Isn't Pikachu...weak?

[redcharzard]

Thunder wave, Thunder, Thunderbolt, Double Team, Lightscreen, and Quick Attack(for revenge killing.) Those are useful and don't forget about the surfing pikachu from Stadium.

[RaZoR LeAf]

Thunder wave, Thunder, Thunderbolt, Double Team, Lightscreen, and Quick Attack(for revenge killing.) Those are useful and don't forget about the surfing pikachu from Stadium.

Pikachu's primary weakness is Ground, so Light Screen does nothing to help it's defence against that. Likewise, Quick Attack might work in some fancy 5th gen strategies but it's ultimately a weak attack that doens't do much unless the enemy is on it's last dregs of HP.

[redcharzard]

Pikachu's primary weakness is Ground, so Light Screen does nothing to help it's defence against that. Likewise, Quick Attack might work in some fancy 5th gen strategies but it's ultimately a weak attack that doens't do much unless the enemy is on it's last dregs of HP.

Lightscreen is for team support(earth power is special but pikachu would die from it anyway) Quick attack is to for revenge killing something that survived via study, endure, focus band(hopefully as this could still activate) or focus sash.

[Ilan]

Lightscreen is for team support(earth power is special but pikachu would die from it anyway) Quick attack is to for revenge killing something that survived via study, endure, focus band(hopefully as this could still activate) or focus sash.

earth power is from gen 4 IICR and ground moves were physical anyway there was the "special stat" which made mewtwo invencivle if he had inversment in the defence and "special"

there are no abilities in gen 1

gen 1 is gliched and the battle mechanics have too many flaws I don't even dare playing less than gen 4 cause those games have the physical/special per type flaw

[RaZoR LeAf]

Also Light Screen only protects the pokemon that uses it, not the team. Have you ever played the 1st gen?

[Flippd]

Also Light Screen only protects the pokemon that uses it, not the team. Have you ever played the 1st gen?

I did not, but i guess it was quite powerful.
Its still strong on these days, if youre using it in the good way.

[Raleigh]

Pikachu is not that good, but that won't stop people from using him in Yellow. He's cute though, if that has any redemption.

[Lareon]

My opinion is,....................... Pikachu will be really strong if we train it really hard. I did it my self.

[Akriloth]

Just level it up and you'll have no problem against the E4 or anybody. It's friggen Pikachu mon!

[Sorcia]

The idea of Pokemon Yellow was to play the game like the animated series. So, instead of one of the three starter pokemon, you got Pikachu, just like Ash did in the story.

As for weak, I'm not sure about that. I played with my Pikachu on Yellow straight through to the Elite Four. I never saw any problems. Of course, back then, you just had the basic rock/paper/scissors pokemon battles. You knew when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em. I'd knew I'd have it hard starting off, because you fought Brock as the first Gym Leader (Ground....Rock.....*shivers*), so I'd look for some pokemon to help (i.e. Trying my best not to use Pikachu at all and using other pokemon I caught). Of course, this really isn't different than choosing Charmander in Red/Blue (especially when you got to Misty...), but you can't say that Charmander is a weak pokemon in general simply because he wouldn't be good for a few Gyms...

Really, it depends on how you raise a Pikachu. It's an Electric type, so, naturally, you can't use him/her against Ground or Rock (or...and I'm not sure about this...Grass...thought I read somewhere that Grass is supposed to have a resistance to Electric types...). Plus, I've always thought of Pikachu as a speed pokemon, so I don't think it's the type to go through pokemon battles like a knife through butter. Pikachu's can be really fun, though.

[hailflameblast]

I always used Pikachu on my playthroughs of Yellow, but that was because a) I was still a noob back then, and b)I have this weird habit of always using my starters in my ingame team.

[Specter Vyle]

The idea of Pokemon Yellow was to play the game like the animated series. So, instead of one of the three starter pokemon, you got Pikachu, just like Ash did in the story.

