melee is more noob freindly and less based on who you pick.
I don't know how much a like the games are but here.
Me and my brother when to gamestop and played SF4 I played as this one chick I played as when I played SFer 2
(I don't know which one). I lost everytime he braged and was an A**hole basicaly I figured out how to block and projectile and he couldn't do anything, so when he switched around he came to someone much worse I ***** him and I got a few combos I figured out as I played it was the only maytch I won as her he keep bragging.
So I picked the guy with the legs/arms that could strech to the other side of the stage and hiit him no matter what basically needless to say I solidly beat him without any skill at all mashing O or something compared to me doing combo and some tech as that one girl.
In noob levels of melee we never had that problem we never said F*** this it's way to much based on who you pick.
At higher levels again it's not 100% about who you pick I don't know about SF.
movement In melee I love the options you get you don't slowly back up and lose the ground you gained always. In melee you don't only have the choices to attack and block you can WD back be safe and begin to attack as they spotdoge. When backed up against a wall(edge in melee) most of the time you have many options to use 3 which all noobs can use and at least 3-5 more if they are any good. movement alone makes melee's metagame have a much farther metagame just think if you had to walk backward/forwards/ jump only many people would be broken or impossible to anything with like pichu/fox/kirby/ness movement makes you feel confortable gives you space and more options for mindgames/approaching.
stages gives you many choices it's hard believe, who you pick totally changes the fight, so many people are way different.
marth/sheik/fox/falco/puff/ice climbers/gannon are all toally different fights even from roy to marth are totally different you don't CC everything marth unlike roy.
Compareing SF to another fighting game i've played just as much as
The only non smash game I play is called Bushido blade 1 I'm not a master of this game of anything but i've at least unlocked katze(guy who uses a gun in a sword game and one bullet in basically a kill isn't broken as F*** but maybe the 2-4 best). The game plays like this.
You pick your person then pick your weapon some poeple work better with some weapons like there are somtimes 2 people good with one weapon. Most combos aren't automatic like SF people can block, attack also/ or tech out and risk being tech chased(it's a 3d open map and tech chaseing is very neat). Maps play little to a huge roll in the game. Like some maps have sand/snow/dirt to throw, huge maps let you run camp, ledges you jump on, walls to limit attacks, no walls to not limit attacks, trees to stop many attacks.
there is a lot of movement to use tech chaseing can easily be deadly you can limitlessly roll left/right but it's slow, you can crawl forward slowly it avoids many attacks but is slow, rolling backwards to counter/ non counter attacking, lie down slash someone attacking from above, jumping forward attack. Also one hit to the head/body can kill a hit to the arm can end many combos,weaker block, all projectils and sand throwing. breaking your legs will limit you to crawling for lack of a better word and you will have on combos and only like 1/3 of your normal attacks but you can drop to the ground and roll like when teching.
Also you can stand at a low/normal/high stanace that deceids your attacks and combos. Also some combos make me think of SF like low stance to back forward O then mash like H*** an attack button and you will unleash a massive combo of 7 hits one is enough to kill.