Recent reviews by ECHOnce

Very polished UI/visual/sound/music/moveset designs rivaling or surpassing Smash's. Skin and character content release schedule is strong. Matchmaking and balance can sometimes be questionable but tolerable. I do worry for new player retention though, due to a lack of in-game tutorials (currently in-progress) and potentially matching them with a wide range of demoralizing skill levels.

- Very polished designs across UI, visual (char models, anims, stages, colors/lighting, etc.), sound (hit effects, steps, etc.), music, creative movesets, etc. Only platform fighter that really matches Smash on these fronts. Some of these may seem less important, but become very noticeable and contribute to feeling cheaper if absent. R2 nails them.
- Released content has been consistent and high quality. Their plan for the foreseeable future is to release free DLC characters quarterly, two paid monthly skin sets of 3 skins and 1 skin, one free monthly skin, and irregular paid and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ associated with participating tournaments. Seems like a great pace that is less likely to tire out than MVS' exhaustive schedule.
- Short, FOMO-less battlepass. All monthly battlepasses with themes corresponding to the paid monthly skin sets are accessible at any time, i.e. you can opt to advance any previous month's battlepass rather than the current one.
- Plenty of free shop content. Outside of paid items, in-game currency earned mostly through online casual and ranked modes can be used to purchase items from a daily rotating shop of 10 items. Only paid monthly skin pack items are excluded from these.
- Rollback Netcode. There was supposedly a weekend or two where the servers pooped out and connections were unplayable, but has been up for most of the time since release without issue.
- Features just about all Smash tech, and has fun and unique tech of its own.

- Balance. Seems mostly okay, though there are some egregious characters with low-risk high-reward gameplans that make playing online sometimes feel like a chore. This is highly subjective though, and while my personal demons have remained mostly untouched for several updates, I trust I'm either bad or the devs will keep an eye out, as players themselves.
- Matchmaking. The rank mode spread is pretty good, ranging well below my average-ish skill level in other games. This indicates at least a small-ish group of new players, which is a rare gem for fighters and is hopefully being fostered. I do worry that this isn't the case though, as my experience at the mid-range of ranks has me playing opponents well above and below my ranking. This also seems to be the case in casual matchmaking, which doesn't show the opponent's rank, but can be guessed based on their proficiency somewhat easily.
- Content for growth and retaining new players (e.g. tutorials, console releases with crossplay, etc.) has been slow without much update.

Overall, very strong game. Try it!

Never played a roguelike since I suck at other genres. What a rush!

Takes some time adjusting from other plat fighters but feels pretty comfortable a few hours in, coming from Melee/MVS. Features Melee wavedashes and MVS dodge-jumps (albeit behind early permanent unlocks). Game is good.

Much better. It's nice to no longer have to remind friends that the game is only in alpha stages, and to trust the game devs will improve it to a satisfactory level before release; even in alpha, RR is fun enough to genuinely hook them now. Yay.

ye it's pretty good uwu

As of now, ICONS is the only free competitive plat fighter out there. It started garnering a massive negative response from chunks of the smash community and elsewhere after it released an alpha gameplay trailer - our first look at the game and its content - which I felt was a p awful decision. Its pitfalls were obvious, and was likely only shown to maintain punctuality with timelines they had previously given us. It really wasn't ready, and that set the tone for both those with limited investment and those deeply interested in the game from then until now.

There has been a ton of improvements to the game over the course of the closed beta, both aesthetically and to character balancing. While I still come across things that scream "this is an alpha game," gameplay-wise I enjoy playing it just as much as I enjoy playing Melee/PM. The team has continued their quick response rate to reasonable requests and issues, and I look forward to seeing where ICONs goes. Excited for the day my friends stop bashing it only because it's basically been a meme to since the alpha trailer q_q

P.S. Raymer's kit is sick pce