The game to me, it sorta sucks.
Maybe it's cause I've been checking the Smash Bros. Dojo every day since it's creation, and have been anxiously awaiting the release. I may be expecting too much of the game, and that's why I don't think it's as good as a lot of people make it out to be.
It's not Melee. It's nothing like Melee. They either took out the notable stuff that made Melee the game it is, or changed it drastically to where it's not even recognizable as something from the previous game.
For example, air dodging, still exists, but crippled far beyond recognition. It's almost useless now. Before you could direct your air dodge, which was cool not only for wavedashing, but for mind games as well. Now you just "go with the flow" air dodge, which limits it's usability ten fold.
The levels are about what I expected them to be, and keep up with the pattern the previous two games set: they suck. There's a few that are good, but when it comes down to you playing the game for several years, you'll find that the best battle ground is a flat plane with no obstruction or intruding dangers or distractions from what the game's meant for, fighting.
The items this time around seem to be mostly hard-hitting and over-effective. One that really fits the description is the spicy curry. It lasts way too long, and it's pretty hard to counter or avoid. Most of the assist trophies are over-powered, the rest are just annoying. The smash ball is pretty cool for a while, but I think it'll get boring.
Most of the final smashes are ineffective once you find the weakness. If you find out how to dodge the move, avoid the confrontation, then they're just pretty boring. You end up either running away and wasting time that could have been spent fighting, or get killed and waste time in the protective first moments of spawning. Some though are really imbalanced. Sonic for example, there's nothing you can do if you're alive and your opponent uses it. You can get lucky, if they suck with it, and not get smashed out, but you're going to take damage from it. The most rediculus final smash though, is the Landmaster Tank, which can be summoned by 3 of the same type of character.
Which brings me to the characters. Many people complain that Melee had too many clones. I guess the developers either didn't hear them or didn't care, because now there's an outstanding amount of the same character with a different model. I mean there's three fox type characters, and they all have the same moves to boot. Half of the new characters introduced in the game are replacements from characters less-liked in the previous game, cloned and tweaked barely. Ness has a clone for god's sake.
And if you had a favorite character from the previous game, expect them to now suck balls and be completely ass-backwards to what you're used to. Link turned from a fast paced, projectile spewing whirlwind into a cumbersome pebble tossing tortoise. Gannon's slow-but-still-usable performance turned into stop motion video. Samus went from a fairly usable and powerful character to worthless with her suit on, and quirky with her suit off.
I havn't gotten to play online yet, but I know it's only going to increase my amount of bitching about the many flaws of the game. I mean, there's no leader board, no ranking system, no way to know your opponent, no sure way to turn off and on items or pick your map, no way to tell the connection speed of the opponents, no multiple players on one console, no fun. It's like they wanted to have the most boring experience possible when you choose to play online. Want to team up with a friend against another team somewhere else? Nope, you get some random noob. Want to know who's the best smasher in all the world? Nope, no one is, I guess. Want to see clans of pros, or recognize a friend's avatar while playing online? NO. No no no no no. You can play online, as far as you can tell, and you better enjoy it because it's not going to get any better.
Oh, forgot. The fact that you can use all 4 types of controller, is cool for those who don't have Gamecube controllers. But it ruins the analogue shielding introduced in the previous game. It really throws me off. I got so used to barely even touching the trigger to shield, and now I have to mash it all the way down and click it. It's retarded.
