I think you need to play melee again and look how detailed everything is in brawl compared to melee.

This game is vastly different from melee. You obviously didnt play much of the smash games.

The new animations is what really sets it apart from melee. One aspect of the game that was not brought up which disappointed a few of my friends is how competitive it doesn't feel. Call it what you will, balancing, nerfing, gimping or overpowering, but it doesn't feel like melee in what I feel matters. Not sure how happy some are that the game has slowed down but I preferred the faster pace. Hit boxes feel weird and physical contact with other characters feels off. Getting KOed feels random at times. My belief is it got dumbed down for the masses. I'm glad the top tier characters aren't as powerful but it almost feels they went too far.

Where I'm coming from: Never owned a N64, Gamecube, nor do I have a Wii. But I do have many hours of getting my arse whipped by one of the best smash players I've witnessed. Never played the first Smash. Played as Marth in melee because I could never pick up the basics well enough. In Brawl I dropped Marth for King Dedede and I feel almost on even footing with my friend from melee.

I agree about the speed of Brawl; I felt like Melee was faster paced, and I enjoyed the feeling of competition. Also, while there are some subtle differences in graphics between Brawl and Melee, we're talking about games that were released more than 6 years apart. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Brawl was entirely possible on the Gamecube; Melee was a basically a launch title, and who knows what it would have looked like if it were released later in the Gamecube's life cycle.