It doesn't have much of a reputation, but I suppose many players don't know that the hippo was played twice in a world chess championship match (Petrosian - Spassky 1966). It's one of those openings I'd classify as being good for very low and very high rated players. 99% of us in the middle should probably not mess with it.
I'd say it's good for new players because they're able to get pieces off the back rank and castled while avoiding material loss. It could be a good way for very strong players to play for a win as black (positions for black are somewhat bad, but become chaotic). I'd say it's bad for the rest of us because the position is passive, and to jiu jitsu out of that requires a wide range of skills (tactical and strategic) as well as psychological strengths (playing from a worse position, patience).
So I am very new to chess and have beaten the chess bots below 1300 with relative ease, however the 1300 bot Nelson absolutely stomped me so many times. Today I managed to finally secure a victory with the Hippopotamus Defense and I'm wondering if its good enough to play with at my elo or if I should just stick with just moving my king/queen pawn and then going from there.
Sorry if this post is bad, this is my first time posting.