After playing 400 matches I think I can say I find Ike to be really bad. I will start explaining.
- No good meteor/off stage attacks. Yes I guess one can say Fair is a good off stage attack but I find it to be really lacking. I have had 60+ instances when I knocked someone off the stage with a well timed Fair at 130% and they survived. Dair feels extremely weird to use off stage and I can rarely find myself spiking them with this move. I have only had 6 matches where I actualy spiked someone with it.
- Defenseless vs zoning types characters. After facing loads of villagers,Mega men,Sheiks,Zero suits and dark pits ALL my matches against them were extremely tedious. I think others can say the same.
- Eruption. What kind of use is there to this move? I find it to be one of the worst specials in the game unless proven wrong.
- Other characters do Ike's job better. Characters like Bowser and other heavy weights tend to do Ike's job alot more better due to their more consistent kill rates and actual decent off stage tools.
I really like Ike's character + the way he plays but he just gets his but kicked by alot of members from the cast and it's so frustrating. Hope someone can come and prove me wrong.
Maybe you're just not very good with Ike. Switch up your approach or find a character that better suits your playstyle. It has nothing to do with what you prefer, it has to do with what you are actually good with. I find him to be pretty good right now especially after this most recent patch. Bowser plays nothing like Ike. Ike's Fair and Nair are great for short hops which allow you to jab combo or grab right after. Between those 2 moves you cna approach well and control space pretty well. On top of that his range is ridiculous compared to Bowser. It's also very easy to edge guard with him because all you need are the following:
If they are low, walk off fair
If they are high, jump off fair
If they are trying to be tricky, charge up you're B and time it so you hit them right as they grab the edge or hold it longer because if they try to jump over you they're dead.
He doesn't really need any big KO moves off the stage but he can KO you from the stage pretty easily. The range on his fair is also very large which makes it a lot easier to hit with when edge guarding than something like Megaman's bair.
I think you should watch some more videos of good players or just try different moves. You might even just need a break and some time to experiment with other characters to learn what other players to do beat you.
EDIT: Yes Ike and Shulk are very similar because they are long ranged hard hitters, but Ike hit's harder with all parts of his sword while Shulk only hits hard with the base or if using his Arts. I also dislike the arch on Shulk's fsmash compared to Ikes because Ike's covers more area making it harder to avoid. Also Ike's nair starts above him while Shulk's starts below him. The Arts have cooldown timers between uses which hinders Shulk's ability to switch it up on the fly while Ike can rack up damage and ko people consistently all game. Shulk also receives negative stats when boosting his own, so that is another drawback to the Arts vs the raw power and defense of Ike. They both are weak to zoners though, that is usually the flaw with the heahvyweights in most fighting games.
