Oh, how I love the cinisism of fans. They´ve played tournaments! They´ve had Melee accompany them through sad Saturday nights! How dare the game developers, who have no obligation at all to inform anyone about the game at this point, make an update as useless as how to recover; a crucial mechanic for those who may be planning to buy Brawl but didn´t play the previous installation! And tomorrow we´ll have a new update, but how dare they!? How dare they leave us hanging like that for twenty-four hours!?
Well then. Getting serious now, this is my idea of who may be getting into Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Characters with an asterisk next to them have been confirmed.
Super Mario Bros.
01. Mario *
02. Luigi (De-cloned further with electric-themed moves)
03. Peach (With Super Princess Peach parasol)
04. Bowser
05. Bowser Jr. (Transforms; ambassador for the Party games)
06. Shadow Mario (Transforms; not a Mario clone)
Yoshi´s Island
07. Yoshi * (Yoshi´s Island baby riders change a B-move each)
Donkey Kong
08. Donkey Kong
09. Diddy Kong (Uses peanut popper, jetpack, guitar and cartwheels)
WarioWare
10. Wario *
Kid Icarus
11. Pit *
The Legend of Zelda
12. Link * (Items updated for TP, such as the Gale Boomerang)
13. Wind Waker Link (Not necessarily toon-shaded; uses own WW/PH items)
14. Zelda (TP look and sword)
15. Ganondorf (TP look and sword; completely de-cloned)
Pokémon
16. Pikachu *
17. Jigglypuff
18. Mewtwo (Tuned up for more usefulness, one or two new moves)
19. Rocket´s Meowth (Stands on two legs, but doesn´t talk)
20. Lucario (Uses wide movepool and typing for battle prowess)
Kirby
21. Kirby * (May have to drop the Mallet move due to King Dedede)
22. Metaknight *
23. King Dedede (Heavy mutiple jumper)
Metroid
24. Samus * (Transforms)
25. Zero-Suit Samus * (Transforms)
26. Ridley (Heavy multiple jumper)
F-Zero
27. Captain Falcon
StarFox
28. Fox * (Keeps some old moves, gains some new ones; nerfed)
29. Falco (Gets some of Fox´s old moves, gains some new; Assault look)
30. Krystal (Uses four staff powers as B-moves; Dinosaur Planet look?)
Earthbound / MOTHER
31. Lucas (Is more relevant than Ness; PK LOVE is a perfect Final Smash)
Pikmin
32. Captain Olimar (Command-based moveset)
Fire Emblem
33. Marth (Nerfed for the same reasons as Fox; largely unchanged otherwise)
34. Ike (Not a Marth clone; Aether would be a Final Smash)
35. Sigurd (Heaviest and most defensive Fire Emblem character, swordfighter)
Ice Climbers
36. Ice Climbers (The CPU character could be a bit more independent)
Balloon Fight
37. Alice (Perhaps the highest multiple jumper, but balloons can be deflated)
Punch-Out!!
38. Li´l Mac (Close-quarter offensively-geared boxer)
Sonic (THIRD PARTY - SEGA)
39. Sonic the Hedgehog (The fastest character, but not insanely so)
Metal Gear (THIRD PARTY - KONAMI)
40. Snake (Uses stealth and explosives to keep with the game´s feel)
???
41. Open for WTF!Retro/Japan-Only character
Some Candidates: Mr. Game & Watch (Game & Watch), Lip (Panel de Pon), Harry (Teleroboxer), Chibi-Robo (Chibi-Robo!), Muddy (Mole-Mania), Takamaru (Mystery of Castle Murasame), Mike Jones (StarTropics), Skapon (Joy Mech Fight), Tin Star (Tin Star), Zeke (Zombies Ate My Neighbors), Sablé or Richard (The Bells Toll For Frog), Demille (Tomato Adventure), Starfy (Starfy). My personal favorites are Takamaru, Mike, Skapon and Demille.
Removed Characters
- Dr. Mario: Aside from being a carbon copy of Mario, he´s not significant enough to garner a spot in SSBB. He´s perfect as an alternate costume though.
- Young Link: Twilight Princess is going to be represented like crazy in SSBB, and by this point the developers don´t care too much for the pre-Ocarina of Time games from the franchise, which Young Link represented. Having completely new items and a fresh era of the series behind him, Wind Waker Link is a better candidate.
- Pichu: Too similar to Pikachu; de-cloning it would be a frustrating effort, and Generation II isn´t relevant enough to get a new Pokémon in. If a handicap character is necessary, Alice could take its place.
- Roy: His only reason of being was to advertise a game that is considered a lackluster installation to the Fire Emblem franchise. It didn´t even come out internationally, and there are much more significant characters to include.
- Mr. Game & Watch: He´s a possibility as I mentioned, but he was only there for the sake of surprising everyone. I personally like him, but feel that Sakurai may very easily favor a different super-obscure character this time around, or perhaps a Japan-only character to try and get a new franchise stateside, much like how it happened with Fire Emblem.
Comments and criticism are more than welcome.