Recently got Ultimate. Really [b]like it[/b], though the game is a total mess. Even considering that some characters are clones the roster is huge and the game wouldn't feel like a ripoff if it only had half that number and half the number of stages it launched with. So much stuff in it. The soundtrack got over 700 songs…
I often win or lose having no idea what just happened. It's probably the most [b]confusing[/b] game Nintendo ever released, the only proper argument for it being simple is that special moves have easy inputs – but consider all the stuff that is usually absent in traditional fighting games: complicated stage shapes, the stage also changing, more than two fighters at once, and items. In traditional fighting games, blind enthusiasts easily beat sighted casuals. I don't think that's true for this title. I don't get why these elements that make it so complicated don't get introduced one after another, instead you get instantly thrown into group battles with assist trophies and what have you.
The big reason why people claim Smash is easy to get into is because of their own [b]attitude[/b] towards it: They accept a big element of chance and just roll with all the weird stuff that can happen. But if you bring that attitude to any other game, you will also see it as being easy to get into.
>>1965Sakurai is a man who got thousands of fun little ideas and absolutely no idea how to fit them together as a coherent whole. So, his intent doesn't matter. I heard that in Smash 4, Bayonetta completely dominated the roster and that this was not due to some glitchy tricks, but something immediately obvious to anybody not named Sakurai after a few minutes of playing her.
Fast characters can get the [b]items[/b] faster. What follows from that by simple logic is that it's impossible to have a roster that is balanced both for playing with and without items, unless the designers put in some mechanic that helps slow characters when items are on. For example, the designers could increase the duration a helpful item is active or make the items more powerful in the hands of a slow character. But as far as I know, nothing of that sort has been added to any Smash in the two decades of the series' existence.
Each character has three [b]taunts[/b]. In Ultimate you can cancel taunts. But a taunt isn't a proper taunt anymore if doing it costs you nothing. That's the point. A move is a proper taunt only if it is always or almost always unsound from the strategist's point of view. I'd prefer replacing one taunt of each character with a fake special move, that's easy to animate and that way the clone characters could be more differentiated too.
I'm pretty sure I'll [b]still be playing Ultimate three years from now[/b], surprised and confused by the weird things in it.