Thinking Out Loud: Wither Smash?

I've been playing some more Smash Bros Wii-U and 3DS lately, mostly because they fit well with my busy work roster; they're still a lot of fun and I love the mix of characters, even the ones I didn't know before. Of course, playing the game more has made me think a bit more about it, and one question keeps raising itself, why aren't there more of these games? Not why hasn't there been more than the existing Smash Bros games, but why has the formula, a fighting game with a basic control scheme and a cast of preexisting characters, not been duplicated elsewhere? Yes, there was Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale, which wasn't bad actually, but it suffered from not having a great selection of "Classic" characters. Actually, I think Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale was a bit ahead of it's time, if it came out now, characters like Nathan Drake and Cole Cash would probably have a bit more of a following. 

Back to my main point, though, why isn't there a proliferation of fighting games with a basic control scheme, no set combos or supers and an emphasis on fun? It seems like a pretty straightforward way to generate a decent profit from any IP that a developer happens to be sitting on. Hell, not even a full franchise would be really necessary, can you imagine such a game with just the Robot Masters from the Megaman series? I'd play that. Not to mention sprawling franchises like Marvel and DC superheroes, Dragonball and Sonic the Hedgehog, all of which would have ready fanbases who don't necessarily play a lot of video games that may still be interested in something "Smash-like". I don't really want to accuse the Competitive and Fighting Game communities of gate-keeping, but there was a huge move against the Professional Smash Bros scene when it started to explode and the games developers do tend to not accommodate the casual market. 

Look, I'm not here to attack "Gamer" culture or the industry that it feeds and feeds it, despite the endemic problems that have continued since I started trying to get into the community; but what about the economic argument? Smash Bros is the biggest selling Nintendo franchise without "Mario", "Pokemon" or "Zelda" in the title. Sure, other developers can't use the classic Nintendo characters, but Rare are sitting on a lot of IP, Square has 30 Years worth of Final Fantasy characters alone and id Software has had a huge fan following for decades. Actually, now I really want to play a game where I use Commander Keen to beat down Robo-Hitler from Wolfenstien 3D, can someone please make that happen? I don't know, this just seems like an easy win to me, surely there's room for more "casual" fighting games in a world where Injustice and Marvel Vs Capcom already exists?  

Note: Between writing and publishing this, I spoke to a Games Journalist friend and he mentioned that, mechanically, Smash is very difficult and expensive to program and that several similar games based on anime properties are starting to crop up in Japan. Hopefully this sort of game moves out West sooner or later.