Recent reviews by Jehtt

Icons: Combat Arena has failed to achieve anything that Super Smash Bros. Melee, a rushed game that came out nearly 17 years ago, already has.

The most glaring issue is that most of this game is "borrowed" from Melee. There are characters like Kidd and Zhurong who are very obviously lifted from Melee Fox and Marth, respecitively. But it's also mechanics: almost all of the game's major features are lifted directly from Melee. It's obvious that any game in this genre would borrow a lot from Smash, but Wavedash Games did not even try to introduce something fresh to the concept. There is exactly one original feature in this game (the Gust Shield), while the rest is just built on top of Melee's foundation.
However, they've actually managed to make it worse than the game it so heavily draws from. The game has poor artistic direction, with poor sounds and visuals that severely impact the game feel. Sometimes, it's hard to even tell what's happening due to weak and choppy animations getting lost in the action. Even good combos can feel unsatisfying, since a kill just results in a quiet explosion and the announcer gently saying "KO."

It's not better on the casual end either. There are only 7 characters to choose from. There is only a versus and training mode. There are no items, nor are there any modes besides stock matches. There is a small selection of competitively-designed stages to choose from, but nothing like, say, the Temple stage. If you're looking for a great party game like Smash, this is not it.
For a game called Icons, the characters sure are boring. Their personalities can only be gleamed through official artwork because the game has nothing substantial. Most of the characters have no dialogue outside of grunts. Poor animations and model quality leave little room for the characters to express themselves. And that doesn't even consider how much inspiration they draw from existing characters in SSBM...

Icons is a game targeting a niche subset of an already niche community, and even then fails to be the best game in its niche. I am very disappointed.