Its really a good hell of a game in both senses, but yes, I still call it a fighting game. =P Otherwise what would you call it?

It's a fighting game/action adventure/platformer.

Yeah, I copped out in this decision.

Do you guys remember the that commercial for the N64 Smash?

We are so used to our fighting games being pretty much, on a single platform (Note: Some games like DOA or Mortal Kombat have scaled platforms, stage>hit-transfer>stage), where-as SSB. doesn't have any dramatic scenes of falling from one stage to another, just one set area, where you can jump around an use items.

It's not a classic fighting game...but its sort of in a category of its on. There's too much of an action/button mashing feel to it to be a fighting game, and doesn't have complicated button combos to pull off special moves.

I'd say its on its own category.

Not really. Just like I have to distinguish brawlers like Final Fight from fighters like Street Fighter. They're not the same due to conventions. I don't think Smash Bros. is a fighter in the sense of the tournament fighters either. It strikes me as a game like Final Fight oriented towards multiplayer parties. The difference is subtle, but it's important.

@DREY_FU@xanga - OMG that commercial was awesome. XD

I would say it's a fighting game, if only because I don't think it fits anywhere else. Party game implies to me that you can pick it up on a slow day and be able to do pretty much anything in the game in a matter of minutes (or, very rarely, hours). I can pick up a controller after never having played Mario Party and pick up all there is to know about it after ten minutes of playing the game; no SSB game can be fully understood in a matter of minutes (you can do stuff after a few minutes, sure, but you're not going to be doing any combos after playing for only a few minutes, just like you're not going to be doing complex combos after five minutes of Street Fighter). I assume what puts any fighting game in general outside the realm of the party game is how complex it is, and I think SSB can be more than complex enough not to fall in the party game category.

As an aside I wouldn't say that Brawl lost its complexity, so much as it was displaced into other things, such as the variety of movesets and a push towards more aerial fighting. It's a different game that calls for a different way of play compared to Melee, and it's not necessarily less complex because of it. Besides, people haven't had time to really exploit glitches and stuff yet. :p

SSB (be it the original, Melee, or Brawl) is easily a fighting game. You have your standard array of attacks, special, and some extras (like the dodge, roll-away, air-dodge, and defense ball that can be shattered if used too much). What other fighting game today doesn't usually have some sort of combination exactly like this?

Just like many of the other commentors here, SSB does break away from tradition. Oh definitely. But let's keep in my mind that the game is an imagination scenerio. Remember at the beginning of SSB on the N64 and the intro? What was previously a desk in some kid's bedroom became an arena for the Nintendo dolls. SSB is just a grown-up kid's imagination come to life. Just like when some of us would make ramps and raceways out of the "hills" of our blankets on our beds and race our Hot Wheels on them.
Whether we're talking about Street Fighter, Mortalk Kombat, Tekken, Virtua Fighter...you name it...each game has its own setting and "story". SSB's is that of imagination come to life, crossing the vast array of Nintendo character universes (not unlike Marvel vs Capcom, Capcom vs SNK, or Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe). SSB simple has a completely original setting.

That originality isn't a break-away from the fighting genre, I think, but rather a re-imagining of what's been copied over and over so many times, with only minor features truly setting each game apart. Anything from super specials to power bars to tweeking combo systems. All of it has been done just about. Not until SSB did the fighting genre get something truly original within its own class.

SSB is also original in its ability to be accessable to both hard-core and novice gamers. The fighting engine is so simple to pick up and play and yet deceptively difficult to master (depending on the gamer, at least). The items add a sweet spin to the fighting genre the same way items did for racing with Super Mario Kart. (The Mario Kart series is no less a racing game just because it has items.)
And while the health bars are done away with in SSB to give way to the damage percentages, this only adds to the original take on the fighting system and still gives players a serious fighting chance even when they're only a couple of punches from being knocked out of the arena. With all the other features of SSB, this doesn't take away from the game or make it less worth of being in the fighting game genre, but simply more open to all levels and types of gamers who might like this game.

In the end, if nothing else, what SSB does is successfully create its very own sub-genre in the fighting realm of games. True, it doesn't follow most of the same rules other fighting games are known for. But it does stay true to the most simplistic idea that makes up a fighting game and then rewrites its own rules to stand in a class all its own. If games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat are the "standard", SSB up and said, "Fine, I'm doing my OWN thing," yet still stays true to that standard.

Nintendo and HAL for the win. Fight on!