Vortigar said:
Uhm, did you forget Smash Brothers?
I did briefly consider Smash Brothers, but left it out for a couple reasons:
1) The games focused on in the article center around Mario and the Mushroom Kingdom. Sure, Mario may have help in the Kart and Party series, but at the same time it's still his name on the game and just about everyone he brings along are supporting or secondary characters from the main series. Even Donkey Kong, who's split off into his own series, has a strong history with Mario via their original debut title and, more recently, the Mario vs. Donkey Kong games. Smash Brothers, on the other hand, is a Nintendo-wide event. Link, Kirby, Pikachu, and all the other characters who show up are just as important to the game as Mario. If, on the other hand, Smash Brothers had been designed as something like "Super Mario Brawler" or even "Mushroom Kingdom Fighter" and mostly featured characters you'd find in the likes of Mario Party or Mario Kart, it would be a little different story.
Though I'm pretty sure we're much better off with what Nintendo actually gave us.
2) Space. I only had so much room in the article, and so between Super Mario Bros., Mario 64, Mario Kart, and Mario Party, there really wasn't any room to bring up Smash Brothers even if it was more along the lines of the other games in the article.
So yes, you are right, Smash Brothers has brought about a new type of fighting game, one that's both ridiculously fun and whose influence is stretching further as time goes on (such as the previously mentioned easier play mode in MvC3), and it's certainly a valid question, but I made a conscious decision to leave it out of the article.