Mmmmm...i've been involved with the Smash series since 64. I was pretty competitive in Melee for a short time, and very competitive in Sm4sh. (Until Bayo killed it, thx).
This game though, is probably my least favorite next to Brawl. The mechanics feel off. It feels like there is considerable input lag (Tried with monitor, still meh). The knock back destroys any sort of combo game. Really not a fan of the new perfect shield system, or parry system, whatever. I felt perfect shielding in the previous iterations were done right, this feels bad and makes projectiles that much more powerful. Correct me if i'm wrong, but in Sm4sh you were able to steal the ledge pretty easily(Run off and grab the ledge) I can't for the life of me do this in Ultimate at all, which is a shame because it eliminates an option of aggression. Online play is aggravating to say the least, it's almost like Nintendo is trolling us. Also what's with short hop? I'm glad i'm not the only one who has been noticing this.
In short, I feel like people are trying to ride the hype train to make this game seem better than it actually is. Yes, it has a multitude of characters, which is awesome. Yes, dash dancing is back and it feels like a compromise between Melee and Sm4sh. But at the same time it got rid of a few things from Smash 4 and previous iterations (Perfect Shielding, ledge stealing (Again please correct me if i'm wrong).
I played Sm4sh and Melee during the apex of the conflict between the two, and I think both games were great for what they were, two standalone games. I feel as though there is a lot of hate for Smash 4, but honestly, if not comparing it to Melee, and ignoring the Bayonetta days (Possibly even Cloud) it was a very solid game that felt good to play. Aside from dash dancing, the game felt smooth, and did allow a combo game (Although it could be argued u-tilts combos are stale, that led to more follow ups for characters like Mario, Luigi, Fox, etc).
This game has me frustrated to the point that I actually feel as though I want to go back to Smash 4, and just run tournaments with Bayonetta/Cloud banned just to see if it's worth investing time into. I keep holding onto hope, believing that maybe it's just I need to get adjusted to the mechanics/gameplay, or that maybe it's just me. But reading over this thread, it seems like people are running into similar issues which makes me believe it's something with the game itself. At this point, i'm hoping these are just bugs that need to be ironed out, and that Nintendo invested too much time focused on just getting the game out / investing more time on the characters than the actual game play.
tl;dr: Not a fan of this game from a player standpoint.