What do you personally find the best features of Smash and Smash-likes?

[SM Sola]

I'd just like to know what makes you all personally interested in Smash games and Smash-likes, and I'd appreciate input from everyone who's ever played one :D
There a pretty clear split amongst people who play Smash bros. Those that love the fiercely competitive side of smash, and those that enjoy the crazy items on chaotic free for alls. That said, I'd imagine most people here enjoy it for the competitive side.
So what do you enjoy about Smash Brothers and similar games? What made you pick them up in the first place? Why do (or did) you continue to play them?

 

[finalark]

I think the two biggest things Smash has going for it is wide cast of iconic (and sometimes cult) characters and the fact that it plays like itself.

The first one is self-explanatory. Even someone who has never touched a fighting game in their life can see the appeal of being able to fight against their friends with everyone playing as a character from their favorite franchise.

The second one is a bit more complex. Other fighting games can be described as, "X, but with Y gimmick." For example, Darkstalkers (the first one, never played the sequels) is Street Fighter with monsters. Tekken is Vitua Fighter but slower. BlazBlue is Guilty Gear with different mechanics. But Smash is just Smash. You can't really line it up side-by-side with anything else that came before it. It really is a unique experience all to itself.

 

[Minato]

Number 1 is its cast. Without the cast, I'd have little to no interest in Smash. Second is how it plays (mostly the movement). It's pretty intuitive and takes bits of other parts of Nintendo games making it feel natural. Unfortunately they dialed some stuff back like removing momentum from a run for a jump, the game still feels what you expect a Nintendo platformer to feel like (imo).

My reasoning in the first part kind of answers that other part. I pretty much have no interest in Smash-likes if you mean by Smash clones. Only one I really played was Jump Super Stars. Of course its own cast is why I was really interested in it, but the bottom screen koma-feature was its own unique thing that I thought was cool.