Event 7: Pokémon Battle

Pokémon Battle is the 7th of the 51 event matches in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

The player controls a fighter of their choice and must win a 2-stock match against a red computer-controlled on the Pokémon Stadium stage. The event lacks a time limit. Pikachu is handicapped, and its artificial intelligence is set at Level 5.

When the match starts, the player's fighter spawns on the leftmost soft platform, while Pikachu spawns on the rightmost soft platform. As the name implies, the selection of items is limited to Poké Balls, and both fighters can only take damage from Pokémon that appear from the Poké Balls. Attacks and thrown Poké Balls will pass through each character without causing any damage, hitstun, knockback, or hitlag. Pikachu uses the "ITEM" mode, which makes it frequently pursue Poké Balls that appear and rarely use attacks.

Trivia

 * It is possible to block Pikachu from picking up Poké Balls by giving it a non-throwing item. This can only happen if the player, as, spawns a Beam Sword or Mr. Saturn via Vegetable, then drops it close to a Poké Ball such that Pikachu unintentionally picks it up. Once Pikachu has the item, it will never throw or attack with it, even after more Poké Balls appear on the stage.
 * Pikachu will still attempt to shield attacks, even though they are harmless. As such, it is possible to force Pikachu to break its shield by using a quick attack such as 's.