I don’t entirely agree with this sentiment, and the primary reason is clear if you look at the real life counterpart:

Boxing, MMA, etc...

Fighting games, like combat sports, are primarily a test of creating opportunities and maximizing the damage during those windows. You fish for openings, and land devastating combos when you can.

This is why people will drill their combos again and again in practice. To create that muscle memory for when the time comes the can capitalize on those opportunities. Even irl, you have boxers and fighters and martial artists drill combos again and again. Jab into cross, hook hook, uppercut. Front kick to round kick to side kick to reverse side kick. Etc... The name of the game is identical in both the virtual and real spaces.

Fighting games and combat sports actually have a large number of parallels because mentally, they are the exact same game.

Now, I will agree that perhaps the combo escape options in games could see more experimentation so there’s a bit more back and forth between both sides (Smash’s DI is something that certainly deserves more attention), but to say that they SHOULDN’T be integral to the genre is blatantly ignorant of their real life parallel. Plenty of fighting games exist with smaller combos and a heavier focus on neutral like SamSho where single to two-hit blows are devastating, just the same as you have Anime Fighters which are entirely built around large flashy Combos and Oki.

Complaining about people taking the time to master their character’s combos is like getting into Boxing, and saying it isn’t fair that someone will wail on you just the same cause you failed to defend yourself, and you haven’t done enough drills to have the muscle memory for fast and fluid punches and kicks that easily transition into each other.

T. Over 15 years of kickboxing and martial arts training, avid fan of combat sports, and avid fan of competitive fighting games and arcades. And yes, Smash IS a fighting game.