God my friends would suck the fun out of smash bros.

Room with 6 people: Hey let’s play smash bros! 1V1 ONLY NO ITEMS FINAL DESTINATION BEST OF 5.

Me: Playing pokemon on my phone for the 40 minutes I’m not allowed to play the game that allows 4 players.

There’s a time for both tbh. If you want to just fuck around then items and stuff are a lot of fun. But if you’re playing from a competitive mindset many of these mechanics get in the way of the parts of the game they love the most. In fact, I think my experience playing without items made me more effective with them when I played with people that wanted them turned back on.

The important thing is that you play the rule set everyone playing will have fun with. That’s why the customization of rules has always been pretty in depth.

Growing up playing Smash Brothers with my friends we all had an agreement that the only items we would use were pokeballs at max spawn rate. Two years ago I played Smash for the first time since then with some other people with all items on and it felt weird. I haven’t played since.

Game and watch level with super mushrooms on max was peak fun though.

Every Saturday I play with friends online. And unless it’s a theme night, it’s free for all. The only stage not in rotation is Palutenas Temple as we’ve found it’s just too big. Otherwise, all items, Smash meters, all stages. Only way to play.