First of all I loved the handicap system in SSBM and think it was the perfect way to keep a fight featuring two experienced gamers and two casuals fair (what we have every week at my place). The system did it quietly in the background, and there wasn't any obvious way to expoit it.
SSBB, however, is becoming a growing problem in our group precisely because of how its handicap system works; by making it brutally obvious who is handicapped, and by how much there are hurt feelings in the group. Second of all in a group such as ours there is a very simple way that this system gets exploited by the very people it was meant to handicap. Myself and the other experienced gamer both know that we can usually kill the other in a single blow; so at the end of two minutes its not uncommon for us to have a huge nubmer of kills - almost all against each other.
The only solutions I can think of to this all involve creating teams - which isn't my first choice. If anyone else has suggestions please fire away.
