If you play fighting games, then I don’t see how you can complain about smash bros’ controls. I don’t play many fighting games, but from I’ve played, you typically have to mash a sequence of buttons in many different directions in order to perform a special move…not intuitive at all.
Some characters are easier to use than others, but you can definitely get good with any character if you keep at it. Case in point, Jigglypuff (widely considered the most weak, useless character) has been my main man…er…thing…since the original smash bros, and I’m able to hold my own against anyone without even considering it a handicap.
That’s actually less true of Super Smash Bros. than it is of other fighting games.
Balance is an extraordinarily difficult thing to acheive. Worst-case scenario, you wind up with something like Marvel vs. Capcom 2: dozens of characters, and about five of them who you can use for competitive play. Even the very best fighting games have a few characters who will totally dominate the rest; that’s just the nature of the genre.
Smash gets around this by way of items. The randomness of items means that even the most unbalanced fight can still work out for the disadvantaged player if they’re suddenly haded a few Bob-ombs and a Smash Ball.
That’s not to say that the game is perfectly balanced or anything, but compared to other fighting games, it performs very well in that regard.