Post by hunterstuff on Sept 11, 2016 6:09:00 GMT
It's everyone's favorite (or least favorite) puppet, Pinocchio! Listing 7th out of 20 on the current official tier list, this wooden pal has been doing surprisingly well lately, typically scoring high at tournaments. I, personally, believe that Pinocchio (or Pinoke) is an excellent beginner character, and is a good first choice for people just getting their feet wet in SSS. Let's discuss why!
Reasons You May Want To Play As Pinocchio:
As I said earlier, Pinocchio is excellent for beginners and is great for learning the fundamentals of the game with, having a strong (and stylish, if you're willing to put the work into it) combo game, a good neutral game, and a solid crumpet dash coming together to form a solid, strong character. Pinocchio's gameplan is pretty simple: get a ground grab, and do a charged throw to land anti-air strings, into your charged special, hopefully leading into your Slam. Once you have using your first anti-air early down pat, this isn't very hard to do, and even if you miss the rest, Pinocchio can get around 50%-80% of meter from this.
In fact, a lot of Pinocchio's main toolset is very simple to learn and use, not relying on any ogrements or tricky timings, and mainly consisting of his charged throw, anti-air, charged special, and his AABB jab combo. Let's break them down:
Charged Throw:
Pinocchio's charged throw is, simply put, very good. It manages to throw the opponent just high enough to land a substantial amount of anti-airs before they hit the ground, yet not high enough that they can move far enough to escape. If you charge it up immediately after a grab, they most likely won't be able to mash out before you throw them, so if you do land a grab, always use this. He doesn't have much good options out of his regular throw, and he doesn't have many strong soup-grab options.
Anti-air:
Of course, after you land a charged throw, you will of course want to land as many anti-airs as you can. Luckily, Pinocchio's anti-air is very good for this, having a nice, long hitbox for hitting the late anti-air, and dealing a substantial amount of damage with each anti-air. Sadly, like most moves in this game, they are very slow, if you don't think you can land the next anti-air, don't. Let them land, or try to hit them with your AABB.
Charged Special:
And of course, once they land, you will probably want to try to hit them with this. If you start charging it when or shortly before they land (which is somewhat more trickier than charging up a throw when you grab), then you will be able to land at least most - if not all - of the hits. Even if they try to move away, or are launched somewhere, if you land at least one hit with this, it will home in on the enemy, which will prove useful. Of course, once they're on the ground and in bluestun, you do have another excellent tool...
AABB:
Pinocchio's AABB jab combo is excellent. The first two parts aren't very important, but the latter two are very important. The second-to-last part will hit the opponent out of bluestun, knocking them up, and the last part will knock them down, back into bluestun. This means that theoretically you could keep doing this until you get a Slam, but usually you'll want to finish the combo up with an aerial. This jab combo can also be used when your opponent is falling, allowing you to get all four hits in, getting you even more meter and serving as a nice substitute to his charged special.
Reasons You May Not Want To Play As Pinocchio:
Sadly, things are not all roses for our woodmade friend. Despite his strengths in all areas, one of his glaring weaknesses is that he relies heavily on charged throws to do his damage, meaning his neutral gameplan is all about landing ground grabs. This, combined with the slowness of grabs in general means that he is easily punished, including by being grabbed himself. This also means that when he's in neutral he has to, above all else, be patient and rely on footsies to get his grabs.
Another thing is that his gameplan is very linear. He doesn't have many other options in neutral than to land grabs, and when he lands that grab, he doesn't have many other options than to land anti-airs. This makes him very easy to play, but if you're not willing to invest in the stylish side of his combo game, then this can make him somewhat boring to play compared to other characters.
What To Do Against Pinocchio:
Even if you find playing against Pinocchio to be a pain, there's still stuff you can do to stuff his approaches and turn the tables to your advantage. One of the things I mentioned is his slow, easily-punishable grab. In high-level play, a missed grab from Pinocchio can mean the difference between you losing a stock and him losing a stock. And I also mention that he relies heavily on his footsie and neutral game to land grabs. If you can bait a grab attempt, then that could mean a free stock for you.
tl;dr:
Overall, Pinocchio has excellent tools that are easy to use, meaning that even beginner players can become a potential low-level threat with a bit of practice, but a heavy reliance on footsies for ground grabs means that being outplayed is his greatest weakness. Of course, though, one of the best ways to beat out a good footsie and neutral game is to be patient, and to have an even better footsie and neutral game. In fact, playing with and against Pinocchio can be a great way to train your footsie game!
or, y'know, you could just play red riding hood
Hope you all enjoyed and learned something from my very first character guide! If you have any comments, complaints, corrections, etc. then please, share them with me! I'm always open to constructive criticism, and I'll always be willing to find ways to make my guide(s) better!
