Pika vs Kirby Help

[CyrusTheGreat]

Hey Guys,

I am having lots of trouble with my friends kirby against my pikachu. He spams n-air: as I'm approaching, as he lands, when I come from above lol (didn't know it has a hit box there). The matches end up being **** on his side or a decent struggle by my part.

I know my approach of f-air is faulty and especially vulnerable to his n-air or f-air. Should I approach with u-air? Or just be waiting for my back kick and hopefully start a combo afterwards

I found this video of sensei and m2k and my friend plays like him but doesn't float around as much. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CriUOTTrG7Q&feature=related


Thanks!

 

[Charmander]

Spam down-b. Ypu know what they say about spammers, if ya cant beat em, join em.

 

[ballin4life]

^^ haha

I don't feel like making a detailed response right now but if you could provide videos that would help a lot

 

[CyrusTheGreat]

I"ll try to add a video in the next couple of days, thanks

 

[asianaussie]

I have to point out that m2k doesn't seem to be very good at 64.

I'd suggest baiting - run in calmly, run back out as he attacks, then run in and do whatever (grabs/short hop aerials seem the best idea).

 

[ciaza]

Approach with uair. Pikas Uair ***** nigh any other aerial, especially a kirby nair. Eventually he'll give up nairing and do what every other kirby does and air camp>dair>utilt lol

 

[kit]

i feel like pika nair > kirby nair but wtf do i know its late... and...****...

 

[asianaussie]

Kirby's foot is like 2 metres long when he uses an aerial (except U-Air).

 

[NixxxoN]

Approach backwards. Use back air because its fast and you can do surprise hits. Mix it with dairs too.
Or another solution is to pick another char like mario and spam fireballs vs the gay kirby

 

[Dan$inyi]

I wouldnt approach with the uair. I would approach using dair or backairs with your back turned to him.
practice your timing with the uair, if you get that down you will be able to stop his nairs in the air easily

 

[Blue Yoshi]

Up-air, if you learn the timing, is probably Pikachu's best approach. You can combo up-air into grab at low percent (best if you up-air near landing), while at mid-high percents, into another up-air (or fair, usmash, nair, anything really).

A combo that works at lower level play is doing an up-tilt chain (up-tilt, up-tilt, up-tilt, etc.), followed by an up-smash, followed by thunder. If they don't DI out of it (or don't know how to get out of it), it can be a good kill combo.

 

[CyrusTheGreat]

I'll work on the u-air approach and let you know how it goes. When I use my d-air as an approach, I usually match his n-air and we both get hit but kirby's clown feet are stronger and longer so on average he gets a better deal out of it.

Random question though on a side note: How do you guys z-cancel? Like the methodology on how you input the cancel. I noticed that I usually push z twice a few moments after my attack and its worked out pretty well but of course there's a window for error. I just wanted to know if I only do that or most people just push it exactly when needed and only once.

 

[DMoogle]

Up-air is definitely good, but timing can indeed be difficult. Against someone good with Kirby's n-air, approach with b-air. Worst case scenario, you hit each other.

 

[Tambor]

Random question though on a side note: How do you guys z-cancel? Like the methodology on how you input the cancel. I noticed that I usually push z twice a few moments after my attack and its worked out pretty well but of course there's a window for error. I just wanted to know if I only do that or most people just push it exactly when needed and only once.

I used to wonder about this as well, so now I think I have a clear answer that works for me. When I started z-canceling I remember pressing Z a lot of times whenever I tried to do it (The fact that I played online didn't help - lag and delay reinforced this bad habit).
But now to me there are two kind of z-cancels:
-The one I do pretty close to the ground. In those cases I just tap A then Z inmediately afterwards. Can't go wrong that way. I find it especially useful if you try to squeeze two attacks into one jump (like mario's dair>uair).
-When I'm quite far from the ground I time it by pressing Z before touching the ground. Especially with Link's dair and uair, and the nairs and drills of most characters.
These categories are pretty rough, some z-cancels are of course a bit in between. But I feel most fall into these categories. Also, my timing is different when I know I will hit my opponent, because it includes hitlag.
As everything, it will come to you naturally if you just practice it. Just try to z-cancel every single aerial while you're playing and you'll get used to it. So yeah, reading this probably won't be useful at all.