As for weak, I'm not sure about that. I played with my Pikachu on Yellow straight through to the Elite Four. I never saw any problems. Of course, back then, you just had the basic rock/paper/scissors pokemon battles. You knew when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em. I'd knew I'd have it hard starting off, because you fought Brock as the first Gym Leader (Ground....Rock.....*shivers*), so I'd look for some pokemon to help (i.e. Trying my best not to use Pikachu at all and using other pokemon I caught). Of course, this really isn't different than choosing Charmander in Red/Blue (especially when you got to Misty...), but you can't say that Charmander is a weak pokemon in general simply because he wouldn't be good for a few Gyms...

Really, it depends on how you raise a Pikachu. It's an Electric type, so, naturally, you can't use him/her against Ground or Rock (or...and I'm not sure about this...Grass...thought I read somewhere that Grass is supposed to have a resistance to Electric types...). Plus, I've always thought of Pikachu as a speed pokemon, so I don't think it's the type to go through pokemon battles like a knife through butter. Pikachu's can be really fun, though.

I strongly agree with you. Having a Pikachu as a starter is a somewhat unique experience (since I figured no one really uses Pikachu that much). Also, it doesn't matter that the Pokemon is "weak or "strong". What matters is how you train it and what moves it knows as goes for all Pokemon.

[collapse]

everyone loses! the op is a supernoob! i've been playing yellow longer then you youngins!

[DJ Pon-3]

Collapse please make a relevant post. I don't know why y'all are bellyaching about Pikachu. My surfing Pikachu was amazing :J

[RevengeHitokage]

Yes, good luck using Pikachu on Stadium.

The flash from the opponent's pokeball is enough to knock it out.

[DJ Pon-3]

As long as it is on your team for every battle, you got surf. All you really had to do was build a team around it.

[RevengeHitokage]

As long as it is on your team for every battle, you got surf. All you really had to do was build a team around it.

Oh I tried this, prime cup round 2 with:

Mewtwo@
Psychic
Recover
Fire Blast
Thunderbolt

Mew @
Psychic
Transform
Softboiled
Tri-Attack

and Pikachu; the moveset is irrelevant as it usually died before it could move.

I even sat through a 35 minute stall war between me and the opponent's mew in the final battle; I had to wait until it used up all its PP. And then.... nothing happened - I came back onto the main menu with nothing different, no option to learn surf or anything. I used Pikachu in my team selection in every single battle, and still nothing. Too lazy to try again, it was just stupidly hard and i got nothing in return, having already beaten it previously.

[DJ Pon-3]

You get the surfing Pikachu in Master Cup.

[ZelOfLight]

I wouldn't hate on Pikachu too much, I've seen it take down Lorelei's Lapras in two hits, and they were both the same level. It really depends on how you raise it in Yellow, and since stats were different back then, it's got a pretty nice speed for a Pokemon that can't evolve in-game. Not to mention how many great Pokemon that are practically handed to you without catching them, all of them are great for building a team around Pikachu. This was a generation when Charizard was king, and Venusaur had superb special and Blastoise was extremely bulky, use them to help Pikachu along! Besides, it's really lame to ditch the only Pokemon that follows you around for the next three generations.

[AnThRaX2.0]

It's for people who have great skill to play pokemon and use Pikachu to there advantage, if there is any at a given time. Its also for marketing the franchise, just my two cents.

[RevengeHitokage]

You get the surfing Pikachu in Master Cup.

There is no Master Cup. Do you mean Prime Cup Master Ball (Rd.2)?

[DJ Pon-3]

There is no Master Cup. Do you mean Prime Cup Master Ball (Rd.2)?

Derp. Yeah, that's where you get the surfing Pikachu.

[bobyjoe5000]

only if light ball was in gen 1 D:

[RevengeHitokage]

Derp. Yeah, that's where you get the surfing Pikachu.

Oh, I wonder why it didn't unlock for me then. I did everything right :/ Strange

[K2000]

I always use pikachu in yellow, just seems right, that and it makes Misty so much easer than in Red (where I always picked a Charmander)