ftr Little Fighter predates Smash a good 4 years! with Power Stone as well coming the same time as Smash anyways. I'd also put Castlevania Judgment in between Power Stone & traditional fighters. The genre has always had a lot of diversity since the beginning - ditto goes with many Dragon Ball fighting games particularly with Budokai Tenkaichis, and then we've got Dissidia very much doing its own thing as well.
no other genre enforces the same sort of rigidity that FGC types believe in, and when closer similarities gather it merely spawns a sub-genre. They don't all have to be clones of each other
I request affiliated many pipes.
Been a bad girl, I know I am. And I'm so hot, I need a fan. I don't want a boy, I need a man.