[Post split off from here: http://culture.vg/forum/topic?p=18477#p18477 -icy]
Just about everything done in Skullgirls has been done in other games, only much better. It's no secret that the game's based off of Marvel vs Capcom 2, but even then it's hard to pick out a mechanic that's only unique to Skullgirls. You've got standard pushblocking and MvC3 airblock, dashes, magic series chains, DHCs, a ratio system, and restand combos (where you combo from the air to the ground and force the opponent to stand rather than falling down). So basically, one new feature.
Now on blocking: Allowing air blocking is fine, but if you couple that with higher air mobility and kinda shitty counters, it makes being in the air mindless. So, how have other games dealt with air blocking? The Street Fighter Zero series made grounded normals air unblockable, so while the old token Shoryukens used to be the unchallenged best solution anti-air, the Zero games added more emphasis on spacing your grounded attacks to cleanly beat out any air option. Capcom's Vampire series has that same rule, but grounded anti-airs are slower and riskier. This balanced out though since they added airthrows which beat empty blocking while also allowing air blocking to counter air-to-air setups. Being in the air in MvC2 was a terrible idea unless you were flying or using a quick trijump. Even MvC3 has great, instant airthrows which easily balance out the risk.
In Skullgirls, anything can be blocked in the air. Oh, there's airthrows but they're slow and they use two button inputs. Again, all of the above games used one button throw systems so not only are airthrows instant, but if you fucked up the range you at least stick out an attack. In Guilty Gear, you can press button combinations to get an airthrow attempt or a fast air-to-air attack. Blazblue uses the same two button throw scheme, but the throw tech game is fundamentally different and to block grounded attacks you have to drain your barrier gauge. I've dragged this point into the ground, but there's basically no excuse for the air game to be this uncreative and boring.
But wait, what about moving under the opponent as they're in the air? Well, joke's on you motherfucker because this game is so goddamn slow. The entire pacing feels horrible. Grounded walk speeds are terrible in conjunction with the large stages. Dashes aren't anything special aside from one or two and there's no sort of momentum system as you'd find in Guilty Gear. In fact, most of the backdashes and even some forward ones are situational. You'll either barely move backwards at all and in most cases you might as well airdash backwards since it's usually faster. Complicating this is that while basic options are slow, close range mixups are still fast. Good luck dealing with instant IAD cross-ups, tick throws, and assist mixups.
While moving through the molasses, Autumn games had the courtesy of giving us 6 attack buttons and making sure just about all of them are fucking awful. Instead of having standard pokes, pressing just about any button results in a painfully slow and ugly attack. I swear the only reason 80% of the moves in this game exist are either for combo chain filler, dodging the autistic infinite system, or only as a shitty occasional OTG or something trite. Even the specials generally feel shitty, with most having poor reach, skimp hitboxes, abnormal startup, or the slow movement speeds makes spacing them odd. Hey, at least they work in combos, right?
Turns out Mike Z designed the game not around having an interesting combo system, but rather at avoiding infinites. He did a shitty job at this since you can do absolutely annoying, Hokuto no Ken length combos (minus the hilarious basketballing and the actual damage) and end in a reset or whatever. However, once you reach a certain length the game awards the opponent more and more meter, so you shouldn't want to do long combos. You only avoid infinites by jumping through hoops so that you don't use the same moves too many times in a combo; instead you use some other equally identical attack so it's not a true infinite until you've looped it long enough!
Most combos boil down to hitconfirming into a launcher, doing an air combo, forcing a restand or OTG, and then going for a knockdown, super, or reset. There's some other deviations, but who cares? Damage scaling negates the amount of max damage you'll do, but more importantly the general combo flow is identical for everyone. This is the same shit you find in Street Fighter X Tekken, where you chain into a launcher, do some low strongs, then a special. In Skullgirls, you chain into launcher, air chain to the ground, then pick something. Do a long, slow combo then carry on with the rest of match.
The few things Skullgirls does right is made moot by all its shortcomings. Who cares about a good button config screen when you what follows is a ugly botched memory of MvC2 but with a blindingly obscene super bar? Who would bother playing this shit on GGPO when you can play dozens of great games for free on your PC? Then you remember that there's only 8 characters in a potentially 3v3 game. lol
I can't think of any merit to the game. Air and ground footsies have been done leagues better and faster, with beefier damage and attacks. Everything is ugly, from the interface to the half-assed movie theater motif. At least the soundtrack has a few cool jazz songs. When everything stems from such a lackluster baseline, the few interesting mechanics - special move detection buffers, custom assist formation, and the upcoming tournament mode in the patch - only detract from the overall experience. Why, imagine if King of Fighters XIII had GGPO netcode instead of this mess!