I was thinking about this recently.
I know Melee is the better version competitively due to the fact that it requires one to be really skilled to play it. And people see it as being insanely hard. Except it isn't as hard as people think it is, when played by casuals at home having drinks. Only the highest competitive levels take it to such heights. And in that difficulty the fun is found and you know a person who wins deserved it 100% because of the real effort they had to put in to attain the skills.
Smash 4 is a better version of what Brawl was meant to be, and both versions are intentionally gimped skill level wise to make it easier for casual players. And because of this it isn't able to be better than Melee competitively. But the casual market has something to grab on to and that brings sales.
The issue was Nintendo trying to force people to not be competitive. Melee is played the way it is by exploiting gaps in the design the original engineers and developers didn't expect. Giving it this polarizing divide, between casual play and engine breaking competitive play. Casuals aren't going to go to tournaments, so I don't see why the "high skill ceiling" is an issue to them. And the tournament players don't want to be forced to play casually, so the casual way of play is something they can just avoid. I have been secretly hoping for a Smash 2. Hopefully just updated, and not redesigned to intentionally add the tech the pros have figured out. Because doing so will change the feel of the game to much I think to keep that Melee vibe. But a more modern engine running the same mechanics that can be broken if the player wants to, or ignored if the player chooses to just play a few games with some friends.
And with the Switch being released Nintendo has had a big resurgence of fans. And one of their new movements is towards competitive play. And they are backing more events. So the first issue of them being so strongly against it seems a bit out dated now. Of course they are recouping costs at the moment and releasing 'HD remakes" of games like Mario Kart 8 DX. So we will probably just get Smash 4 DX or something like that.
But. With Injustice 2 having such good levels of success with their game model of having all these extras that can be turned off for competitive play, I see no reason why Nintendo can't do something similar with a game that could be Melee 2. Competitive and casual can live in harmony with one game. Melee literally proved that. Nintendo were just but hurt because that wasn't what they intended. But they aren't blind. They know there is a massive fan base for the extra skill ceiling and will eventually fold and release something that can be played to the level of Melee. Whether that is the next game in the series or if that is many years down the line when the Melee community is gone and nobody has picked up the newer titles. It is bad business to brush aside such a monstrous collection of people with bank accounts. and they have reshuffled the board with younger members to weed out all the old bad business decision makers.
Of course in my country I haven't played Melee against another human in maybe a decade. And there is somewhat no scene for the Smash 4 game either. So I will be picking up whatever Smash game is dropped on the Switch as Nintendo South Africa finally starts to take the stick out of their asses and actually do some brand marketing and community work.
