Who is the face of Pokémon? Well, it was going to be Clefairy, but Nintendo decided to change it so that the series would appeal to boys and girls. Whether you love Pikachu or hate it, you do have to give the little mouse some credit. We fell in love with Pikachu as it traveled with Ash on his adventures. Nowadays, it is one of the most recognizable mascots on the planet and has touched the hearts of millions worldwide.

When it comes to Pikachu, there is a lot to unpack. Over the past 20 years, people have developed wildly incorrect ideas about the electrifying rodent. On top of that, there are plenty of secrets and little-known facts about Pikachu as well.

Although most people love, or at least like, the electric mouse, a lot of people hate Pikachu. It’s hard not to blame them. Pikachu is one of the most overrated Pokémon. Although Ash’s Pikachu is made to look like a pseudo-legendary in the TV show, Pikachu is a really weak Pokémon. A lot of kids found this out the hard way. Additionally, Pikachu wasn’t the reason why Pokémon became popular. That honor goes to Mew. The lead developer secretly hid Mew in the first games, causing an explosion of interest once people found out about the mysterious 151 Pokémon. Take that Pikachu!

15 The Worst: Hospitalizing Children

Pokémon has had a lot of low points over the years. For over 20 years Pokémon bounced from one scandal to another. Plenty of them were baseless; like all the times the church went after Pokémon for teaching kids devil worship, magic, evolution, or other such nonsense. However, the Electric Soldier Porygon scandal nearly ended the franchise. For those who are unaware, Electric Soldier Porygon is a banned episode from the first season of the TV show. It only ever aired in Japan, but it sent over 600 children the hospital. At one point during the show, a virtual vaccine shoots missiles at Ash and the gang. When they exploded, the screen quickly flashed red and blue for four seconds. This caused epileptic fits in children. So who was the culprit behind said explosions? You guessed it, Pikachu. That little menace used an electric attack and destroyed the missiles. However, Porygon ended up taking the blame. It hasn’t shown up in a Pokémon episode ever since.

14 The Worst: Starter Stats

One of the reasons why the first generation of Pokémon was unique was because it was the only mainline game with four possible starters. Granted, none of the games ever offered all four, but it still counts. Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue all offered a choice between Charmander, Bulbasaur, or Squirtle. However, Pokémon Yellow allowed players to start off with Pikachu. Pokémon Yellow followed the plot of the show and your companion was Ash’s Pikachu. This was really exciting for 90s kids. At least, until they realized how much Pikachu sucked.

Pikachu’s stats were the worst, especially in comparison to the other starters. Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur all have a total base stat count of 309, 314, and 318 respectively. Pikachu had a measly 300 stat total until gen 6. The only edge it had over the other starters was its speed. That didn’t change when Nintendo increased Pikachu’s stat total to 320. Pikachu has a slight edge over the others in Attack now, but that is by a measly two points. Even an extra 20 points couldn’t save Pikachu. In fact, no other starter has stats as bad as Pikachu’s.

13 Awesome: PikaSpeak

Pikachu and Ash are the only characters present throughout the entire history of the Pokémon TV show. However, a lot has changed since Pokémon first aired. Pikachu lost a lot of weight. The art style varies from one series to the next. Ash’s voice has changed several times despite not actually hitting puberty. Yet, Pikachu’s pattern of speech has remained remarkably constant throughout the show. In fact, several dedicated fans figured out how to translate some of Pikachu’s more common phrases. Pikachu’s language, known as PikaSpeak, is pretty limited. Pikapi is Ash’s name. PiPi-kachu translates as Team Rocket. My favorite is Pi-Pikachu, which means “Gotta catch ‘em all.” Pikachu will sometimes say this after Ash catches a Pokémon or defeats a gym. A lot of Pokémon can speak English, but Pikachu is the only one who gets its own language.

12 The Worst: What Are His Good Abilities?

Pikachu naturally learns two moves at level 1. Depending on the generation it would get Thundershock and Growl or Thundershock and Tail Whip. Out of those two, only Thundershock can actually deal any damage. However, Pikachu doesn’t learn another damage dealing attack until at least level 10 — although in some games that is as high as level 16. So what is the move that you have to wait so long for? Why, the astounding Quick Attack. A great move with a whopping 40 power (insert sarcasm here). Even after that, you still have to wait anywhere between 5 to 20 levels before Pikachu learns another damaging move. Most of these attacks fall within the 20 to 65 power range. A good chunk of them have relatively low accuracy. All of the other gen 1 starters learn at least two damage dealing attacks before level 10.

