SSBU, Differs greatly from Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, Guilty Gear, Etc. EDIT 7-5-24

 Some of the weird things that takes so much getting used to, and almost feels like they put it in there to mess with older players (aka bring in the younger generation since they can learn fresh and have an advantage) includes:

1. Shield button to block. 
1. But it's limited. 
2. Shield can be moved around.
2. Holding shield, pressing a mostly random button like A will throw. What?
3. Pressing Throw, then you hold it down, turns into a shield (I think that's how I did it). What what?!
4. You need to face the opponent correctly.
1. Especially weird for throws, man does this mess me up. 
5. Throws need to be done very methodically and kind of slowly. Angering. 
6. Beating the tar out of the other guy means nothing if you can't send them to the blast zone for a KO.
7. It looks like an aggressive game... but it sure seems like Turtly/Campy/Zoners are often the best. Hope I'm wrong. 
1. Yeah actually... there is a lot of good aggression. It's just painful for some of the heavies, etc. on bad stages/backgrounds. And there is definitely an argument that Sonic plays best as a hit and run... and run and run. But it doesn't seem as bad as some of the old Capcom  fighting games or some of the newer fighting games that cater to defense.
8. Hard as heck to dash. OMG. Do it 0.1 seconds too early, and you slowly walk instead. 
1. You have to really jam the stick to get a dash. Opposite of a light touch/precisely does what you want. 
2. UDPATE: I think Game&Watch is the worst here, b/c his attacks are not animated smoothly, plus the weird input delay, it's just hard to time things. 
3. UPDATE: Don't forget to use the right analog stick (set to tilt) to dash and instantly dash-attack. If you do it with a button you get a smash attack instead. 
9. Hard as heck to do basic things like jump. B/c platforms get in your way, you have to hold down to go through them. 
1. Holding down at the right time fast falls. Weird. 
2. Small hops are super critical, but hard to do. Thank God for double button press, but truly it's not convenient yet... hope it becomes fine. 
10. Hard as hell to jump attack short guys. Frustrating as can be. 
11. Half the cast has the reach of a gnat. So weird. 
12. Back-airs almost always have the most reach.
1. "Conveniently" set up so when you want to jump attack and hit someone far away, you have to perfect the Dash(hard), turn around a split second into jump (not easy), then you get  your back air if you did it right. Do it wrong, and you get a super-inconvenient-in-that-situation move like a Mr.GaWatch's F-air bomb which will not hit and you will get smacked. 
1. I'd rather just have 6 buttons that always give me the exact move I want when I press that button. 
13. Smash attacks. Who needs 6 buttons when you can accidentally get a smash attack at the wrong moment since it involves tapping a direction and pressing your one main attack button. 
1. Make sure you change the right analog stick to "tilt only" and you will learn to use it. I'm starting to learn. 
14. Did I mention all the attacks overlap? Dash + Tilt-only-right-stick leads to a dash attack safely tho. 
1. Hard tap left stick = Dash plus A is dash attack. 
2. Hard tap left stick + A = smash attack. 
15. Blastzones... you can DI to fly to corner and survive, but you need to hold it as you are hit (aka, you need to know what they are hitting you with, where it sends you, etc. waaaay before it happens). 
16. 89 characters. 89 characters?! Guess I'll be learning minutia for the next 5 years, Dear Lord. 
17. UPDATE: ESAM's guest said it best... the designers wanted this game to have bad ground moves and good air moves(attacks) so that it was even more different than traditional fighting games. 
18. --Probably 25 more things I'll think of to write down. --
19. EDIT 7-5-24 for a few below. 
20. Throwing... no, do not shield then press a direction to try to throw, you will roll. So frustrating.
21. Facing wrong way, they are next to you? No, do not try to attack or throw. Best(?) option is to jump away or short hope b-air or n-air depending on char. 
22. Need to move a tiny distance? No, do not tap the stick, you run. Instead, super gentle move stick. GAAAHHHHH.
23. Need to dash? Nope, you are going to slowwalk, instead SLAM that stick (or pretend you are just tapping to walk a millimeter but hold it). 
24. Throwing... so hard to "mash" for more hits at startup or to mash to get out. Why? B/c the best mashing is something like a 1/3 circle on left stick, repeat. Can't combine stick and button inputs, some silly built in crap to make that less effective. And pressing many buttons on right side is like super hard anyway with their control pad with thumbs anyway. 

Blast zones, the smallest (easiest to die on) ranks lowest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuqDx6IZ4nI

For example the weird Wario one, ranks safe (#1) on Top/Ceiling height, but very scary die easily on side deaths so it's ranked lowest for Sides. 

This site has a bunch of reminders about how weird a game it is to me: https://switchwatch.co.uk/smash-bros-ultimate-beginner-terminology-smash-sunday-2/

Example: Bayonetta can up+B twice? Kirby has 6 jumps. Talk about easy recovery. 

This game is more straight forward I think: