OKAY, SO.
My time with Smash.
Keep a few things in mind here:
-I play competitive, I go to tourneys, but I am absolutely NOT a leading authority on Smash. So take my "opinions" and "analysis" with a grain of salt.
-I only had 3 two minute games in a casual setting. As much as I really wanted to test things out, I didn't really want to ruin the fun of the others playing with me by just going off and doing my own thing to test changes and mechanics. I did my best though.
-The stations used Pro Controllers and that threw me off WAY more than it should have. Like, I couldn't even find the dang grab button somehow. Combine that with Tap Jump and things just went a bit weird for me at times.
-I'll probably end up repeating things much better players with much more time with the game have already shared.
Anyways, getting right into it.
WOOMY!
-Really fun.
-Very Unorthodox, as I'm sure people can already tell. Good thing my two mains are as unorthodox as they come. My first minute of the match was a bit of a struggle, but for the rest of it I did get them down a bit more.
-They're run animation puts them into squid form and essentially riding an ink wave like they would swimming through ink in Splatoon. They were surprisingly a bit slippery when doing this, not like Ice Physics or anything, but it felt a bit buttery running around.
-Roller (Side B) has a surprisingly fast startup. I was caught off guard several times by another Inkling player spamming it. Dunno if it's been mentioned yet, but you are slower when walking on the ink the Rollers puts down.
-Splattershot is actually pretty good at stopping approaches. I feel characters with frontal approaches like Sonic are probably going to have a tough time. It's essentially a wall.
-Ink is actually pretty plentiful. I only really had to recharge once. I may not have used as much ink as I could have, though.
-It seems easier to ink someone up at higher percentages, at least with the Splattershot. Makes KOing easier, obviously.
-Air attacks are pretty average
-Woomy has a dedicated taunt and I can and will use it.
-Purple Inkling Girl is the one true color option and this is not debatable.
Barney The Dinosaur!
-I... wasn't really digging him, honestly. Not my playstyle, but even then, Ridley felt kind of... basic. I mean, he's accurate to his source, for sure. But I just personally don't see anything really "WOW" about him.
-Air attacks are really good, as they should be
-His rapid jab is insane, but that seems to be a common theme with rapid jabs this time.
-Meta Ridley (Or is it his Samus Return costume?) from the trailer was not selectable. Could maybe be a sign of more alts to come for other character who don't have them?
-He has no Pogo Stick tail and I was really kind of hoping that would be a thing.
...I really don't have much else to add to him. Again, I just wasn't really feeling him.
Super Fighting Robot!
-Feels as good as ever
-Can still re-pick up Metal Blades and combo with it. Didn't have enough time to test Z Dropping.
-Charge Shot/ Side Smash can be charged, like, REALLY long. It was kinda a blink-and-missed it kind of thing for me, but I think I charged it so long that Mega Man got tired out and stopped doing it, kinda like Luigi's side B. I dunno, I might have been imagining it
-A lot of his attacks feel less laggy, especially his aireals, the startup on Down Smash and most notably leaf shield.
-Up air seems weaker, still good but probably won't be as insane as before
-Dash attack/Top Spin is REALLY weird with the new hit stun, it just kinda drags out a bit too long when it connects.
General things I noticed:
-The game feels different. There is definitely more weight to everything and it feels speedier. Spammed some Smash 3DS in before I went in and all it served to do was throw me off. Smash 4 port this ain't.
-Because I'm a try hard, first thing I tried to do was wavedash. Didn't work. You do get a bit off of it but not enough to be worth it.
-Wave LANDING, however, feels amazing and I'm really glad it's a thing.
-The movement you get off it is very strange, but being able to act out of it with the momentum shift it gives you is going to be fun, I can already tell.
-Footstooling is still here, dunno if it's tech-able but I'm gonna assume its not.
-Abra is a Pokeball Mon now and I hate his guts. He will literally go around and warp players off stage in the blink of an eye. You can recover from it, and it's clever, but it was such a beginners trap, haha.
-There are SO MANY minor animation details in this game that are just so incredible and give everything so much personality
-Great Plateau's tower crumbling doesn't seem to hurt you? I might have just missed that. Either way both of the new stages are pretty chill. I can see Great Plateau being a counterpick if the crumbling indeed doesn't damage people. I don't think Moray Towers' blast zone size, weird as heck platforms and such are gonna fly though, hazards or not.
All in all?
Really, really loving it. Gonna try and get more time in thursday since press will be mostly gone, people will be riding shuttles to the airport every hour, and it's the longest day us with the Gamertag has.
If you guys have anything you REALLY want me to check, let me know. If it's character specific I'll try and get around to them, but right now I think my next choices to try out are Zelda and Snake, maybe a bit more Woomy.