From new info in the japan Smash demo, it seems that the ground game is very quick and there are true honest to god combos, the air game is slightly heavier than brawl. It also seems that the majority of the roster in the demo definitely has the tools to combo others and move generally quickly. The off stage ledge game is more risky, but I imagine that's why recoveries were buffed and sweet spotting is much more difficult, once we figure out how to manage the ledge game with the trump mechanic I imagine aggressive plays being more popular with chases. Tilts are VERY good as combo starters, this will be interesting with the pivot cancel and run stop cancel mechanic. Shields break pretty quickly, easily the fastest since 64, so poking and having aggressive spacing is rewarded wit a potentially stunned opponent and a free combo. Moves that have high knock back usually have high landing lag like the Knee (which now has a bigger sweet spot and even better knockback, YES!), but as seen, many characters have other options to fight. Whether it will it have a recognized and large competitive scene won't be determined just by players, its also the spectators. (This is how melee came back to EVO, because of the players AND the viewers who wanted to see it there). Remember Amsa during the invitational Vs Ken? Or Hugs getting Megaman's final smash? Diversity, spectacle and accessibility to compete are what creates a large competitive scene. Lets break it down from what we know about the game and these details.
Will Smash 4 have good diversity unlike Brawl's MK shenanigans and Melee's mostly the same fighters (Fox, Falco, C.Falcon, Sheik, Marth) in tourneys (granted in Melee's case the diversity of these characters is what kept the scene, really similar to MvC2's scene)? Its very likely, thanks to the new developments on custom moves and given what we know right now, there's a very high chance that more characters will be competitively viable and be able to mix up numerous options and spacing, which helps the viewers to see plenty of diversity and the players to experience many new spacing options and situations (which extends the life of the game greatly). There's large evidence to support a 50+ character cast, only promoting diversity here.
Will Smash 4 have spectacle? This is the tricky question, there are good damage combos unlike Brawl, and combos are a key part of the spectacle of a fighter watching a person go crazy on another is fun to see and play. However, in between combos as many know is the "neutral game", the part where zoning, spacing and poking and utilizing momentum play key roles in transitioning to the combo phase. Smash 4 will be tested to see if it succeeds in this regard to reward aggressive spacing and avoid infamous MK spacing doubles. But people have more options to attack shields since they break so quickly and have low lag attacks to do so, but most of the meta beyond that is an unknown to be explored. Length also plays a role here, will matches take too long and bore players and viewers? This question cannot be objectively answered right now, we need to determine the ideal number of stocks and time through testing (My guess is 3 stocks 8 minutes will work well). AT's are tools that should mostly improve the neutral game's speed to transition to the combo phase. Since we've barely scratched the surface here, lets be patient for testing and see what comes up beyond Run stop and pivot cancelling as well as learn how to work the off stage ledge game.
Will Smash 4's scene be accessible to newcomers? At its base Smash has always been a highly accessible franchise, but competitive smash is very odd to describe. Are there challenging inputs in the series? Of course there are, look at the super wavedash and the DACUS. But the real issue is that the scene isn't transparent in the game itself, you HAVE to research yourself instead of the game itself teaching players the advanced stuff, this is an immediate cliff for anyone looking to get into the scene many fighters also suffer from the problem with some having minor degrees of solving it (like Killer instinct's GREAT tutorial on the Xbox One, though its just for Jago and no one else). But this relates back to AT's again, will they be too complicated like DACUS?
So yeah, those are my thoughts on the potential competitive scene, we have to watch it develop because we really don't know much about the meta itself and how that will translate to the competitive scene. I feel the game will have a good competitive scene that'll last a very long time alongside Melee and PM, and I'm very excited to be a part of that scene.
