Lucario is already in the game. Why lose him if we don't have to?

I'm fine with Jeff being an assist trophy. If they are going to include anyone else from Mother 2 (which I don't think they need to despite how much I love the game), it should be Poo. Poo can have the sword of Kings and PK Starstorm as his final smash. Ness can have Psi Rockin' for his final smash (which he should have had anyway).

As for a big roster, I agree with len. There's not reason to not have as many characters as possible.

I said Jeff when I meant Lucas. I guess I get my Earthbound characters mixed up.

And there's a great reason not to include every character that's been used before. The game will probably be using some new mechanics as the last three have all built on each other in that way. And to keep it even, you have to re-balance the characters by changing moves, or sometimes adding new ones entirely. Compare Mario from Brawl to Mario from the first Smash Bros. He's probably changed the least, but he's still incredibly different.

Now, with a finite amount of development time and resources, should that be spent on updating Lucario and Pichu or for a whole new character? That tends to be why there's diminishing returns of new characters in fighting game rosters when they don't start trimming out less popular characters. If Brawl had included everyone in Melee, there probably would have been fewer new characters, and we might not have gotten Pokémon Trainer or Olimar.

Personally I would love to have Lyn from Fire Emblem 7 but that is just the fanboy in me talking.

I rather have a smaller roster but have a balanced and overall amazing game than have lots of characters no one really uses. The first Smash Bro's had a smaller roster but the game was amazing all the same. Brawl was great, but I agree that a lot of characters changed a bit.

Hell, long as Zelda is in the game (yeah, I main Zelda) I will be happy.

How can you judge that though? Just because you don't use them, doesn't mean no one does.
There are characters I am terrible with and never use that some of my friends have in their top 3. And vice versa.

Exactly. No one I know can use Gannondorf as effectively as I can, yet I am completely awful with Toon Link. I'm also the best around my player group with Ness and Mr. Game and Watch. Give me Snake and I fall apart, but one of my friends owns with him.

A high diversity of characters adds to overall effect of the game.

By the way, can they please take out tripping? I know it was added to stop wave dashing, but it's so annoying.

This would be awesome...Mac as a playable with the rest of the cast as either assists or trophies would give the game some of the new appeal that will make us want it more.

I would like to see Medusa as a playable since some of the other characters have their enemies on hand to battle against or a villain from the new 3D Pitt game. Pitt is my favorite character from Brawl but sadly not my best. I don't believe the Megaman thing will ever happen since little blue gets enough action on the MVC franchise.

Medusa would be better as a "Subspace Emissary" villain, like Ridley.

Yeah, I'm not holding my breath for Megaman, no matter how much I want him in the game.

I also doubt we will get anyone new from the Mother series.

We might get another Metal Gear and/or Sonic character. Good chance of that.

Dixie Kong is a must.

A Toejam and Earl duo ala Ice Climbers would be great.

But above all, I want Earthworm Jim!

Want: Mega Man, Simon Belmont (for those scoring at home, it was his effeminate cousin/descendant Trevor in Captain N ) and something from waaaay out of left field, like Karnov or Alex/Ryan from River City Ransom!

I meant what I said more as a hypothetical idea than a "take out x character because I think no one uses him." Hell, my favorite characters are Zelda, Gannondorf and Ice Climbers. I bet if anyone is cut, one of those three will be.

I agree diversity is a great thing, but if they cannot make each character playable and able to succeed in the right hands, I rather not have a huge roster. It reminds me of Marvel vs Capcom 2. Yes, I loved using Felicia, Morrigan and Marrow, but when I fought people who knew the game as well as myself, if they used Guile, Sentinel or Magneto, I would get destroyed.

Brawl was pretty good on having a big roster with every character being playable. My only complaint is really Pichu. It is totally a biased opinion, and I am SURE someone can beat me with him, but he just feels unbalanced and just useless overall.

Pichu wasn't in Brawl.

Wasn't he? Damn I haven't played Brawl in a really long time, then.

It is unlikely that any of these will be cut. Zelda and Gannondorf are popular characters from Nintendo's second most popular game series, and the Ice Climbers are the sole representation of that game as well as being unique (two characters at once). Sure, they could introduce other characters that are duos as playable (Kat and Anna comes to mind), but ultimately, Ice Climbers are useful to most, devastating in the hands of others.

I understand what you are getting at here. A lot of people own with Metaknight, even attesting that he is broken. There's a reason that he is the top tier character of the game. However, we have the large roster because so many characters can do different things than others. I can't use Metaknight effectively at all. I can't get used to his few power attacks (plus they added in balance that most of his specials give him a locked status in the air). I lack the controller finesse that allows me to only make one or two attacks at a time. I usually end up in a flurry of slashes that don't really impact my opponent at all and leave me vulnerable. A friend of mine owns with Pikachu most of the time. I finally selected Captain Falcon, and I learned that I can take him out pretty much every time.

It's not biased. I'm not sure what the developers were thinking when they made Pichu. Having him hurt himself every time he would use a special or smash attack was counter-intuitive to the very spirit of the game. Pichu also doesn't offer any real advantages as his size is negated by his weight. So I can agree with your complaint on Pichu. My guess is the developers knew this was problematic. Pichu's coding doesn't even appear in Brawl, whereas the other removed melee characters' data does (except young Link because of Toon Link).

One thing that worries me is that while Wii software will be backwards compatible with the Wii U, Gamecube Software will not. So we better hope that the Wii U controllers are intuitive, because I've never heard of anyone preferring to use Wii controllers to play Brawl.

That is a cause for concern. With the Smash Game coming for the 3DS, something tells me the controls are going to get a revision. After all, the 3DS will not allow intricate controller use, either. The controller is a big factor in this that I somehow forgot.