My rating for Smash 4's DLC by category (keeping it brief)
New Content: 9/10:
Sakurai said that his team put more work into these last few newcomers than fighters in the base game, and it shows, because, if I'm being quite honest, the DLC blows most of Smash 4's OG newcomers out of the ****ing water.
Cloud + Midgar Bundle: 8/10
Cloud is an incredibly fun character, being a unique blend of having huge range and speed, effectively being perma-Speed-Mode Shulk. Extra credit to the Advent Children costume, an extra fanservice that didn't have to be done but they did it anyways. Midgar is probably the only stage that manages to balance stage hazards so that they're actually fun to have around and the stage and it's visual effects are fabulous.
However, the lack of basically ANY music content really hurts the Midgar stage. I'd love to use it more but I got so tired of the same recycled FF7 tracks every time.
Ryu + Suzaku Castle: 8/10
Again, Ryu is fun and fans of Street Fighter must be very happy to have their classic inputs perfectly represented in Smash Bros. Suzaku Castle is also fun, but I'm not sure I'm a fan of the walk-off to the right.
Like Midgar, the music selection is lacking, but at least we have two remixes and two additional (recycled) versions of the remixed tracks.
Bayonetta + Umbra Clock Tower: 9/10
Easily my favorite newcomer. Bayonetta's moves and combos feel like they are pulled straight out of her games - she's a perfect fit for Smash in hindsight. And special mention to her taunts and victory poses. Umbra Clock Tower is a great stage as well, with non-intrusive but stunning background elements (again, much like the games she's from) and interesting platform placement.
Unlike Cloud and Ryu, Bayonetta's stage has a sizable sample of music from her games, which is very appreciated as Bayonetta music is amazing. The trophies of Jeanne and Rodin are also appreciated, although the addition of Cereza (who is essentially a spoiler for the games) is weird when they could have easily done Luka or Enzo, or even some of the Angels featured in the stage background.
Corrin: 8/10:
As a playable character, Corrin is one of my favorite newcomers. Instead of relying on a cheap, forced gimmick to make the character feel "unique" will making them less accessible, Corrin stands out through a bunch of small quirks particular to them, such as pinning opponents, and draco-morphing.
The additional trophies for 3DS users is nice but it kinda sucks Wii U owners get no trophies, although I guess being able to use the (****ing awesome) Lost In Thoughts All Alone remix on non-Smash Run stages is compensation enough.
Super Mario Maker stage: 7/10:
Whether this stage is fun or not is basically up to the stage itself. Sometimes it loads in fun and creative layouts, other times it loads annoying ones nobody wants to fight on. I overall find it fun regardless of that, but the novelty does wear off.
The two unique music tracks, a catchy remix of Super Mario Maker's theme, and a retro medley of Mario course music than changes alongside the level, are great, but adding every single other Mario track in the game to compensate for the lack of anything else is...honestly overwhelming and pointless because I turn them all off anyways.
Mii Fighter Costumes: LOL next/10
(alright in all seriousness some of throwback costumes like Lloyd Irving and Geno are rad as **** but most of them are just recycled models from other games and Smash 4 so whatever)
Returning Content: 7/10:
I'm pretty disappointed by the past stages and mildly by the DLC veterans. Some of the old content was pretty neat, however I feel like compared to the new content, it was comparatively little fanservice for much less work.
The fact we have 3 of the easiest stages they could added (N64 stages) and no Melee stages and one Brawl stage seriously rubs me the wrong way.
Mewtwo: 7/10:
Honestly, I'm at least happy that Mewtwo made it in at all. But on the flipside, I really just think he should've been in the game from the start, and kinda feel he was held off for to test DLC. As for Mewtwo himself, his moveset hasn't evolved at all unlike every other Melee veteran, which severely disappoints me as I was hoping if they were going to make him come out months after the game's launch that he'd have some slight overall like Pit or Bowser.
