The graphics and sound design leave a lot to be desired. I assume that's because it's just unfinished, which is fine. Some things that really need to be worked out, though:
- There needs to be some kind of sound for dashing, airdodging, grabbing ledge, etc. The soundscape feels very empty.
- It seems as though there's no 3D sound support at the moment. All sound effects appear to play front and center with no added effects, which is a little off-putting. Smash games have a little echo/reverb (or a lot in the case of Melee) to fit the room of the stage. That and 3D sound support makes it feel as though it's really coming from the characters themselves.
- Characters should have unique sound effects for stepping, landing, attacking, etc. a la Brawl/PM/Smash 4. Really brings them to life in those games.
- The transition between WalkSlow, Walk, and WalkFast is pretty jarring. Unity must have some way to smoothly interpolate between the animations like in Smash. Also, it seems like every character's WalkFast moves far too quickly and makes the character look like they're sliding.
- All animations should be in 60 FPS. The one on the dash/brake animations and the one on wavedash in particular, due to it being hand-drawn, looks like 30 or something.
- More graphic effects are needed overall. Not only just for polish/personality -- Smash games made good use of a lot of little "wooshes" / sword trails and other graphical indicators that showed an attack's motion, hitbox position, etc. that is severely missing in Icons so far. I'd lean more towards Smash 4's amount of these. Some notable examples:
  * PM Sheik vs. Nashani's forward-air: Sheik has a graphic effect due to how fast the move is so you can more easily recognize it. I can hardly see Nashani's due to how fast her arm moves.
  * PM Mario/Luigi vs. Afi and Galu's down-air: Mario's down-air has no graphic effect, but Luigi's does. Afi and Galu have the startup of Luigi's, but the hitbox properties of Mario's -- even still, I think there should be something there.
  * Kidd's up-air is very fast but has no graphic effect
  * Xana's forward-air is very fast but has no graphic effect
  * Afi and Galu's neutral-B could use some kind of effect on their hands to show that the attack is "magically linked" to the spawn location of the projectile.
  Something about Smash I've noticed due to playing Icons is how well they make attack animation's harmful body part very noticeable and front-and-center. Especially if there's no graphic effect / trace on an attack, the motion is very clear and stands out from the rest of the character's body with many frames of animation to make it clear what's going on. There's definitely some consideration into this in Icons, but I don't think it's consistent quite yet. When I see characters attack, I often don't immediately recognize what move they're performing, and I don't believe that's entirely due to lack of familiarity with them.
- Animations in general need smoothing. (I don't doubt SilentDoom/Virum's skill though! Just needs more time for polishing I guess.)
- Special fall should flash like in Smash. Just being a shade darker is a bit too subtle.
- There needs to be some kind of (optional) shader. The visuals/lighting look very plain on their own. I'm guessing this was a time/performance consideration, but by release something to spruce up the visuals should be included.
- Texture quality is really really low.

Some suggestions I have:
- Moonwalking was really fun in PM/Melee. I understand why recreating strange-looking engine quirks like that might be something you're trying to avoid, but it's just so fun to do in those games.
- What if Afi and Galu's back-airs propelled them forward just a little?
- Raymer should point his gun up and down when charging side-B. That'd mean making the animation "dynamic" or whatever the actual term is (calculating it on the fly), but it just makes sense IMO.
- There are a lot of forward-tilt animations that could do with some directional variants. (Kidd, Raymer, Afi and Galu, maybe Ashani)

Some good things I saw:
- Movement feels pretty good! Even though the lack of many sound effects harm this a bit, the mechanics do well by themselves.
- You guys really did a good job trying to take the best of PM's core mechanics and remove the legacy cruft! Even if muscle memory still wants to do things like L-cancelling and JC grabbing, it's probably best if they don't return.

Thanks for the opportunity to let me play the beta!! I hope Icons turns out to be an amazing competitive fighter. :)