Brawl Bitching
There were a lot of characters that deserved to be in Super Smash Bros Brawl that simply weren't. Here I would like to insert my opinions of who should have been included and reasons why.
~Forward: By "Clone Type" character, I mean something similar to Lucas/Ness, Fox/Falco/Wolf, Mario/Luigi as they appeared in Brawl. Clearly similar in many ways, yet unique enough in others to be considered a completely different character.
*Classic Megaman
Reasons: This one is self explanatory. If you don't understand why Megaman (in any of his incarnations) should have been included in Brawl, then kill yourself.
Additional Notes: It would have also been nice to see either Protoman, Forte, or both appear either as "clone type" playable characters or at least an Assist Trophy.
*Simon Belmont
Reasons: This should be another no brainer, the Castlevania series is as old as time and still rocking hard(almost exclusively on Nintendo systems I might add, which is also, of course, where the game got its start). Simon Belmont seems to be the crowd favorite, but really ANY member of the Belmont Clan would have sufficed. In addition to his namesake weapon, Simon has a wide variety of items that could have been used for his Smash Attacks and he even had a perfect Final Smash in the form of the super charged Cross attack(Belmont jumps into the air/background and a giant Cross appears on screen, accompanied by a swarm of smaller crosses which circle around the bigger one. A white light erupts within the confines of the space the cross takes up and everything within the cylinder of light gets FUCKED).
Additional Notes: Personally, I'd place Richter Belmont as a close second to Simon. You could even just include him as a "clone type" or just an Assist Trophy. Also, since this is a fanservice game anyways, it would be nice to include Alucard from SotN as a character or Assist Trophy as well. Personally, I'd also like to see the inclusion of Soma Cruz the hero of Aria/Dawn of Sorrow... why? Because he's technically Dracula himself, that's why! How badass is that?
*Krystal
Reasons: Seriesly guys, what the hell? If you had the choice between Krystal and Wolf, how the hell did you choose that bastard over the hot chick? I'll give it to you that Wolf is a hell of a lot more original in his moveset than say... Falco. But lets be honest with each other here. Of all the characters in the StarFox series, Krystal is probably the ONLY one you could have brought into the mix that wouldn't have been another Fox Clone. Yeah, sure, she'd probably still be the small, agile-bodied quick moving, high jumping type... but she had the potential for a completely new set of unique moves to offset her from the rest of the StarFox crew. I imagine she'd play something like Zelda... if Zelda wore a bikini and carried a beating stick... XD
Additional Notes: No More Landmasters!! FUUUCCK!!!
*Roy
Reasons: Flaming Sword!! Hello?!? Okay, okay... but seriously, the Fire Emblem series didn't get near the recognition it deserved in Brawl. Marth was still tossed aside as a "secret" character and Roy was essentially just replaced by Ike, so there were still only two character from the series in the game, and I think one assist trophy. Also, they share only one stage between the two of them... where is the love people? I think Roy could have been a great middle ground between Marth and Ike... and there's probably someone else from the series that could have done so even better, but they didn't even take it into consideration.
Additional Notes: For Roy in Brawl, I'd have given him the EXACT same Up and Neutral Smash attacks as he had in Melee, but I think I'd have taken away counter and the forward smash combo for something more unique...
*Knuckles
Reasons: If there was any other Sonic character to be included as a playable character, it HAD to be Knuckles. No offense to anybody else, but Tails just doesn't seem as versatile and Shadow would wind up being too much of a clone despite the vast differences between him and Sonic(so thank god he's only an Assist Trophy and a good one at that). Also, Knuckles is old school. We loved to hate him long before we learned to just love him, so he presents a unique charm that I feel a game like Brawl could help rekindle.
Additional Notes: It would have been cool to see Sonic dropped off on stage by Tails as an intro.
*Bubble Dragon
Reasons: I've never played Bubble Bobble myself, but have you seen how many games this series has?? It never ends and it constantly evolves. The Bubble Dragons would have made an excellant addition to the Brawl crew, with a great opportunity for cute or humorous moves using Bubble Bobble's unique and colorful style. Would have been an excellant replacement for Jigglypuff, whom I'm pretty sure nobody really liked from day one.
*Rygar
Reasons: Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but Rygar was a pretty popular title back in the day. It was one of those I always wanted to play but never got to. Once I finally got my hands on it, I never put it down until it was finished. It was just that fun. The eventually crafted sequel for the PS2 was nothing special, though I honestly believe it's engine probably paved the way for games like God of War. The gameplay was quite similar, only really broken... clearly something they rushed without thinking it through because it had a well known title, so it was certain to sell decently regardless... Brawl would have been a good chance to bring this old school hero back into the light and give him a proper sendoff. He'd probably play similar to Simon Belmont though... so that causes a bit of a clone confliction... still, he was well worth considering.
