I will have to agree with you that the game would not be nearly as popular without Nintendo characters. I suspect it would be an entirely different (and better) experience for single player as all the characters would need to actually be fleshed out. Still it would cap out in sales around 1-2 million WW like most great fighting series.

I completely disagree with your second assertion though. Just because Brawl has learned a lot from previous fighters does not mean people would enjoy the earlier iterations. I love Street Fighter 2 for example, but cannot stand the original Street Fighter. Bleach DS is probably one of the best 2D fighters in the last decade, but I have a huge list of complaints about Guilty Gear which it is clearly derived from. When you try and compare two things that are distinctly different you get an even greater number of people with a similar reaction. The Smash series has an almost unique type of gameplay which makes it very likely that people who dislike fighters in general can love this game based solely on gameplay.

Final Fan-I just don't want to get into a long and drawn out battle for something there is simply no right answer to. I believe the game is great, but also believe there are many people too hung up on the fan service and would genuinely not like the game if it didn't contain Nintendo mascots. I'll put it another way. If Smash Bros. played exactly like Street Fighter with long button memorization, two power bars and such, I still think it would be highly claimed as the best fighter from Nintendo fans, many of which would still say they don't like fighters but do like Smash Bros.

Gnizmo-A lot of what Smash Bros. contains comes from other fighters or has ended up in other fighters. I can understand not liking most fighting games and liking Smash, but there aren't enough differences in the design to discredit the whole genre but enjoy Smash. The platforming elements and general weapon insanity is in Power Stone, the button press and d-pad direction comes from AKI wrestling games, or maybe earlier. The thing Smash brought to the table is the innovative play on the ring out feature or king of the hill. While it's a great gameplay mechanic and is key to the strategic element of Smash, I don't believe it's enough to like only one game out of a genre that birthed it. If someone said the same thing about only liking Halo and no other FPS games, or Mario Galaxy and no other platforming action games, I would have the same reaction. My wife herself will only play a platformer if it has Mario or Donkey Kong in it. It's because she has a bias towards Mario and Donkey Kong that she can't get out of her head if she were to try another platformer.

hmmm, it was a long read but it was an interesting insight into his opinion, I have to say that I mostly agree with what he wrote.

I hate FPS games. I just cannot get into them, and if I try to I will just get bored. I have tried all the great ones that have come along and they are almost all incredibly boring. The only current exception is Team Fortress 2. I love that game. It is so amazingly awesome and fun. I can play it for hours and never get tired of it. I log in and die a bunch and maybe get a kill but I always love it. I never played Team Fortress before I bought the ORange Box and only tried it because I liked the art style. I have tried all the major FPS games that have hit PCs recently, and a few of the console ones as well. Halo, Half-Life, Metroid Prime, Unreal Tournament 3, and a few more I am forgetting just do not appeal to me. Team Fortress 2 though has this magic about it that I cannot find anywhere else. Sometimes the game just happens to get the formula right for someone. The slight differences can make all the difference in the world to someone who is not that into a genre.

The winners are relaxed. 

well i too think this game is crap. whats wrong when people have different opinions.

Nothing is wrong with people having different opinions. When you go around claiming contradictory problems are in a game there is an issue though. The game can't be too fast, too slow, too simple, and too complicated all at the same time.

@Gnizmo

yeah i agree with that

But your a consistant Nintendo hater, who keeps a picture of the Wii in his avatar to go along with the theme of your name "jake_the_fake1."

Of course you agree with anything anyone says that's anti-nintendo, it's in your nature and consistant with your posting history as I have seen it.

Not that your an outright fanboy, but ya know. Some of the stuff you say is a little offensive to Wii owners. 

Note to Sony fanboys: You have an inferiority complex.