the first official tier list to be far too high, which was reflected with its lower placement within the second tier list due to metagame development, ESAM's inconsistent showings at major tournaments, a dearth of results for Pikachu at national, regional, and even local levels of play, and downloadable content and/or game updates resulting in newfound high-tier and top-tier characters. Although update 1.1.5 nerfed some of Pikachu's most difficult matchups, its current ranking on the tier list is still disputed even after its placement drop, with many players believing that Pikachu should be ranked even lower.