played quite a bit of it with 4 of my friends yesterday (we had a few more guys for a while so we had 2-3 matches with 8 player smash)
spent the entire time on "random" character so i got a decent taste of how most of them play
spent today playing solo so event matches and a few more vs matches
characters that got buffed heaps are Bowser and Link (the latter has received a significant speed boost). Sheik also feels a lot better than in Brawl.
meta knight has thankfully been nerfed, Pit's annoying side b has also been changed.
the new characters are actually all pretty interesting, lucina is essentially a marth clone but does more damage on the middle of the blade, but since marth is a joy to play so is lucina. Dr Mario is probs the one i like least, simply because he is a Mario clone and I just don't really care for playing as Mario lol.
Shulk is interesting but for some reason feels a bit clunky in his movements. The special move where he can buff certain characteristics is interesting but not particularly newcomer friendly and takes a bit of getting used to.
Mega Man's smash attacks have fantastic range and are a tad weird to compete against at first
Pacman is a good all round character, nothing particularly stands out but can hold his own when it comes to speed/strength etc. His recovery takes a bit of getting used to as the initial up b special is not particularly good for horizontal coverage but the fact the trampoline stays there could be useful.
Rosalina herself is average but with Luma and skilled used of Luma, can be very dangerous
Duck Hunt Dog is probably the new character i find the most fun to play with and can also rek hard.
In terms of stages, quite a few new stages but not many of them are particularly exciting and some of them do suffer from poor design. Dr Wiley's Castle for example is freakin annoying to play on as the Yellow Devil interferes in the match too much, similarly with Ridley in Pyrosphere. Omega mode essentially makes any stage like Final Destination, but that kinda takes away from the essence of them and isn't really a solution. Other stages like Wuhu Island are essentially rehashes of other stages, in this case the Delfino stage.
The Great Cave Offensive is just way way too big a level, even for 8 player smash and despite playing 2-3 metres away on a 60 inch tv things still appeared too small to properly follow, particularly when the camera is zoomed out all the way as it often was
the game speed is somewhere between brawl and melee. It does not have stuff like wavedashing etc. and i highly doubt it will be played competitively to the same extent as melee, though it is definitely more fun than brawl imo. I would say it's superior to brawl in every way but if you wish to play competitively Melee is still king, though the new smash beats them all for casual fun with friends. I would definitely recommend getting the gamecube controller adaptor though, none of the other controller options really feel as natural, even though if that isn't an option it is still playable with the gamepad.
Also the lack of adventure mode is alright, classic has been revamped and events mode is still great. Smash tour is pretty shit though lol
Have not yet tried the online as atm I'm more in the process of unlocking all the stages (got all the characters earlier today). Unlocks are a lot easier this time around which is good in the sense that you can have the complete "smash" game early on but bad in the sense it takes away from that sense of achievement when u discover a new character.