Super Smash Bros.

[Rosalinas Spare Wand]

The people who don't want clones are the same people that probably think slot limits exist.

Also, I would never call Lucas a clone in any way, he plays incredibly different from Ness and has way more variances in his attack traits too.

Wolf can fuck off though.

[Nel_Annette]

I remember playing Lucas far better than I could play Ness because of his little nuances, so I agree there.

Happy for you guys that love Fire Emblem. I'm not a fan of the series and never played Awakening, so I have no idea who these people are, but they do look cool. I did play the GBA ones though, so big fan of Lin, Eirika and Ephraim here.  Maybe I just like anime characters with green hair.

Now give me Shulk. I must change the future!

[Spark Of Spirit]

Lucas is too popular to remove, and he's different enough from Ness to justify inclusion. I think both Wolf and Falco will be in, too. I just hope Ganondorf will finally be given a new moveset.

Happy for you guys that love Fire Emblem. I'm not a fan of the series and never played Awakening, so I have no idea who these people are, but they do look cool. I did play the GBA ones though, so big fan of Lin, Eirika and Ephraim here.  Maybe I just like anime characters with green hair.

Robin is the player character in Awakening and is a tactician which leads to a more varied moveset than we would have gotten from Chrom who is the popular lord character from the game like Marth or Ike. I was incredibly surprised that Sakurai chose Robin over Chrom, but I can't say I'm complaining since we finally have a Fire Emblem character who uses more than swords.

[Rynnec]

I wouldn't call Wolf much of a clone either. His attacks and specials feel way different than the other SF characters that most of their similarities are superficial at best.

For Ganondorf, I can see him using his sword for his regular and smash attacks, and keep his Falcon-esque specials. Sakurai did say that he didn't want to alienate either camp for Ganondorf after all.

Characters that are fan favorites, have not yet been shown off, were in the making for Brawl, and were in the leak/have enemies for Smash Run. I think any of these characters are incredibly likely.

Mewtwo (Almost in Brawl, highly likely)
Dixie Kong (Almost in Brawl, likely)
Isaac (The only assist trophy from Brawl not to be shown off. I wonder why?)
Ridley (I'm throwing a bone here with all the teases)
Marshal (Rhythm Heaven enemies were in Smash Run, he was in the leak)
Shulk (Monolith Soft tease for the last trailer is suspicious, he was in the leak)

Lucina makes Dixie Kong a shoe in at this point. Isaac and Mewtwo are obvious as well, and with Monolith's teasing, I'll be surprised if Xenoblade doesn't get some kind of representation.

This is looking like a pretty solid roster so far, potentially the best one yet.

Oh, and in all the excitement, it's easy to forget that this happened. Guess this confirms third party trophies.

[Spark Of Spirit]

High hopes for Simon Belmont and Bomberman trophies at the very least.

What's really strange is how close we are to release yet we've seen no new stages (other than retro stages) from the Kirby, Donkey Kong, Star Fox, Yoshi, F-Zero, Mother, WarioWare/Land, or various classic, series yet. Not to mention levels from unrepresented series like Advance Wars or even a Tetris stage. I wonder when we're going to see more of them?

Not to mention, it would be nice if we could put music tracks in different stages this time. Humouresque of a Little Dog doesn't work at all on New Pork City.

My one request: PLEASE let the Donkey Kong stage actually be good this time.

[Rynnec]

They may holding off stage reveals until the actual release, so we'll have some surprises when we finally play the game ourselves. Plus its hard to go into detail about what a stage does through only pictures.

I really hope they go all out with the stages in this game. Now that every stage will have a Final Destination variant, they don't have to worry about tournament compatibility and whatnot.

Not to mention, it would be nice if we could put music tracks in different stages this time. Humouresque of a Little Dog doesn't work at all on New Pork City.

They also gave one of the worst stages (Rumble Falls) some of the best tracks.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I hope there's a lot of stages this time, as well. So far every stage revealed has been quite cool and I'd like to imagine there are a lot more stages just as good in the waiting. There's some great potential for stages, so I'm really hoping they go all out this time. I'm expecting Paper Mario and Epic Yarn stages this time, too.

As for news, November 21st is the rumored release date. Apparently it might be coming with a free amiibo character which would most likely be Mario.

[Rynnec]

Sakurai goes into deatail on why he chose Robin over Chrom.

He also confirms that Lucina was going to be an alt skin for Marth until he decided to differentiate their values. Guess this confirms alt skins are a thing, which means Daisy will finally have her own name and voice set.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I guess that explains how Dark Pit is getting in the game. It would have also been a good excuse to add Roy and Dr. Mario back in, too. But I guess that ship's sailed.

I'm glad he's been looking into the alt-skin idea, though. That's a good way to add other characters that would otherwise not get in AND make fans happy with no real effort. Throw Mother and Paper Mario fans a bone by making Ninten a Ness alt-skin or Mr. L a Luigi alt-skin, for instance. There are some good possibilities.

[Rynnec]

Upon thinking about it, I wouldn't mind Dr. Mario and Dark Pit getting their own slots, but only if they have Mario and Pit's original movesets (i.e Mario Tornado, Angel Ring, gliding etc.). Otherwise they should just be alt skins.

I'm glad he's been looking into the alt-skin idea, though. That's a good way to add other characters that would otherwise not get in AND make fans happy with no real effort. Throw Mother and Paper Mario fans a bone by making Ninten a Ness alt-skin or Mr. L a Luigi alt-skin, for instance. There are some good possibilities.

A Dry-Bowser and Midbus for Bowser would be all kinds of awesome. Likewise for a classic and Metal Sonic skin for Sonic.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Now that's a great remix.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Now that's a great remix.

You fool, you missed the character select screen music!

The soundtrack is shaping up to be better than Brawl's. Can't wait to hear more.

[Rynnec]

If it doesn't have the Tetris theme, then it can't be better than Brawl's soundtrack.

[Spark Of Spirit]

So they just announced a Star Fox stage for the Wii U version. It looks like Sector Y from Smash 64 and Corneria from Melee. I've been wanting more stages, so its nice to see a new one even if its the sequel to the previous Star Fox stages from the first two games.

Can't say I'm complaining, but I hope Lylat Cruise still comes back. Imagine that in HD. 

[Spark Of Spirit]

It looks like Green Hill is back as a retro stage in the 3DS version.

I was hoping for it to appear in the Wii U version, too. HD Green Hill and all.