But hey, at least they bothered to revoice him in the same style as Melee and he actually looks cool (unlike in Melee where he looks like a toad or something).
Lucas: 7/10:
I'm a little more happy about Lucas being DLC than Mewtwo as I feel he was much less necessary, however, I still feel as though he was another case of "let's make him low priority so we can sell him later". Especially if you buy into the Gematsu rumours.
But that's just speculation. Don't worry, Lucas himself doesn't impress me that much. He feels even more like a Ness re-skin with hair and no backpack and eyebrows in this game than Brawl and his moveset and VA being 1-1 with Brawl's makes him feel somewhat lazier than the other characters.
Roy: 8/10:
I admit that I think Roy didn't deserve to come back. However, as actual content, he completely impressed me. They really breathed new life into a completely irrelevant character, and made a simple clone from Melee different and unique enough to be a DLC fighter worth your money.
Again, props to getting back Roy's Melee VA from all the way in 2001 for DLC, and double props to said VA for remembering exactly how to vocalize for nostalgic Melee fans (AKA most of Roy's fanbase) to squee with hype or at least appreciate.
N64 Stages: 7/10:
As I mentioned before, these are fine stages themselves and I'm glad they're back, but the only visual changes are upgraded textures, which isn't enough to make these retro stages live up to the great, high-poly 2014 characters that are fighting in them. I understand it's part of their charm but I feel like they could have done something similar to Project M, which completely updated these exact past stages to look good in the modern era. Mario Kart is doing it, so why not Smash?
The music selection ranges from nice (Peach's Castle) or downright bad (Hyrule Castle and its plethora of recycled arrangements of the main Zelda theme, although that acoustic remix IS ****ING DOPE).
Pirate Ship: 9/10:
Honestly, the only reason I give this one such a high rating is because it surprised me. We have 3 N64 stages and then this cut Brawl stage that had no reason to be cut due to actually having a place in Smash for Wii U comes back out of nowhere.
It's clear due to the lack of parity with the 3DS version, the recycled music already in Smash 4, and the lack of a Wind Waker HD makeover that Pirate Ship was a last-minute addition, it wasn't in the plans for a while. But rather than feel cheap and lazy, it feels like they did what they could to get this one past stages out there, and that makes me happy.
(but also because holy **** Pirate Ship is an awesome stage guys and the omega version is awesome too omgggg)
Overall: 9/10:
Smash 4's DLC is great and better than a lot of other recent games (even other Nintendo games - looking at MK8 and your paid reskins of existing characters, though at least they are cheap).
While I feel the returning characters/stages were lacking, the newcomers and their stages more than made up for it. However, at the same time, I feel the majority of Smash 4's DLC is pandering to the same crowd. We have Lucas, Cloud, and Corrin. All RPG characters - two from Fire Emblem.
Bayonetta and Ryu are the only non-RPG newcomers in the batch. I definitely feel like a lot of the negativity around Smash 4's DLC could have easily been fixed with a character appealing to different demographics.
Even something as simple as adding Wolf where Roy would've been could have avoiding ruffling a lot of feathers (and no I'm not just saying that because I think Roy is kinda lame and that Wolf is a cool dude).
Starfox is a series in which the fans often ask if Nintendo gives a ****, meanwhile Fire Emblem is becoming rapidly more prevalent for Nintendo, so adding 1 character from each series versus adding two from the former would make more people happy, I feel.
And mind you, I don't care about "muh reps". I care about the characters themselves as well. But I feel like 2 Fire Emblem characters really drives my point home and that a single additional character from a different demographic would have made this round of DLC go from great to perfect.
But I guess that's not how Sakurai does it!
EDIT: i just realize literally nobody will read all this
Also, forgot to mention that this **** is overpriced, especially the pointless Mii costumes of characters already in the game
EDIT 2: also holy **** this wasn't brief at all, in fact this is one of the longest posts I've ever made LOL