11 The Worst: Refusing To Evolve

Everyone knows the Pikachu in the show won’t evolve. One of the earliest episodes of Pokémon was devoted to Pikachu choosing not to evolve. Every since then, the little creaton has refused to even consider evolving. That’s all well and good for the show. It means that Pokémon got to keep its mascot. However, this becomes a real problem when Pikachu refuses to evolve in the games. Pokémon Yellow wouldn’t let you evolve Pikachu, no matter how much you wanted to. Raichu is objectively the better Pokémon, yet you were stuck with the inferior Pikachu throughout the entire game. This became a real problem later in the game where the stat difference really kicked in. Heck, you couldn’t even get rid of the mutinous mouse. You could deposit Pikachu into the PC, although not without consequence. However, you couldn’t release it.

10 Awesome: It Secretly Has A Punny Name

A good chunk of the names for Pokémon are puns. However, Pikachu’s name is a double pun with an extra side of adorable. Granted, almost everything about Pikachu ranks somewhere high on the scale of adorable. The specific pun requires a bit of an explanation for those who are not intimately familiar with Japanese. Japanese uses different onomatopoeias than English. For example: while we use boom in English to describe the sound of an explosion, in Japanese the word is dokan. The sound of sparks in Japanese is pika-pika. Mice in Japanese say chu instead of squeak. Pikachu’s name is the combination of a spark and a squeaking mouse. Although, it also means that every time Pikachu says “pika” it is literally saying the onomatopoeia for a spark. That puts the show and games in a slightly different perspective.

9 The Worst: The Gym Battle Situation

A lot of people like to argue that the different starters offer a different difficulty curve. Bulbasaur gave you easy mode since he basically tore through the first three gyms with zero effort. Squirtle was the nice midway point as he helped a lot for the first gym, but was fairly useless for the second and third gym. Charmander set the game to hard mode because of how much difficulty he had in the first two gyms and how slow he was to power up. However, if Charmander was hard mode, then Pikachu was brutal or extreme. No matter what the anime might think, Pikachu was the absolute worst thing to bring to the first gym. Brock’s ground/rock type Pokémon destroyed it. Pikachu made up for its total incompetence in Misty’s water type gym, but went right back to being useless in Lt. Surges electric type gym. Plus, in the later game, Pikachu became useless again for the 8th gym and the Elite Four. Both a ton of ground and rock type Pokémon.

8 The Worst: Anyone Can Do It Better

Anything Pikachu can do, other Pokémon can do better. A lot better. Pikachu isn’t exactly the worst electric type in the world, but it is pretty far on the bottom. If you just look at Pikachu’s base stats, it is one of the lowest around. Heck, even the Pikachu clones outclass Pikachu in terms of raw stats. Most Pikachu clones hover around 400 for their base stats; compared to Pikachu’s measly 309 (320 starting in Gen 6). In fact, if you have a Thunderstone, you might as well use it on an Eevee since Jolteon outpaces even Raichu. Although players have access to Pikachu a lot earlier in Pokémon Red or Blue, Eevee is not far behind. You could argue that Jolteon is a second evolution so it can’t be compared, but all you have to do is look at Voltorb. With a base stat of 330 and an all around better-learned move set, Voltorb is clearly superior to Pikachu.

7 Awesome: What Do You Know About Surfing Pikachu?

Although Pikachu has a lot of variants, the first and best was Surfing Pikachu. A Surfing Pikachu is the only Pikachu capable of learning the move Surf. These Pikachu ride surfboards, letting the player travel across water in the most epic way possible. Players needed to attend a special event in order to get their hands on the prized Pikachu. If they got it for Pokémon Yellow, it would unlock a special mini-game: Pikachu’s Beach. You played as Surfing Pikachu, riding the waves and doing tricks for points.

Many people believe that Surfing Pikachu inspired the creation of the second most popular Pikachu, Puka. This beloved Pikachu only appeared in episode 67 of the original show: The Pi-Kahuna. It featured a surfer, Victor, and his blue-eyed Pikachu. Puka would ride the waves with Victor and had the unique ability to predict waves. One popular theory suggests that Puka is an Alolan Pikachu because of its unusual ear tufts and Alolan Raichu’s fondness for surfing.

6 The Worst: It Shocks Everything

Shocking right? Well, not to anyone who has watched even an episode of the TV show. Pikachu’s an electric mouse. It's going to electrocute everything in its path. Ash’s Pikachu spent most of the episode electrocuting the poor kid over and over again. Anytime Pikachu is upset, Thundershock. If it doesn’t like something, Discharge. Team Rocket mucking around? Thunderbolt. However, Pikachu’s behavior on the TV show isn’t what earned it a spot on this list. The reason goes back to the Pokédex. More specifically, Pikachu’s dex entry from Ruby and Omega Ruby. “Whenever Pikachu comes across something new, it blasts it with a jolt of electricity. If you come across a blackened berry, it’s evidence that this Pokémon mistook the intensity of its charge.” Talk about destructive.

