I know which game I'd spend more time on... Brawl. It's fun with friends, button combos I've gotten bored of since tekken 3. Plus Brawl, or smash games in general, have more freedom than other fighters IMO. Super Smash Brothers made me stop playing those "traditional" fighters simply because of the freedom and fun to play with more than just ONE person at a time. Brawl will obviously last longer in the market that's for sure.

@dib8rman: The biggest problem with Melee is the balance. Too many characters were over powered and too many were underpowered. The characters are mostly balanced in Brawl (most people will complain about Meta-Knight, but tournament rules give him a huge advantage among other things). Brawl has a much better balance of characters and all can be played. It's more about the player then the character.

I would also argue that the floating adds more air combat and fights off the stage (as every character can meteor smash or intercept). The only problem is the items are too few. Brawl could use more items spawning.

I agree. Although in Melee I was capable of beating good player's with some of the lower tier characters when they chose say fox, Falco, Shiek, etc... I learned how to love Brawl over Melee now and I'm happy with it. I'm just pissed that Link in brawl is considered one of the worst characters, He's like my best lower tier character =_= I manage to beat my friend who uses Snake using Link!

I wouldn't say it's a party game but it's definetely a lot easier for anyone to just pick up and play.

I've had ariel battles in melee, most of my focus was off the edge combat, shiek is especially good at this, it's rare but I've had a few bouts under the stage as well, and yes I did come back alive. All Brawl accomplishes with it's floatyness is the ability to pull off more moves while in the air FOR SOME CHARACTERS most of those characters have specific moves bair or fair in MK's case a lot more, that they can pull off without touching the ground, as far as combat in the Air though, Brawl is just persistent while melee was more definative. At some point someone is going to die in Melee in Brawl, many of the characters couldn't kill in the air outside of the usual requirements.

(Edge hogging not being counted)

The specifics of my arguement though is that, Melee allows for combat in a way that balances between ground and air, Brawl fails to work well with both, instead it limits options and reassigns focus to a c-stick or b-stick. Heck if your not on no-tap and button jump your the game is already placing you in a disadvantage.

Characters being more fair in Brawl is purely subjective anyway, I'd say that Melee had extreme balance between many of the characters, even Mewtwo has his ups, it's just that some characters are harder to get a hang of while others make it easy. That's the same issue with Brawl, only difference though is that Brawl really cuts your options down versus Melee. There are new tricks but no where near as effective as Melee's definative tricks.

Hmm, some like Brawl more some like Melee more and some like Smash more... Melee seemed to be more a long the lines of a action packed high speed fighter while Brawl is just so slow, the button responses are slower the hang time is way too much, tripping is idiotic and so on and so forth. It seems like a spin on Melee but in the wrong direction. I'm not saying Brawl is a horrible game, just saying Melee is better; this thread is asking for an opinion after all. V_V

I've pointed out specifics of why Brawl is bad, in turn you've told me that Melee is just unbalanced because your favorite character was bad according to some precognition asserted by someones list of which character was good?

NESS is not bad, I always used bumble-bee ness and I have done some intense stuff with him, leaving people in helpless juggles and edge gaurding with PK crush, his Yo-yo antics can stop a lot coming his way. I guess you can feel confident that someone lost with Ness at a torny versus a Fox so Ness sucks and was nerfed. =.=

I've loved Melee to death but my friends stopped playing it because... well we've been playing it for over 4 years or so... And when brawl came out, they couldnt wait to play it. They like it because they have a better chance at doing moves that they for some reason weren't able to do in Melee. Honestly Melee was near perfect for the Smash series, But I got a bit tired of it because not so many people would want to play it anymore because there are newer "flashy" looking games and say "Melee's Graphics are bad". I don't have a problem with them , but lots do, especially now days.

Brawl is a step further in the Smash series that I have accepted. At first I wasn't too fond of it but like i said before, I grew to love it. After seeing tourney matches, it makes me wonder how much better Brawl players are going to get. I've watched old Melee matches before wavedashing and all the other fancy moves were discovered and I must say that it was boring to watch. All I'm saying is possibly sometime this year and next year, Brawl players are going to be leagues better than what they are now ( I mean I didn't think a person can really get that good in Brawl until I started playing it more often)... Anyway I'm not sure what my point is cuz it's late and I gotta go to sleep... Just give Brawl more time and I'm sure you'd grow to like it. Hell I wish my internet would reach my room so I could play with some of the big daddies in Brawl :p

Brawl, by far

Because its nothing new

i give people that SSB and SSB melee were difference, melee did alot towards the smash series and imo the best. Brawl sucks so hard its not funny, its overrated to the max.

also smash is not a kids game its just easier to get into, it has many fun characters from nintendo games so it attracts many age groups. It can be a button masher or a hardcore gamers game. (good luck BM in SF) therefore it is easier to get into.

People who say SSB and not stating why are fanboys and shouldnt be regarded *couch* sleage *couch*. same goes to SF of course.

IMO SF is the king of fighting games and always will be, smash is great but is no where near the level of SF. So many people vote smash just because its more popular and like i said before "nintendo fanboy website" (no offence) so of course peopel will say smash so its not really a fear debate.

And that's one of the reasons why Brawl is the superior game. I fail to see why a (intentionally) steeper learning curve would make SF4 better in any way, shape or form.

When comparing Brawl and Melee: Melee was faster than the original. Many people didn't like that. When Brawl came out, they slowed the game down again, and that made it better IMO.

As to whether or not Brawl is a serious game: it is one of those easy to play and hard to master games. How do I know this? I played Melee with my friend quite a bit. When I sold it, it had 300 hours clocked into it. I would say I am an advanced player. I haven't met a single player (except for above mentioned friend) that can come anywhere close to defeating me. I simply manhandle them. In other games, like Soul Calibur and Mortal Kombat, experience helps. However, new people who button mash still do somewhat well. That isn't the case in brawl.

I did like Street Fighter II. I do plan on getting Street Fighter IV for the PC. However, if you are playing a traditional fighting game like that, you are better off with Tekken. I guess I am biased since I practice Martial Arts and like the more realistic approach with traditional fighting games.