And Sakurai will put in ROB, but not Geno, K. Rool, Ridley, Krystal, Claus, or another 3rd party? F to the A to the K to the E.
My God, Commander Blitzkrieg somewhat defending GENO?!
This "leak" truly has become a war upon the sensibilities of Brawl fans, hasn't it?
Well, the way I look at it, there are a few possibilities that prove this roster false:
1. If this is indeed the R.O.B from Star Fox, the roster clearly contradicts the Icon theory (Remember, there's still two missing icons, and this isn't even counting any that may be added. Also: The ones with no playable character attached are near the bottom of the list), and therefore is false. Besides, like someone once said, there's WTF characters (G&W had a LOT of games he could pull move from, after all), and there's impossible characters. Both the R.O.Bs fall into the latter category. And wasn't the NES R.O.B deconfirmed with the Coin Launcher update?
2. Look at it! If this roster's real, then what was the POINT of Sakurai even having a journal in the first place if all he was gonna do is say "Nope, I'm putting in R.O.B, lulz." And wasn't there reports of folks working on Brawl going onto popular forums to scope out who the fanbase wanted?
3. Even for a 35 character roster, this is amazingly bland. And both Falco AND Wolf (and possibly R.O.B) with no Krystal in sight? And Metroid, after all this time still being left with only one character while the Mother series gets TWO? (Not that I'm against two Mother characters *I'd sell my left leg for Claus to be in the game*, but Metroid definitely deserves two first) Nah, nah, that doesn't add up at all.
Besides, there's still no concrete proof this is even real at all. So someone who's not a complete nobody comes up and announces a roster. How does that suddenly make this "leak" more valid?
Yeah, yeah, I know about Melee's Roster oddities. Hey, at least Melee's was somewhat believable. Peach, Bowser, Mewtwo, Falco, Marth, Ganondorf, and Zelda were all more-or-less expected. Sheik was a little bit surprising, but nothing too off-the-wall. Dr. Mario, Roy and Pichu were questionable, and G&W was just...WTF?!, but it's really quite reasonable compared to this, especially given that this game has been in development for a LOT longer than Melee. Plus, Famitsu said they were astounded at the game's content. Think about it: Why would Sakurai give us a whole lot of options and modes that nobody even asked for in the first place (Stage Builder, Co-op Target Test, and Coin Launcher come to mind) and then horribly shortchange the fans as far as characters, like the extra modes somehow make up for that?
This whole "leak" thing is just a bit too fishy for my tastes, regardless of how reputable the claimer is.
HOLD IT!
One more point....
I remember the good ol' days at the release of Pokemon Diamond...remember what happened on April Fool's Day when Serebii *correctly* leaked the English names of the new Pokemon? Remember how much he was risking getting his *** sued for it?
Now tell me how this situation would be ANY different for someone leaking the far more controversial Brawl roster, and so loosely at that. Especially one that would cause this huge of a ruckus amongst the fans. Sakurai HAS to know this list will piss a LOT of people off, and possibly lose Nintendo money from the more ardent supporters.
So yeah, I'm calling shenanigans. Unless Murphy's Law gets the best of me.