Had a lot of fun at GC Shadic and Daz(e). The game is great, I still have concerns about certain characters though.
As far as Lucas goes, I like most of his changes, I just don't really like his new Utilt and I still don't like grounded PKF. Also iffy about the new jab, I liked stick jab better tbh, but there's a lot of hate for it I guess.
Sooo much fun
and yeah i liked the stick!.. wonder why everyone hates it so much :S
"Feeling" is kind of subjective. It could feel the same as Melee for some people and not for others. As far as emulating Melee goes though, it's like somewhere between 55 and 80% depending on what criteria you go by.
All secondhand information of course, don't take what I say at face value.
It's PRETTY damn solid in terms of emulating melee. Playing toonlink was 90% the same as how i played younglink in melee, except obvs toonlink is much better because of the buffs and new up-b. The ONLY thing I found to be kind of off, was the speed in which his bombs would fall to the ground when thrown straight up in the air, or another way of putting that would be the "floatiness" of the bombs. It felt like the bombs went either much higher than younglink's did in melee, or they fell down slower. This was only stood out to me because I throw a bomb up in the air and jump up and catch it only to throw them in a different direction, throw it up again to catch again, or drop it- sort've a mind-gameish thing. But even with that, he still felt 95% the same as how i played him in melee.
Also, many times, random guys from the melee tournament would come over and go "is this project:M? do you mind if i jump in?" and one time a falcon player started playing with us and his skills from melee transferred perfectly, he even verbalized that he was "trippin out" because he was playing melee falcon in "brawl." However, the only thing he found was different was something about light shielding or something like that, don't actually remember, but it didn't seem to bother his performance. Other than that, he found it the same.
Project:M-ulates Melee at around 90% I would say; speaking from first-hand experience.
edit: and Kinklink, I personally believe toonlink will make it in demo2, only because he feels complete as a character and shadic said he was pretty much good in terms of development
Also, the fact that he said that "someone else with a sword" is confirmed to make it in could further support that. :D
peach is a weird topic.. my friend who came with me to gameclucks to play with shadic and mattnumbers said that peach doesn't feel the same as melee and he didn't really like it.. however, JCaesar also is a melee peach main and said once on a stream that peach feels like she was one of the least changed from her melee counter part. I don't main or play peach at all, so i can't give any insight on that, but it's just something to think about.
ZSS felt really solid in terms of development. She's a really well designed character and she has many moves that synergize together well. She seems pretty complete to me, but thats just my opinion playing her.
Playing Pikachu felt REALLY GOOD. like, he retains alot of the aspects that made him a beast in smash64, such as his utilt and bair, which i really liked. he feels REALLY complete. I don't know why you would think he needs work or won't make it in.
D3 feels good and plays well also. I suck with him, but it didn't seem like he needed alot of work playing against him/ with him.
Snake also feels really nice. My friend played him alot and really liked all the changes and he said that he just felt much better to play in general. Also the fact that he's been appearing in youtube videos seems to me like he's a complete character.
everything else, i agree. squirtle feels amazing, but he didn't have a down-b in the build shadic brought to gameclucks, so I can't say he's complete when he's obviously missing a move