*Arthur
Reasons: The hero of Ghosts and Goblins, another classic. Quite a few possibilities for humor with this character in addition to the variety of moves using different weapons.
*Billy Lee
Reasons: Of all things, here you have a fighting game of epic proportions, yet you don't have a single character in it from an actual fighting game or beat em up! The original Double Dragon hero would have been perfect for this kind of matchup. Hell, he's even been in a crossover before! Ever here of "Battletoads/Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team?"
Additional Notes: Alternatively, a combo of Billy and Jimmy Lee would have made an excellant Assist Trophy at the very least.
*Rash
Reasons: Speaking of Battletoads, here's another fighting game contender that could have brought an interesting and unique moveset into Brawl. And just like with the Double Dragon, you had the oppotunity to pick from any of 2-3 possible characters. Also, both Battletoads and Double Dragon have spanned at least two consoles and a portable, all on Nintendo systems. I don't think I really have to go into their popularity either.
*That Shirtless Guy
Reasons: You know the one... from Contra? Yet another classic and highly popular game that got absolutely no recognition. I hate to call Masahiro Sakurai a retard, but the guy said there were no other significant franchises over the course of Nintendo's history while discussing All-Star Mode... how many characters have I named so far?? Anyways, the Contra guys could bring an interesting new playstyle to the game as well with various types of long range weapon attacks utilizing the different powerups for their guns that appear in the Contra games. Simple enough to make their Final Smash a Bomb too... XD
*Noname
Reasons: Lets just say he doesn't have an official name and I couldn't think of anything clever. Though this character probably isn't well known, he is certainly awesome in my book and would have made an excellant addition to stand alongside the likes of Marth and Link. The Crystalis Hero! Armed with four elemental swords, that's one for each Smash Attack, he's a force to be reckoned with. His Final Smash could have united the four swords into Crystalis for the duration of 15-20 seconds, during which time all of his attacks would be super lethal(perhaps similar to the "Wario Man" state, only super powered instead of super fast).
*Sparkster
Reasons: Though he originated on the Genesis, he did have a completely unique sequal on the SNES. Nonetheless, Sega is working for Nintendo now, so I don't see that fact stopping them. Another Swordsman type, yes, but this one is Rocket Powered! XD I imagine it'd be something like it Fox and Link did the fusion dance...
*Vectorman
Reasons: Another sadly forgotten favorite of the Genesis age. His unique appearance and ability to transform allows for any number of possibilities. He'd have a boot blast similar to ROB's and instead of blasts that fly completely across the screen, it'd be more interesting to make his palm shots short range, with higher damage the closer you attack from.
*Nights
Reasons: Sadly, one of those things I can't explain, but if you've ever played Nights into Dreams, then you'd agree Nights would be a perfect addition. He'd have high powered flight and the probably the most powerful throws in the game.
*Klonoa
Reasons: Because I loves him? ....no? Fine. Its yet another unique character with a lot of different potential movesets, especially if you include elements from Klonoa Heros in which Klonoa's trademark ring gains the ability to transform into various different weapons. Final Smash: THUNDER HURRICANE!! It'd be similar to how Link does the crazy spinning sword move in Wind Waker, only with Lightning! XD
Additional Notes: Gantz would make a good Assist Trophy to go alongside of Klonoa, is not a playable character as well. Also... *points to Klonoa's hat*
Now I'll give it to you that these are mostly personal opinion, and outside the first few I mentioned as ones you probably wouldn't even have considered, but the point in all of this wasn't to bitch about who I wanted in the game or even to suggest that any of these characters should have been in the game. I'm just saying that there were countless possiblities for new characters to be introduced into this new game and you had more than enough hardware and software power to accomplish that. At the very least, you could have presented a few of these as Assist Trophy's or even background cameos. But we didn't even get that.
Hell, even many of the series that actually WERE included felt like they were getting the short end of the stick in more ways than one. Hell, ANIMAL CROSSING got it's own Stage, an Assist Trophy, and countless collectable Trophys and Stickers... and it didn't even have a playable character in the ring!! In terms of collectables from what I've seen thus far, it gets more in game recognition than Fire Emblem, Wario Ware, Mother, and Kid Icarus COMBINED!! What the hell?!?
