Brawl was a gamechanger. Now that's not taking anything away from Melee. The moment-to-moment physics are better in Melee and Melee was a big step-up from the original. With Brawl, we got so many firsts for Smash..
-3rd-party characters
-A story mode with a lot of cutscenes
-Custom stages
-A massive library of music (for the time)
-Assist trophies
-Final Smash
-Online. Ok, well the online sucked. And the online has pretty much sucked since. But it is an option.
Brawl was in many ways, the first modern Smash. Now I'd rather go back to Melee because of the moment-to-moment gameplay and larger differences to Ultimate compared to Brawl.
But for me, every Smash after the original is amazing (unless you count 3DS on its own, but that's still an excellent release).
Tripping is just about the only complaint I have about Brawl.
Lifetime Sales Predictions
Switch: 161 million (was 73 million, then 96 million, then 113 million, then 125 million, then 144 million, then 151 million, then 156 million)
PS5: 115 million (was 105 million) Xbox Series S/X: 48 million (was 60 million, then 67 million, then 57 million)
PS4: 120 mil (was 100 then 130 million, then 122 million) Xbox One: 51 mil (was 50 then 55 mil)
3DS: 75.5 mil (was 73, then 77 million)
"Let go your earthly tether, enter the void, empty and become wind." - Guru Laghima