The Hungrybox Phenomena
First to address the elephant in the room. While all of these players we spoke to are skilled in their own rights and are slowly climbing up the ranks, none have matches the might of Hungrybox's Jigglypuff. Why do we rarely see Jigglypuff players crack significant top 8s and what separates him from the pack? "In my opinion, his success has a lot to do with him as a player and less to do with puff," s0ft told us. "A novice mechanic can have the best tool set in the world and still not be able to fix a car that a great mechanic could fix with only a couple of tools. That is why you see m2k beat people with Pichu. It has nothing to do with the character, just the fact he is a better player."
Prince Abu agreed that much of it came down to Hungrybox's sheer skill as well. "His knowledge is inherently a lot greater than other Jigglypuffs. He knows how to act in every scenario in every matchup; He kind of invented the character as it stands in today's meta. He has nerves of steel, his execution is really good and he doesn't go on tilt or get scared he will lose. Honestly his spacing and movement with puff is the best by a lot too."
Dr. Z also addressed an issue people think of less when discussing character success: popularity. "Jigglypuff simply doesn't have the allure of other characters in the minds of much of the community," he explained. "I think this has something to do with the perception of Hungrybox's playstyle as the most prominent face of the character. Even though his play continues to evolve and has become less campy/bair-heavy over the years, it still hasn't outgrown its reputation."
The character is still evolving to do more as well. "There is still room for innovation particularly in puffs punish game." Prince Abu told us. "In fact a lot of the things Hungrybox does aren't truly optimal; he tends to pick the option he wont mess up as opposed to the option he might mess up but will get a rest because he likes consistency. His biggest strength is his neutral game so he would rather go for an aerial for example on a platform then go for a reaction rest most of the time."
How To Stuff The Puff
Both Prince Abu and Dr. Z agreed that the character does have some exploitable weaknesses and that players are not fighting against her optimally. "Most people are bad vs Jigglypuff," Prince Abu put it bluntly. "The most important thing vs puff is patience; you cant try to force kills on good Jigglypuffs. She will die eventually if you keep hitting her in neutral but if you even try to force a kill once she might rest you and now you are down a whole stock."
Dr. Z gave his explaination on some of Jigglypuff's weaknesses. "Basically, if you just accept that you will lose 80-90% of the time if you engage with Puff directly and horizontally, you'll start to see where she is weak and approachable. Jigglypuff doesn't have many great options out of shield, so shield pressure in which you can land behind her on shield is extremely effective."
There are other things to remember as well that Dr. Z explained. "Of course, it's also important to know all of Jigglypuff's little tricks for setting up rests. Don't JC grab a ducking Puff. Don't DI the wrong way on her dthrow. Never roll into Puff when you could roll away. Don't try to do something out of shield if you see she could up-tilt."
Time To Rest?
With these weaknesses and lack of representation, will Jigglypuff slowly fall down the tier list? "I think shes between 4-8 somewhere and I dont think she will drop past that ever," Prince Abu told us. "She beats every character except Fox, Falco Marth, and MAYBE Sheik. She has real answers to a lot of things, its hard to just invalidate her like you can to a low tier."
s0ft brought up the Hungybox Phenomena once again in his answer. "I think her dropping on the tier list would only happen if Hungrybox starting doing worse, since he is really the only reason she is that high right now."
Dr. Z agreed that much of her currently tier list placement comes from Hungybox's success. "So I think that's possible, but I don't expect a whole lot of advancement in anti-Puff technology in the near future. What I am hoping is that people realize that without HungryBox, Jigglypuff's results overall would be likely be below characters like Ice Climbers and Samus (both of which I think Puff is clearly stronger than), and that people will look at the totality of the available evidence to make their decisions about the tier list as opposed to being distracted by prominent examples. At this point, it's hard for me to imagine Puff at anywhere but 6th on the tier list (below Peach and above Captain Falcon)."
Is Jigglypuff A Good Investment?
With many players coming into Melee as the game grows, is Jigglypuff a good investment for new players to start with and learn? "She definitely can be," Prince Abu said. "She's really hard and unforgiving though. I would only pick Jigglypuff as a new player if im ready to play with discipline; not as a way to get easy wins on people who dont know the matchup because that stops working after a while."
s0ft also brought up a concern of starting players picking Jigglypuff for the wrong reasons. "I see a lot of people pick jigglypuff initially hoping she will be a shortcut to success. Relying on the fact that you can use your characters tools better than your opponent or that players will not know how to handle those tools works at lower levels due to her being an easier character technically. However, to reach the top you still need to understand the game fundamentally and actually be better than your opponent in multiple areas. All of that takes time no matter what character you play."
"Many people are drawn to the idea of a one-hit kill, but I think Jigglypuff is pretty fun to play as even when I'm not getting any rests." Dr. Z told us. "Edgeguarding with Jigglypuff is like a fun puzzle to solve. I also think Jigglypuff is capable of beating any character. But it's also very easy to plateau with her, maybe more so than other top/high-tier characters, and advancing beyond a certain point takes a lot of focus and matchup knowledge. Those periods in a player's growth can be very frustrating."
Advice For Jigglypuff Mains?
The experts gave their advice on what is best to learn as a Jigglypuff main to improve quickly. "The number one thing is movement." Prince Abu said and Dr. Z gave us an in depth explanation. "The most important thing in Melee is just understanding basic movement and control, and this is true for every character in the game," Dr. Z told us. "You just need to put the hours into playing other people and 'shadow boxing' and practicing movement in training mode to internalize how Puff feels. Learn the startup and lag and l-cancel timing on all aerials with different fastfall timings and whether there's hitlag or not.
After that, it's about understanding safe and unsafe zones against different characters. This is still one of the best videos at understanding the concepts of spacing and these zones of control. Also of course, bang for your buck, learn a couple rest gimmicks against each top tier character. Make Marth land on the stage from the up B and rest him. Duck under standing grabs and rest. Test to see if people know the dthrow DI."
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A special thank you to all three of our experts for contributing to this article. To learn more about Jigglypuff be sure to check out the Jigglypuff boards right here on Smashboards. Agree or disagree with the experts? Tell us in the comments below and stay tuned to Smashboards for future in depth Melee meta analysis!
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