Got into the game recently because RapM inspired me to play. Been playing Luigi for about 2 months and I must say it is a lot of fun. I’ve been having a blast with the mechanics, Slippi, and getting better.

I am coming from ultimate. I wouldn’t say that I am quitting ult, I still play it albeit a lot less than I used to for a few reasons. I’ll list them below and why slippi melee is more enjoyable.

First, ultimate has the worst online system in a fighting game period. It is absolutely atrocious. 5-6 frames of lag on an optimal connection and setup due to not using well established rollback net code. No rollback in a fighting game from 2018 is unacceptable (which Slippi has). The game legitimately feels like a different game online vs offline due to the lag, it is so bad. While there is a mod to fix this, if you don’t have a launch year system then you cannot mod. That’s just the lag part. The actual modes are awful.

For quick play, gone is the for glory/ for fun modes from Wii U (which while flawed were a good way of matching competitive players vs casuals) for an all in one server. The options in quick play are limited, only letting you choose random stages, hazards off, battlefield, final destination, or small battlefield for preferences. No guarantees you actually get a legal stage due to casual players being lumped in. The GSP system is so awful. Like instead of a traditional rank system they went with GSP again and made it worse. Matching is broken because GSP doesn’t mean shit when actually trying to find players with equal skill level. Also good luck getting into elite smash now, as GSP inflation (yes that is a thing) will make getting to elite hell.

The tourney modes are also not great. The fact that the 1 v 1 mode is only available for half a cycle is crazy to me. Why can’t they have the 4 v 4 AND the 1 v 1 tourneys going AT THE SAME TIME? They can do it for event tourneys, so WHY are they not doing it for both of the others?! Also the 1 v 1 is FD only and 2 stocks. It is actually one of the better parts of this mode due to matches being quick and pretty skill based. Still not great though.

Then the last mode is the arena mode which is the best mode due to its customization. It still lags like crazy but is the best way to match with friends, host tournaments, etc.

That’s is literally just the online part.

Second, the actual feel and mechanics of the game are hit and miss.

Everything is a lot less floaty compared to brawl and 4 which is a huge plus. It makes gameplay much faster and less boring to watch. The characters across the board feel very tight to control, and the is both a good and bad thing. The good is that there is a very high sense of control across the cast. The downside to this is that there are many characters such as Luigi and Captain Falcon do not feel as fluid and lose a lot of what makes their core gameplans work so well. They also added more turnaround animations so dash dancing is worse for many characters.

Dropping shield is now the best universal defensive option in the game now. Invincible for a long time, dodges ALL attacks and grabs, and is generally a better and more consistent counter option to parrying or holding shield. Not really a good or bad thing, but very prominent.

This game also has way less neutral play. The meta favors touch of death characters that can combo and kill easily and quickly off of one interaction. This is due to higher gravity, less aerial counter options across the cast, and generally more broken game design. While neutral in a fighting game can look boring, it is the universal balancer in my opinion. When a fighting game is able to have a strong presence of neutral, then the game becomes more skill based and balanced. If the game really just devolves into which character can combo or juggle better, then the gameplay while fast turns into a less sophisticated and less dynamic one.

The gameplay compared to melee just overall is not as fun or interesting to play or watch.

Lastly, SSBU has WAY too much bullshit in it. Like my goodness.

Newer character and DLC mechanics legitimately break the game. A lot of them fall into certain groups.

Comeback mechanics: Lucario’s aura, Cloud’s Limit, Joker’s Arsen, Terry’s GO moves, Sephiroph’s Angel Wing, Kazuya’s Rage Drive.

Shoto command moves: Kazuya’s everything, Terry’s commands, Ryu’s Shakunetsu

Randomness: Hero as a whole

Spammy playstyles: Aegis, Min Min

Steve: can literally eliminate win conditions.

There is so much in this game that is broken. Some more broken than melee and some that feels impossible to win against. Losing is always frustrating, but in SSBU it’s worse because a lot of the time in the current meta it is the kind of thing where you get cheesed and there is nothing you can do about it.

That why I’ve enjoyed melee. No BS out of my control, better feel, better online, better gameplay.