@Spirit
I read what you said. A good set of comments. Thank you for sharing them. Here is my comments on the game after playing the demo. I will just list my thoughts as points.
1. 3-4 player matches at the monent are near impossible to play as the game does not tell you how to switch your focus to another opponent in the match. Nintendo seriously need to tell us how to do this.
2. As you have correctly noted thousands of character/arms combinations though that is true is only an illusion of game diversity. There will be a go to set of combinations that you will be forced to use if you are to win online. Like any metagame you either choose what is OP this patch or what specifically counters that this patch (if there is a counter at all)
3. There will need to be constant balance patches to keep the metagame from becoming stale.
4. There will have to be a fan site that works out what the balance patch changes are. Nintendo will not break it all down for us. Nintendo did not for Smash Bros 4 do the Smashforums people took the time to work it all out.
5. The ranked and unranked modes will have to be about matches only. Sport in this game could be alright but it needs to be totally kept out of competitive play.
6. I hate the volleyball. It just does not work in this game. But still some people might like it so don't remove it.
7. Adding on other sports would be fun. Sports that work better with stretchy arms, like tennis as one example.
8. The characters that do not flinch like Mummy need a serious draw back to balance this out.
9. The game really needs to be casual-ified more. A good example of this is the blue shell in Mario Kart. That shell exists so the winner does not stay out in front alone and is always in the action around the other drivers. It also means skill and luck determine who wins. This is good as it makes even losing feel fun. ARMS needs something similar. There needs a way to make the game slightly more casual (motion controls are not good enough yet for pro play). So the most skilled does not always win and so the loser has just as much fun as the winner.
10. Friend lobbies will probably come in the final game which is good because if the online metagame is being abused at a certain time, you can avoid it all and just play with your friends.
11. The art style is great. Feels just as polished as Mario Kart 8.
12. The motion controls feel pretty good. They are fun to use. I would say not accurate enough for pro competition play but for casual fun, they are great. We all just need a little practice with them.
13. Getting a little ingame currency for loosing as we are now is a great thing. It keeps people playing the game. Without this, any loss streak will make the player question why they are playing the game at all as there is no recognition for their time spent in the game.
14. The opening you suffer from missing attacks needs to shrink a little. As does the time you are down from being attacked. The whole idea here is to be constantly attacking the opponent. Not just a stand off waiting for the opponent to attack so you can dodge it and abuse the huge dodged attack window we currently have. This game is about stretchy arms. But we should be encouraged to get as close to the opponents as we can. It's more fun that way. Currently this is not as encouraged by the game as it should be.
15. There needs to be a mechanism in place to prevent constant teaming up on one player in 3-4 player matches. When you have 2-3 players with non English names and 1 player with an English name, you know who will be ganged up on. Almost every single 3-4 player match was like that for me. I won some of them. But 2 or 3 on 1 matches get annoying after a while. This needs to be dealt with. It is not then have an online mode that is only 1v1 so you can avoid this issue if you want to.
If I think of anymore I will let you all know.