I could go on like this indefinately. So I'm just gonna shut my mouth for now.
~Forward: By "Clone Type" character, I mean something similar to Lucas/Ness, Fox/Falco/Wolf, Mario/Luigi as they appeared in Brawl. Clearly similar in many ways, yet unique enough in others to be considered a completely different character.
*Classic Megaman
Reasons: This one is self explanatory. If you don't understand why Megaman (in any of his incarnations) should have been included in Brawl, then kill yourself.
Additional Notes: It would have also been nice to see either Protoman, Forte, or both appear either as "clone type" playable characters or at least an Assist Trophy.
*Simon Belmont
Reasons: This should be another no brainer, the Castlevania series is as old as time and still rocking hard(almost exclusively on Nintendo systems I might add, which is also, of course, where the game got its start). Simon Belmont seems to be the crowd favorite, but really ANY member of the Belmont Clan would have sufficed. In addition to his namesake weapon, Simon has a wide variety of items that could have been used for his Smash Attacks and he even had a perfect Final Smash in the form of the super charged Cross attack(Belmont jumps into the air/background and a giant Cross appears on screen, accompanied by a swarm of smaller crosses which circle around the bigger one. A white light erupts within the confines of the space the cross takes up and everything within the cylinder of light gets FUCKED).
Additional Notes: Personally, I'd place Richter Belmont as a close second to Simon. You could even just include him as a "clone type" or just an Assist Trophy. Also, since this is a fanservice game anyways, it would be nice to include Alucard from SotN as a character or Assist Trophy as well. Personally, I'd also like to see the inclusion of Soma Cruz the hero of Aria/Dawn of Sorrow... why? Because he's technically Dracula himself, that's why! How badass is that?
*Krystal
Reasons: Seriesly guys, what the hell? If you had the choice between Krystal and Wolf, how the hell did you choose that bastard over the hot chick? I'll give it to you that Wolf is a hell of a lot more original in his moveset than say... Falco. But lets be honest with each other here. Of all the characters in the StarFox series, Krystal is probably the ONLY one you could have brought into the mix that wouldn't have been another Fox Clone. Yeah, sure, she'd probably still be the small, agile-bodied quick moving, high jumping type... but she had the potential for a completely new set of unique moves to offset her from the rest of the StarFox crew. I imagine she'd play something like Zelda... if Zelda wore a bikini and carried a beating stick... XD
Additional Notes: No More Landmasters!! FUUUCCK!!!
*Roy
Reasons: Flaming Sword!! Hello?!? Okay, okay... but seriously, the Fire Emblem series didn't get near the recognition it deserved in Brawl. Marth was still tossed aside as a "secret" character and Roy was essentially just replaced by Ike, so there were still only two character from the series in the game, and I think one assist trophy. Also, they share only one stage between the two of them... where is the love people? I think Roy could have been a great middle ground between Marth and Ike... and there's probably someone else from the series that could have done so even better, but they didn't even take it into consideration.
Additional Notes: For Roy in Brawl, I'd have given him the EXACT same Up and Neutral Smash attacks as he had in Melee, but I think I'd have taken away counter and the forward smash combo for something more unique...
*Knuckles
Reasons: If there was any other Sonic character to be included as a playable character, it HAD to be Knuckles. No offense to anybody else, but Tails just doesn't seem as versatile and Shadow would wind up being too much of a clone despite the vast differences between him and Sonic(so thank god he's only an Assist Trophy and a good one at that). Also, Knuckles is old school. We loved to hate him long before we learned to just love him, so he presents a unique charm that I feel a game like Brawl could help rekindle.
Additional Notes: It would have been cool to see Sonic dropped off on stage by Tails as an intro.
*Bubble Dragon
Reasons: I've never played Bubble Bobble myself, but have you seen how many games this series has?? It never ends and it constantly evolves. The Bubble Dragons would have made an excellant addition to the Brawl crew, with a great opportunity for cute or humorous moves using Bubble Bobble's unique and colorful style. Would have been an excellant replacement for Jigglypuff, whom I'm pretty sure nobody really liked from day one.
*Rygar
Reasons: Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but Rygar was a pretty popular title back in the day. It was one of those I always wanted to play but never got to. Once I finally got my hands on it, I never put it down until it was finished. It was just that fun. The eventually crafted sequel for the PS2 was nothing special, though I honestly believe it's engine probably paved the way for games like God of War. The gameplay was quite similar, only really broken... clearly something they rushed without thinking it through because it had a well known title, so it was certain to sell decently regardless... Brawl would have been a good chance to bring this old school hero back into the light and give him a proper sendoff. He'd probably play similar to Simon Belmont though... so that causes a bit of a clone confliction... still, he was well worth considering.
