Yeah I know what you mean. I think they did a good job of making it long. I just wanted to get through it so that I could get Toon Link 
I'm sure that they're intentions were to give us a solo mode that didn't last a short while like the adventure mode from melee but in the end SSE just feels like despite they're good intentions they missed the mark by some. I still appreciate the effort however.
I finally finished SSE in about 7 hours thanks to my roommate guiding me through it. There was no way I could have done it on my own, I didn't pay enough attention while playing to remember which way is I had to go. The FMVs were enyoable. We got a bunch of good laughs out them, like ZS Samus' boobs entering a room before she does, Snake's scenes were cool, and the Final Fantasy like scene towards the end as well.
It depends on who you're playing. I can get the Smash Ball 90% of the time with Lucario. With Gannandorf though there's just no chance.
Mostly my problem is that I always hit just enough that the next person only has to lightly hit it to get it.
Now that I've got every character I realized just how much I didn't know/didn't remember (especially since I dont own Melee because everone I know has it). I've always played as Link for about 85% of the time, if not I would alternate Fox and Samus in as well. But I guess thanks to playing as everyone for classic mode I see how Peach is actually pretty good.
I still have Link as my main but I alternate much much more frequently with Snake, Lucario and ZSS.