Brad Wong himself is fine. However, he is relatively bad compared to the rest of the cast. There are a lot of characters way better than Brad. Also, I don't know if you meant to say that Ayane is linear, but she isn't. In fact, she is one of the characters with the most tracking moves in her arsenal.
My bad.... I meant to say her Mobility is linear.... she can only move Back and Forth....... well technically there is a 3rd Dimension since she Crouches when she spins but you get the idea........
Also: "Brad Wong himself is fine. However,
he is relatively bad compared to the rest of the cast."
I'm pretty sure whenever someone gives their oppinion of how good or bad a character is in a fighting game (where all you do is fight other characters) they always do so in consideration with how they measure up to the rest of the cast....... unless there's a mini game where you can Take Brad Wong on a Panty Raid
in which case: Gimme Gimme Gimme !!!
While I await confirmation of the existance of such an awesome mini game lets take a look at Ol'Brad's arsenal.
Brad Wong has Slow mids..... not grappling slow mind you but he will lose to many direct confrontations...... and thats where Brad Shines.... he's better at Indirect Offense because he's got a crapload of Crushes and is alot more mobile than people give him credit for. He can hop Over, Sneak Under or Swing Around many moves in the game and where all that Fails he can use Back Flip and Front Flip for any of his spacing needs if the Stage allows it.
His Stances also have Built in Defense Mechanisms along side his offensive ones, when he's lying down he can go clean under some mids.....and should the opponent find a true mid they can rely on then Brad still has his Side Step while he's down there.... which may require a Tracking Low at best..... in addition to that when his head is torwards his opponent then he can Parry said low attacks..... it also Moves his hurtbox in such a away that he can avoid a few extra mids during the parry animation...... he can go on the offensive too since when he is lying down he has access to Offensive Holds and one Frame Trap that leads into his least mobile stance, The Handstand, what the Frame Trap does is force a scenario where the Opponent has to guess between an i11 Frame mid kick (from a -1 Disadvantage on their side) and a throw..... to defend himself from Being Thrown he can exit the stance in a very brief Airborne state preventing him from being thrown and striking Brad out of that stance merely cause to him fall to the ground.... which I think is manageable for him. I mean you can try Launching but would you risk getting counter hit for it...... I tried and fail many times (because the AI cheats).
From his Dokuritsu-Ho Stance (the one where he hops on one foot like an idiot) he's got yet another offensive hold and an infinite string of mid kicks he can perform while slowly backing up to cover his retreat.
In offense he's got long Strings and Crazy mix ups..... I mean he has a string that has Three Low attacks that lead to a knock down which he can opt out of into one of his stances if he wants.
He also has the most moves in the game.... if the command training is anything to go by.
I don't think theres a Character in the DoA Roster that can shut down all of his avenues for an offense..... each of his tricks can be shut down and demolished indivudually but as a whole Brad Wong remains formidable because there's always somerhing he can try to get around his opponent's defense or something to make it hard for them to penetrating his own.
He's perfectly Viable without the slightest concern about whom he maybe facing....... except for Marie but shes the exception because shes a pain in the ass for everybody including in a Marie Mirror Match....... God Damn that Infernal Side Step !!!