Kind of a general question to everyone, but has Smash speculation ever gotten you to try a new series or game before?
Yes. Tons of new series. Ever since Smash 64, I tried out new series to me. I already was very interested in Zelda Ocarina of Time, Link in Smash persuaded me to get it. Tried out other games as well, for example Kirby and around Melee I got highly interested in StarFox (Adventures), Metroid (Fusion and Prime) and later EarthBound, through emulation. Was already familiar with Donkey Kong, Pokémon (my two favorites at that time) and of course Mario and Yoshi.
Then the periods after Melee and before Brawl I played a lot of GBA emulator. The speculation was about Fire Emblem characters because of Marth and Roy, and it got me to play Fire Emblem 7, Sacred Stones and eventually even Binding Blade. Mother 3 was a hot thing, so I played it and started to support Lucas. Fire Emblem Path of Radiance was my first Fire Emblem title that I actually bought, and I loved Ike, so I also started to support him. Even played a little Animal Crossing, but it wasn't much to my liking.
Smash 4 eventually didn't convince me to anything. Except a tiny bit of Street Fighter and Mega Man, maybe. However after I bought a 3DS, I quickly played the Fire Emblem games, wasn't a fan of "waifu Emblem" before that, and kinda skeptical about the game industry in general. I also bought Kid Icarus Uprising. Never finished it however. Bad controls bro.
Now after Ultimate? Not sure. Am half sort of interested in Bayonetta, but I'll await Bayonetta 3 if am seriously gonna consider investing in this franchise. Playing a little Pokémon Sword, which is huge cause I didn't play after Diamond game out. Only a little bit of Pokémon Show Down, which I admit, might be because of Greninja. Oh, and in the anticipation of Hero, I played some Dragon Quest. Dragon Quest might be a thing for the future. Am also highly interested in the upcoming remake of Xenoblade 1.
So yeah, quite a lot of series where introduced to me thanks to Smash.