I jump around everywhere in this post. I can't structure my words as well as I see them in my head.
Neither Melee nor Brawl had character balance in mind when they were made. Neither had competitive play in the forefront. Neither was supposed to appeal to 1v1 play, it was made to appeal to 4 person FFAs with items and every stage being legit.
Melee took over a year to get any kind of scene going. When East Coast and West Coast were developing a metagame, WC was using items for a while. When it developed, it was slow since people were inexperienced with this kind of engine. They were familiar with Soul Calibur, Street Fighter, etc. After another two years things began to pick up, tiers were becoming painfully clear, top players and areas were starting to show, and the metagame peaked when it was picked up by MLG. Melee had a 7 year lifespan because of its slow growth in popularity over the years. A cult classic in the fighting community.
Brawl developed a scene within a month of its release, partially because of all the old Melee players dedicating themselves to the new game. East Coast and West Coast developed side by side. While the mechanics in Brawl were considered more floaty, it was still very similar to Melee, seeing as both came from HAL and Nintendo. It's only been about a year and two months into Brawl's metagame, and it's grown so rapidly it's not even funny. There's now two tier lists in place, top players are obvious, any tournament below 16 attendees is a bust, there's a 700+ planned attendee tournament going in in Northern California this July (Melee and Brawl), Smash took off because of Brawl's popularity growth. And although people don't want to admit it, Wifi is one of the most important parts of the game. It, by itself, has brought many new competitive players to the game, amazing or not (Ally is an example of a Wifi warrior, I'm an example of a wifi scrub). Brawl's more popular after a year then Melee was in its 7 years.
Q: "But Underload, Brawl is just spacing and camping and projectile spam!"
A: Wrong. Mew2King, the undisputed best Brawl player, and arguably the best Melee player in his prime, doesn't stay back and let the opponent make the first move. He plays Brawl with a fast pace, and its a breath of fresh air. Same with NinjaLink, Boss, Reflex, Fiction, and many other top level players. You're thinking of the low-level players who think that camping's the best. Althought a campy playstyle can get you to a certain point, there's a cutoff point where people just figure you out and fuck you up. Fast-paced, frantic playing like the pros mentioned above yield no real boundaries because there's so many more ways to get better. It's all about playstyle. If you think camping is what Brawl's about, then you're a camper. Follow people off the stage for once and you'll see that Brawl's pretty fun.
Q: Tierz?!
A: Ya. Every successful fighting game has had tiers. Top tiers have been more popular in competitive play, but, in history, low tiers rise up from the bottom and fuck some Metaknights and Snakes up (see: Boss and NinjaLink). Tiers are just a byproduct of a popular game.
That's all I got >.>
