The only way to have fun on Temple when Fox is involved is you playing as Fox anyway
And yeah, he doesn't feel nearly as awesome in Brawl. I enjoy Falco more in Melee, but hitting shine spikes as Fox is almost as satisfying as Falco's OP-as-shit dair.
Meta Knight is fun to play unless you like people, in which case I think Lucario's probably my favorite in Brawl. I was about to say Ice Climbers, but their entire playstyle is based around trapping your enemy in an infinite they can't escape, which, again, not fun if you like people.
SSB tournaments are double elimination, usually.
I don't understand why some skills are considered legitimate and others aren't.
See, that's not the problem. The problem isn't that item skills aren't considered good, it's that when items are thrown into the mix these skills take over to the expense of all other skills in the game. It's much like if Akuma were allowed in Street Fighter 2; the entire game would be about how good you are at
Akuma instead of how good you are at the game. Sometimes, certain features of the game will only be included to the detriment of all others, forcing out any other skills for that one, and items would cause that. Such features deserve to be banned.
Situational awareness and adapting are what the game is
all about anyway. It's not about who can do a
waveshine the best mostly because nobody can actually do that consistently, it's about who can
read their opponents the best. Mango is nearly universally considered the best Melee player in the world and he doesn't waveshine and do crazy shit like that, he's the best player because he's the best at going with the flow and reacting.
You don't have the option to turn off the
most BS items (instakill explosives, which still show up in the form of capsules when any item is on).