Reasons You May Want To Play As Pinocchio:
As I said earlier, Pinocchio is excellent for beginners and is great for learning the fundamentals of the game with, having a strong (and stylish, if you're willing to put the work into it) combo game, a good neutral game, and a solid crumpet dash coming together to form a solid, strong character. Pinocchio's gameplan is pretty simple: get a ground grab, and do a charged throw to land anti-air strings, into your charged special, hopefully leading into your Slam. Once you have using your first anti-air early down pat, this isn't very hard to do, and even if you miss the rest, Pinocchio can get around 50%-80% of meter from this.
In fact, a lot of Pinocchio's main toolset is very simple to learn and use, not relying on any ogrements or tricky timings, and mainly consisting of his charged throw, anti-air, charged special, and his AABB jab combo. Let's break them down:
Charged Throw:
Pinocchio's charged throw is, simply put, very good. It manages to throw the opponent just high enough to land a substantial amount of anti-airs before they hit the ground, yet not high enough that they can move far enough to escape. If you charge it up immediately after a grab, they most likely won't be able to mash out before you throw them, so if you do land a grab, always use this. He doesn't have much good options out of his regular throw, and he doesn't have many strong soup-grab options.
Anti-air:
Of course, after you land a charged throw, you will of course want to land as many anti-airs as you can. Luckily, Pinocchio's anti-air is very good for this, having a nice, long hitbox for hitting the late anti-air, and dealing a substantial amount of damage with each anti-air. Sadly, like most moves in this game, they are very slow, if you don't think you can land the next anti-air, don't. Let them land, or try to hit them with your AABB.
Charged Special:
And of course, once they land, you will probably want to try to hit them with this. If you start charging it when or shortly before they land (which is somewhat more trickier than charging up a throw when you grab), then you will be able to land at least most - if not all - of the hits. Even if they try to move away, or are launched somewhere, if you land at least one hit with this, it will home in on the enemy, which will prove useful. Of course, once they're on the ground and in bluestun, you do have another excellent tool...
AABB:
Pinocchio's AABB jab combo is excellent. The first two parts aren't very important, but the latter two are very important. The second-to-last part will hit the opponent out of bluestun, knocking them up, and the last part will knock them down, back into bluestun. This means that theoretically you could keep doing this until you get a Slam, but usually you'll want to finish the combo up with an aerial. This jab combo can also be used when your opponent is falling, allowing you to get all four hits in, getting you even more meter and serving as a nice substitute to his charged special.
Reasons You May Not Want To Play As Pinocchio:
Sadly, things are not all roses for our woodmade friend. Despite his strengths in all areas, one of his glaring weaknesses is that he relies heavily on charged throws to do his damage, meaning his neutral gameplan is all about landing ground grabs. This, combined with the slowness of grabs in general means that he is easily punished, including by being grabbed himself. This also means that when he's in neutral he has to, above all else, be patient and rely on footsies to get his grabs.
Another thing is that his gameplan is very linear. He doesn't have many other options in neutral than to land grabs, and when he lands that grab, he doesn't have many other options than to land anti-airs. This makes him very easy to play, but if you're not willing to invest in the stylish side of his combo game, then this can make him somewhat boring to play compared to other characters.
What To Do Against Pinocchio:
Even if you find playing against Pinocchio to be a pain, there's still stuff you can do to stuff his approaches and turn the tables to your advantage. One of the things I mentioned is his slow, easily-punishable grab. In high-level play, a missed grab from Pinocchio can mean the difference between you losing a stock and him losing a stock. And I also mention that he relies heavily on his footsie and neutral game to land grabs. If you can bait a grab attempt, then that could mean a free stock for you.
tl;dr:
Overall, Pinocchio has excellent tools that are easy to use, meaning that even beginner players can become a potential low-level threat with a bit of practice, but a heavy reliance on footsies for ground grabs means that being outplayed is his greatest weakness. Of course, though, one of the best ways to beat out a good footsie and neutral game is to be patient, and to have an even better footsie and neutral game. In fact, playing with and against Pinocchio can be a great way to train your footsie game!
or, y'know, you could just play red riding hood
Hope you all enjoyed and learned something from my very first character guide! If you have any comments, complaints, corrections, etc. then please, share them with me! I'm always open to constructive criticism, and I'll always be willing to find ways to make my guide(s) better!