*Arthur
Reasons: The hero of Ghosts and Goblins, another classic. Quite a few possibilities for humor with this character in addition to the variety of moves using different weapons.
*Billy Lee
Reasons: Of all things, here you have a fighting game of epic proportions, yet you don't have a single character in it from an actual fighting game or beat em up! The original Double Dragon hero would have been perfect for this kind of matchup. Hell, he's even been in a crossover before! Ever here of "Battletoads/Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team?"
Additional Notes: Alternatively, a combo of Billy and Jimmy Lee would have made an excellant Assist Trophy at the very least.
*Rash
Reasons: Speaking of Battletoads, here's another fighting game contender that could have brought an interesting and unique moveset into Brawl. And just like with the Double Dragon, you had the oppotunity to pick from any of 2-3 possible characters. Also, both Battletoads and Double Dragon have spanned at least two consoles and a portable, all on Nintendo systems. I don't think I really have to go into their popularity either.
*That Shirtless Guy
Reasons: You know the one... from Contra? Yet another classic and highly popular game that got absolutely no recognition. I hate to call Masahiro Sakurai a retard, but the guy said there were no other significant franchises over the course of Nintendo's history while discussing All-Star Mode... how many characters have I named so far?? Anyways, the Contra guys could bring an interesting new playstyle to the game as well with various types of long range weapon attacks utilizing the different powerups for their guns that appear in the Contra games. Simple enough to make their Final Smash a Bomb too... XD
*Noname
Reasons: Lets just say he doesn't have an official name and I couldn't think of anything clever. Though this character probably isn't well known, he is certainly awesome in my book and would have made an excellant addition to stand alongside the likes of Marth and Link. The Crystalis Hero! Armed with four elemental swords, that's one for each Smash Attack, he's a force to be reckoned with. His Final Smash could have united the four swords into Crystalis for the duration of 15-20 seconds, during which time all of his attacks would be super lethal(perhaps similar to the "Wario Man" state, only super powered instead of super fast).
*Sparkster
Reasons: Though he originated on the Genesis, he did have a completely unique sequal on the SNES. Nonetheless, Sega is working for Nintendo now, so I don't see that fact stopping them. Another Swordsman type, yes, but this one is Rocket Powered! XD I imagine it'd be something like it Fox and Link did the fusion dance...
*Vectorman
Reasons: Another sadly forgotten favorite of the Genesis age. His unique appearance and ability to transform allows for any number of possibilities. He'd have a boot blast similar to ROB's and instead of blasts that fly completely across the screen, it'd be more interesting to make his palm shots short range, with higher damage the closer you attack from.
*Nights
Reasons: Sadly, one of those things I can't explain, but if you've ever played Nights into Dreams, then you'd agree Nights would be a perfect addition. He'd have high powered flight and the probably the most powerful throws in the game.
*Klonoa
Reasons: Because I loves him? ....no? Fine. Its yet another unique character with a lot of different potential movesets, especially if you include elements from Klonoa Heros in which Klonoa's trademark ring gains the ability to transform into various different weapons. Final Smash: THUNDER HURRICANE!! It'd be similar to how Link does the crazy spinning sword move in Wind Waker, only with Lightning! XD
Additional Notes: Gantz would make a good Assist Trophy to go alongside of Klonoa, is not a playable character as well. Also... *points to Klonoa's hat*
Now I'll give it to you that these are mostly personal opinion, and outside the first few I mentioned as ones you probably wouldn't even have considered, but the point in all of this wasn't to bitch about who I wanted in the game or even to suggest that any of these characters should have been in the game. I'm just saying that there were countless possiblities for new characters to be introduced into this new game and you had more than enough hardware and software power to accomplish that. At the very least, you could have presented a few of these as Assist Trophy's or even background cameos. But we didn't even get that.
Hell, even many of the series that actually WERE included felt like they were getting the short end of the stick in more ways than one. Hell, ANIMAL CROSSING got it's own Stage, an Assist Trophy, and countless collectable Trophys and Stickers... and it didn't even have a playable character in the ring!! In terms of collectables from what I've seen thus far, it gets more in game recognition than Fire Emblem, Wario Ware, Mother, and Kid Icarus COMBINED!! What the hell?!?
I could go on like this indefinately. So I'm just gonna shut my mouth for now.