Don't any of you ever scale the way you play to opposition you're up against? I know that when I play a game like Soul Calibur 3 (where I am of tournament standard) against some of my less serious friends, I tone things down a little. I don't see the point in playing all out and stomping them. I don't find that fun, and they certainly don't enjoy it either. On the other hand, when I'm playing against some of my tournament level buddies, it's a lot more brutal.

Treat Smash the same way - if you're just playing for fun amongst friends, then don't sweat all the technical stuff; just mess around, throw a pokeball at someone's head and laugh. Then, when things get more serious, reach into your bag of tricks and fire away.

Never forget that for every tournament player there are scores of people who will never play in a tournament. The game is aimed every bit, if not moreso, at them than at those who play in tournaments.

I agree that there is no "right" way to play Smash. Personally, I love items. I'm not super-skilled with items, like those guys on Youtube, but I'm pretty handy with them and love using them to my advantage. Item matches and no items matches are kind of like Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee fight scenes: neither is right or wrong, but both serve a similar, yet different purpose.

I've never played in a tournament(I know I'd get slaughtered), but I certainly wouldn't want to play in a tourney that allowed items. That's now to say a tourney like that wouldn't be fun, but tournaments are basically a test of skill. There is skill to using items, but too much randomness and unbalance just wouldn't make sense in a big tournament.