The tournament scene represents no more than 1% of the people who own the games.
Who says one has to be part of the tournament scene to enjoy playing the game a certain way? Or even a variety of ways?
The game was designed to be a simplified fighter with easy-to-pick-up controls, and has mass appeal thanks to the various franchises represented within it.
I agree, and it works very well that way.
Brawl has sold the most of the three games and appears on a system which is marketed towards everyone ("casuals" or "non-gamers"). Seems like enough evidence to me.
How do you figure? What does the Wii have to do with it? What do casuals have to do with enjoying the game with or without items? Is there some data I'm unaware of that indicates that casuals only enjoy playing the game with all items, four players? I'd say they are more likely to play with the default option just out of ease, but your original point was that "most" would find other options boring, which I don't believe.
Anyway, again, I just want to make it clear that it frustrates me that people have to rally behind their method of play for this game and feel the need to turn their nose at those who play it differently.
...And on the topic of Super Mario Kart, I always enjoyed this entry in the series as the first one I played. It was a tremendous amount of fun back in the day. However, I felt Mario Kart 64 improved on it tremendously. The games are very different, with dynamics like the jump being more defined and the coins, which gives them both a little life against each other... but I felt Mario Karty 64 was when the series hit its peak and zenith.