Way's fighting engine works in a pretty nifty way. It's largely proprietary info, the result of Andy's sweat, so I won't go into detail... but if you all could see a debugging mode in which all the attack boxes and vectors and estimated location boxes are, I think you'ld be impressed and would have a better understanding of how the engine works.
Because all characters have different sized heights, arms, reaches, etc., Way actually keeps track of your limbs (for example) as attacking points. A hit is made only if your LEG (for example) actually hits a vulnerable part of your opponent's (non-blocked) body, not just if you are close and you press kick while your opponent is not blocking. The difference may seem subtle, but in a large 2-D playing field, this can be significant.
For example, if I do a jump kick, my leg becomes extended for a given period of time, or until the ground approaches forcing my leg to retract. During that time, if you try to roll underneath me (Fox for example can do a "Voodoo Roll"- this is in the manual so not a secret), you will be hit only if my leg actually touches your body, not just if our cels are close enough. You actually have to be aware of the placement of the limbs and other attack points (sword for example) of your opponent.
In MK by contrast, all players hit with a given move if a given distance away. No difference if you are playing character X or Y; since you can only stand on a small number of "magic points" along the horizontal axis of the playing "field", this hit or miss calculation is pretty simple. This is also, BTW, why MK feels somewhat unpredictable and cheesy; often it does not look like a given move (footsweep, for example) will hit you-- when it actually does. Not to gang up on MK, which is a great fighting game; it's mood, smoothness, and lighting effets are truly amazing.
Give Way a chance before you dismiss it. It IS significantly different in "feel" from other games, so you have to try it for a while before you get used to it. When I first worked on Way, I thought, "boy this engine needs to be a lot more like SFII." Now that the engine has evolved so much, the game has defintitely acquired its own unique feel.
David
PS: Sorry about rambling...talking about the guts of Way's engine always gets me humming...