Pikachu (in battle) really isn't all that great. That's probably where all the haters come from, spending a ton of time catching and training a pikachu thinking they have a bad-a** pokemon, only to see his stats sort of suck. In general, the pikachu line is a great addition to the pokemon world, and people should get over the tough nuts.
To whoever said they wished gamefreak would eveolve Pikachu, here is why they have not
Back in the Kanto region, Ash was having a toguh time getting through a gym battle. He ended up losing to the gym leaders Richu, and at the Pokemon center, nurse Joy brought out a thunderstone and gave Ash the option of eveolving Pikachu. Ash asked Pikachu what he wanted to do, and he knocked the stone away with his tail, refusing anything that had to do with it. Ash seriously considered using it anyway, but in the end he decided to go with what his pokemon wanted. Later, he re-challenged the gym, and he won with Pikachu's speed. Turns out, the guy evolved his Richu the moment he caught a Pikachu, and since Richu do not get any faster once they evolve, he was stuck with an extremely slow pokemon. Ash vowed to Pikachu that if he did not want to evolve, he would not make him. It does not seem that an evolution will come up for Pikachu any time soon.