Designing a 3D fighter game for mobile/micro consoles.

I made a game called Concussion Boxing for mobile.
It was a 3D fighter game but it wasn't really good gameplay wise.
The issues were that it was too slow and didn't have combos or any tactics to win the match.

I am thinking of making a new fighter game.
I want it to be 3D as well but this time it will be fast paced.
First question, what do you think of characters of different heights? How can that work out?
Basically I want to put characters from my previous games so there might be a normal height boxers versus a shorter character(maybe even half the height).
Can that work out in a fighter game?

What else do you suggest to think of before I commission for art assets?
I am thinking about 4 characters and 4 locations.

What do you think of 2D collision detection? It's a 3D game but I can simplefy collision detection to always be 2D and on the axis between the two fighters.

The controls I thought about are left, right, crouch, punch, kick and jump.

Any more tips on designing a fast, deep and fun fighter game for mobile/micro consoels?

First of all, you should be able to counter any attack. Any fighting game will not be fun if its just a matter of one person being able to be faster at button smashing than the other. But if you can use tactics and block attacks from the other player, it is possible for the weak to outsmart the strong.

Another tip: look around for how other games do. Observe why they work and what they do and learn from it. Its better to steal a good idea than to try and make something yourself that possibly doesn't work.

Other games also have big vs small, so its definitely possible. Just make sure the hitboxes are accessible to the smallest persons and/or make them get to the higher ones by jumping.

I have read this article:
http://www.flarkminator.com/2011/05/25/depth-vs-breadth-in-combat-design-an-interactive-visualization/

Which is pretty good and give me some terminology.
Basically you want the player to be able to easily remember and choose the right move for the right situation.
Instead of overloading the player with moves that are hard to perform and memorize.
You would also want Link moves although to me Cancel moves seem more "realistic".

What do you think? Should I have more link moves or cancel moves?

Counters are usually pretty terrible. You want an effective dodge move--that is, a dodge that, when activated, will cancel out just about any attack leveled at you for a few frames and move you out of harm's way when doing so. It's something that your article-writing fellow would call an action adventure game feature, but it's basically necessary if you don't want your combat to be unresponsive garbage.

The fellow in the article is an arrogant fighting games nerd that thinks that when people play games they'll do anything except spam the most useful move, so I wouldn't take his advice too seriously.

From what you're talking about, I would suggest taking inspiration from God Hand. It's got the whole 2d collision detection in a 3d environment thing going and it balances out fairly well by having decent AI and making every attack in the game avoidable in some way. Your friend might not like it because rather than having a button combination or position-based system, God Hand simply allows the player to set specific moves to a button. It also has one of the slowest and clunkiest fighting systems out there, but embraces that fact. The entire feeling of the game is one that is up-close and brutal, which is something that is lost by a lot of combat systems.

About the height differences, if this greatly influences the size of the hitbox, it would be quite difficult for you to balance it out. I wouldn't suggest it for a newbie, although I have no idea what your skill level is. Don't leave it out completely, but don't focus on it initially.

Yea I will start with characters of the same height I guess.

Tablecat, I don't think people spam the most common moves. Well they do if they are beginners, but once you have more experience with a game choosing the right move for the right time is important to win a fight.
And you want the more experienced players to have an advantage against someone who randomly mash buttons.

Here is a video where I am testing camera motion. I am not sure what to do with the camera. I tried to make it lazy following the target but that just made the camera rotate every time the characters starts or ends walking. It's pretty but kind of distracting.

The animations are placeholders.

http://youtu.be/gnabGXuVgUk