While tripping was an incredibly retarded mechanic, Brawl was somehow the most fun out of the whole series. I don't know how but Smash 4 and Ultimate have managed to feel stale and soulless compared to the first 3 games. Ultimate in particular has such a massive roster that it somehow managed to lose its identity altogether.
Smash 4 and Ultimate made a hard pivot into Smash’s fighting mechanics and a general hype culture. Smash is a “Platform fighter” and was considered moreso a party game, but those elements have slowly been removed come 4, whereas you can tell they were the forefront of Melee and Brawl. Melee had adventure mode, which was then expanded by Subspace. Stages were more willing to go crazy in Melee & Brawl, whereas nowadays everything is a basic travel stage or low-hazard platform.
The “Nintendo” of Smash Bros has also been increasingly downplayed in the two most recent titles. Brawl had trophies that would give descriptions of the subject, stickers that would at least tell you what game the image is from, and the chronicle which went over every Nintendo release. Ultimate gave us a downgraded version of stickers, will only tell the player the franchise, and removed everything else. There is also a lot less weirdness on the roster and stages since 4, with Ultimate not even having a retro joke pick character like G&W, R.O.B., and Duck Hunt.
not much else though, 2 galaxy games, 2 zeldas.... wii sports? brawl is pretty much accepted as the worst smash. What else?
Mario Kart Wii and Brawl are black sheep titles that are arguably the best of their series.
We actually got 3 Mario titles with 2 Galaxy games and NSBWii, which itself was a pretty good game as it came before the staleness set in.
The two Mario Sports titles, Super Sluggers and Strikers Charged, are the best Mario sports games hands down.
Kirby’s Return to Dreamland is often considered the best of the IP, and Epic Yarn is typically considered the best spin-off.
Donkey Kong Country Returns was a great revitalization of a long decayed IP.
Endless Ocean and it’s sequel are sleeper classics and the best of their weird niche of ocean-diving simulator titles. The fact that they are bringing it back to Switch shows they have some status.
Super Paper Mario is another black sheep title that is now gaining a lot of favorability as the last good Paper Mario.
I could honestly keep going. The Wii was a console with loads of good that everyone skipped:
- Metroid Prime 3
- Mario Fortune Street
- Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn
- WarioWare Smooth Moves
- Animal Crossing City Folk
- Punch-Out!!
- Another Code R (outside the US)
- Excite series
- Rhythm Heaven Fever
- Xenoblade Chronicles
- Wario Land Shake It
There is even some widely loved 3rd party titles:
- No More Heroes 1+2
- Sonic Colors
- Zack & Wiki
- Tatsunoko vs Capcom
- Rabbids series (Has a few gems)
- Go Vacation
- Monster Hunter (series)
- Epic Mickey
