The gameplay is just horrendous compared to older games. Every move is slow and lacks impact, and you have to wait for the animations to end in order to make the next move. The attacks are somehow even more detached than before. You end up mashing buttons like crazy, because on the subconscious level you feel that the faster you mash, the faster your fighter is gonna fight, but you can press one button like 5-6 times in the time it takes the character to perform the action.

Of course, as a result of this, the skill is completely irrelevant. It's all about who picks the easiest fighter. And the devs clearly knew that, as they placed difficulty tags next to each character, and of course the fastest ones have the lower difficulty numbers.

You can completely lock the enemy by constantly performing the same hit or combination. And it's not just with AI, I had direct experience playing this on PS2 with friends back in the day, and every fight someone would just spam the same attack and piss the other player off.

I also dislike the art style in these games, which makes everyone look bloated. And in general the color palette is full of greys and browns, making even the most interesting levels look unappealing.

However, this is not the worst fighting game I've ever played. The amount of content alone can suck you in for hours if you don't have anything better to play. I remember doing the Konquest mode back in the day, and getting pretty far. And every fighter having 3 fighting styles is a cool, albeit pointless little novelty that will distract you from how terrible the core mechanics are for a while.