I played this game competitively since basically month 1. I'd give this game a 9/10 offline, and a 3/10 online.
Offline, the game is amazing. It's the Super Smash Bros we all know and love, except you get tons of options for casual play, including like 90 different characters. While this a bit too many MUs to realistically remember for the average tournament player, the roster is still surprisingly well balanced, which is a genuine feat. There's also tons of customization options for casual players who just want endless chaos.
Online though, the game lowkey sucks (keep in mind most of my online experience comes from competitive play). The added input delay makes punishes and movement feel much more sluggish compared to offline, while also making stuff harder to react to. This makes zoners even more annoying than usual, and generally leads to soul-numbing games. The problem is further exacerbated in Quickplay, which is the game's ranked system. As usual, ranked is a terrible experience; however the ranking system (GSP) is also completely fake. While it looks functional enough on paper, the big issue is that winning or losing GSP feels completely arbitrary. On top of that, it's also been artificially inflated, meaning you'll passively gain GSP for not playing the game (but it also doesn't help your progression to Elite Smash). The matchmaking is also quite bad, as it can potentially make you play on a different ruleset than the one requested, which is extremely infuriating when it happens. Worst of all, GSP can be very easily gained by cheesing with specific rulesets and quitting mid-game (which makes both players not lose or win any GSP). While the game is supposed to punish the latter, that system is extremely easy to get around, and as such quitters usually go unpunished. In some cases, the game actually punishes the one who stayed and played to the end!
TL;DR: game is amazing, but the netcode is one of the worst I've seen in recent years. While you CAN get good by only playing online, be prepared for one of the worst onlineexperiences in modern gaming
Offline, the game is amazing. It's the Super Smash Bros we all know and love, except you get tons of options for casual play, including like 90 different characters. While this a bit too many MUs to realistically remember for the average tournament player, the roster is still surprisingly well balanced, which is a genuine feat. There's also tons of customization options for casual players who just want endless chaos.
Online though, the game lowkey sucks (keep in mind most of my online experience comes from competitive play). The added input delay makes punishes and movement feel much more sluggish compared to offline, while also making stuff harder to react to. This makes zoners even more annoying than usual, and generally leads to soul-numbing games. The problem is further exacerbated in Quickplay, which is the game's ranked system. As usual, ranked is a terrible experience; however the ranking system (GSP) is also completely fake. While it looks functional enough on paper, the big issue is that winning or losing GSP feels completely arbitrary. On top of that, it's also been artificially inflated, meaning you'll passively gain GSP for not playing the game (but it also doesn't help your progression to Elite Smash). The matchmaking is also quite bad, as it can potentially make you play on a different ruleset than the one requested, which is extremely infuriating when it happens. Worst of all, GSP can be very easily gained by cheesing with specific rulesets and quitting mid-game (which makes both players not lose or win any GSP). While the game is supposed to punish the latter, that system is extremely easy to get around, and as such quitters usually go unpunished. In some cases, the game actually punishes the one who stayed and played to the end!
TL;DR: game is amazing, but the netcode is one of the worst I've seen in recent years. While you CAN get good by only playing online, be prepared for one of the worst onlineexperiences in modern gaming