5 The Worst: 100,000 Volts

Pikachu’s signature move is Thunderbolt. The Japanese name for Thunderbolt is 100,000 volts. That’s a ton! Especially when you consider that it came out of the little red cheeks of a 1’4” (0.4m) mouse. For the record, electric eels can produce electrical shocks as high as 860 volts. That’s gotta hurt, but it’s not actually deadly. In fact, you can buy 10,000 volt tasers or 3.5 million volt stun guns. That’s enough to paralyze you and probably stings pretty bad. When it comes to electricity, high voltage isn’t what matters. Amplitude is where it’s at. The higher the amp, the worse off you’re gonna be. You only need 0.1 amps to kill someone. Pikachu striking a human with 100,000 volts is equal to 1amp. That isn’t even its strongest electric attack. While Pikachu might suck in the games, it’s deadly to its trainer. Sorry, Ash, you’re not walking this one off.

4 Awesome: It’s Everywhere

Pikachu is almost as iconic as Mickey Mouse. Even if someone knows nothing about Pokémon, they will probably recognize Pikachu. Toy shops are stuffed with Pikachu dolls, and most of the Pokémon merchandise features the little mouse. The card game is filled with Pikachu as well. There are around 120 non-reprint versions of Pikachu cards. Pikachu even invaded real life. There are plenty of videos on youtube that show people dancing in Pikachu costumes. It’s enough to put a smile on anyone’s face. Some scientists decided to name a protein they discovered after Pikachu, dubbing the new molecule Pikachurin. The 1999 Asian edition of Time Magazine once named Pikachu the best person of the year. Back in 2001, the Pacific island of Niue once printed a dollar coin with Pikachu on one side. To top it all off; Topeka, Kansas was renamed to Topikachu. I’m not kidding. This actually happened.

3 The Worst: Hey You, Pikachu!

Playing Hey You, Pikachu! wasn’t just a chore, it was a nightmare. Hey You, Pikachu! released on the N64 back in 1998. It followed the story of a nameless child as they learned to get along with a wild Pikachu. However, for as cute as Pikachu is, it clearly is a psychotic monster. The signs are there from the very beginning. One of the earliest events with Pikachu is where it offers you an apple and then throws the apple away before you can grab it. Things just get worse from there. Pikachu will continually shock young caterpie if you ask it too. Sometimes, you’ll turn around to find Pikachu holding wooden 2x4 up as if it’s going to strike you. When Pikachu isn’t terrifying, it’s obnoxious. Pikachu barely listens to you. It misinterprets your commands half the time and ignores them the other half. Trying to do anything with Pikachu is like giving yourself a root canal.

2 The Worst: Smash Bros. Woes

It is bad enough that Pikachu is bad in the mainline games. It is unforgivable that Pikachu sucks in Pokémon Yellow. However, Pikachu can’t even find a way to be good in the side games. Specifically, in the Super Smash Bros. games. Granted, Pikachu was one of the best fighters in the original game. However, after that, Pikachu was severely nerfed. Only new players or stubborn players use it. Barely anyone in the professional circuit uses Pikachu and no one has won a grand tournament as Pikachu. Even the world’s best Pikachu player couldn’t pull it off. Pikachu shows up in other games like Pokémon Stadium, but its presence is so insignificant it might as well not be there. The same goes for most of the other Pokémon spin-off titles. Even the Pokémon Trading Card Game couldn’t make Pikachu good despite having hundreds of different versions.

1 Awesome: Pikachu Outfits

Pikachu is the only Pokémon with a real sense of fashion. Super Smash Bros was one of the first games to actually show Pikachu wearing different outfits. The first game had Pikachu wear one of three differently colored party hats. Super Smash Bros. 4 offers 8 different selections. Of course, the party hat is still an option; but Pikachu also has two baseball caps, a detective’s hat, two bandanas, and goggles to pick from. Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire raised Pikachu’s game by introducing Cosplay Pikachu. She started out with two base outfits. However, the anime gave her a bunch more; including the popular Pikachu Libre. However, the best Pikachu outfit arguably comes from the anime. In Lights! Camera! Pika! Ash’s Pikachu takes on the role of Super Pikachu. Nothing can beat that epic outfit.