I haven't gotten into Fire Emblem the way all of you did, but it Smash games did rouse my interest in Nintendo's older games, particularly Kid Icarus and Ice Climber.
Melee did factor into my buying F Zero GX for the Cube, as well as my interest in Metroid Prime-Samus and Captain Falcon were two of my favourite characters.
Brawl has made me yearn for a number of things-a new Golden Sun (coming next year!), a new Pikmin (coming soon, I hope), a Kid Icarus revival (catchy theme tune and I like Pit), Ice Climber DS/DSiWare (doesn't anyone else think that would be awesome?), and with Lucas being my favourite character, EarthBound on Virtual Console and Nintendo actually making an effort to bring the Mother games to the West.
All in all, yes, I agree. The Smash series is great not just because it allows people to play with a variety of their favourite characters, but because it brings new characters and games into their hearts.