I was wondering, do people pick Coco over N. Gin due to better stats or just preference?
they both have the same stats. I believe the reason has to do with Coco's hitbox being easier to work with and less funky, therefore you hit less stuff, however I might be wrong.
Most people go with Coco because they prefer her model and sounds. Hitboxes are the same, but N. Gin's half missile can block vision especially when compared to how short Coco is.
If you weren't able to use Coco or N.Gin, would Crash/Cortex be the next choice, or would it be Pura/Polar?
honestly, prob tiny/dingodile since they are fastest. Then I would guess crash/cortex and finally polar/pura, however I'm not too certain on that. Why is it that you can't use N. Gin or Coco though? If it's just difficulty using them, I would just practice.
If you're talking about multiplayer, Pinstripe has the same/similar stats. If you can't pick him either, Dingo/Tiny/Papu are the next best choice (Dingo especially, due to having the smallest screen presence), followed by an all-arounder and then the turning type as Rob assumed.
Got a local retro tournament coming up in a few weeks, so I'm just preparing for what characters I should pick if Coco/N.Gin get taken.
Wouldn't Dingo/Tiny/Papu be worse for some of the high-turning courses/tech? Or would they still better than Crash/Cortex even in those situations?
in the end though, a pura/polar with fantastic turbo boosting is better than a coco/n. gin with shit boosting imo, so be sure to know how to boost and where shortcuts and (if the tournament allows them) the different glitch skips you can do are.
In the case of a local tournament in Australia... Penta has max stats in everything on PAL and NTSC-J and would be the optimal choice if available.
...and would also be banned (most likely).
"Penguin Yay 1"
Doubt Penta would be banned unless the organizers actually have that great of a deal of knowledge of the game. So yeah pick Penta if you can. Tiny/Dingodile are definitely best after Coco/N.Gin. I'm not exactly an expert on this game (although I have been watching TTs and speedruns of it for several years) but what I've heard from some top runners of this game is that Tiny/Dingo are actually not as far as you may think from being as good as Coco/N.Gin.
Yeah, don't worry. I'm good with boosting and all of the shortcuts except for some of the more extremely difficult ones and a few consistency issues.
Wouldn't be surprised if none of the characters were unlocked, but it seems to be that I should pick Dingodile/Tiny, so in a 4-player match it sounds I'll still have a preferable options. Will prefer Coco/N.Gin though just because I'm way for familiar with those stats. Thanks for the advice guys.