It's got to serve both masters. It should be fun when you don't know what you're doing, that person should always lose to someone who does know what they're doing, and becoming the person who knows what they're doing should be fun, too. When you don't know what you're doing in DOA, you're still kicking people off rooftops and down the steps of the Great Wall of China.

They should strive for both. In the one I got hooked on (3 cant remember) there was a super-easy to learn counter button. Serious players can counter-counter-their-fakeout-counter but newbies can just mash away and its fun for all.

DOA had a high - mid - low attack/defend/counter/hold system.

A player who understands the core mechanics will have an easy time wrecking a button masher