Whilst I'd like to continue this going forward, I'm going to take a similar mindset to Sakurai when developing the real-world
Brawl and imagine this as the last game in the series. (I'll go on to
Sm4sh at some point, but I haven't done that yet.) That being said, I want franchises to feel more rounded out - as well as new franchises to get introduced here and there to give us a better representation of Nintendo as a whole. That said... let's get into it!
RETURNEES
#01:
Mario now has various moves from
New Super Mario Bros. as well as the spin attack from
Galaxy as a neutral air, with his moveset being generally modernised for the most part and slightly homogenized into a more singular format.
#02:
Link has been redesigned to resemble his
Twilight Princess appearance, with some of his items being changed and updated to reflect the new game.
#03:
Kirby remains pretty similar, just with some more new Copy Abilities in his normals and obviously more Inhale abilities due to a larger roster.
#04:
Pikachu again remains pretty similar, keeping Ash as his Trainer.
#05:
Donkey Kong actually doesn't get many changes, he's pretty good as is. However, his
representation is now a bit more varied, still with a primary focus on the
Country series but now also featuring some classic and more modern stuff.
#06:
Samus is now based on her appearance in
Prime 2, as well as now being in the Varia Suit by default as opposed to the Power Suit.
#07:
Marth actually doesn't need any changes yet either. I think he's good as is.
#08:
Fox gets a redesign based on
Assault, but otherwise he's pretty similar overall. No more staff moves, though.
#09:
Bowser is made slightly bigger this time around compared to the rest of the cast - not Iron Giant in
MultiVersus levels of big, but I'd like
Brawl to play with some of the
Smash series' unwritten conventions, one of which is scale.
#10:
Paula actually doesn't get any additions, though I'd choose to put less focus on the frying pan in her normals and keep it for like, just her forward smash.
#11:
Charizard is also similar, though now gets a glide, and keeps Red as his Trainer.
#12:
Captain Falcon is now based on his look in
F-Zero Climax, but otherwise maintains a similar vibe, keeping the tokusatsu inspiration.
#13:
Luigi is further differentiated from Mario, though I'd continue to keep the thematic similarities of him being "the same, but different" in some places.
#14:
Peach gets a couple of new changes - namely, her parasol is replaced with Perry the Parasol from
Super Princess Peach, and her Toad Counter is replaced with Toadsworth (partially because it makes way more sense for him specifically to be protecting her.)
#15:
Yoshi
#16:
Wario undergoes a seismic shift in design reflecting the
WarioWare series, with his moveset fundamentally changing to reflect this series better. I've sort of alluded to characters undergoing moveset changes from game to game before now, but this is probably the biggest so far... even if I think it's justified.
#17:
Zelda is updated to her
Twilight Princess design, keeping the rapier as part of her kit but also getting the Bow of Light as a Final Smash. She also now has a unique effect where her smash attacks "imbue" her rapier with light energy, but it's mainly just a visual thing that gives her smash attacks multi-hitting properties.
#18:
Ganondorf is also updated to his
Twilight Princess design, though his trident from the past game is now replaced with the Sword of the Six Sages for many of his close-up attacks. To parallel Zelda, he's also got a mechanic where he imbues dark energy into the sword when performing smash attacks, though this gives them slightly more range and power as opposed to a multi-hit effect.
#19:
King Dedede is pretty much the same! I actually wouldn't add too much to him, maybe aside from a couple of moves pulled from some of his newer appearances.
#20:
Mewtwo returns! That said, I'd probably keep the smoother look akin to what we saw in the real-world
Sm4sh.
#21:
Marill? Okay, this one was a tough, but necessary, call. When thinking up new
Pokémon reps for the third and fourth generations, Gen IV felt best-represented by Piplup given their prominence in the marketing and existence as a starter. The problem? Piplup is a small-ish water type. Now, Marill by Gen VI also gets the Fairy typing, but my thought process here is that this works like a Young Link/Toon Link situation - Marill is functionally replaced with a somewhat different character, but could come back in future games as a unique fighter.
#22:
Wolf is also based on his
Assault appearance, though in this game, I'd switch him up a little to be a pretty mobile heavyweight - heavy-hitting and a nightmare to go up against with floatier characters, but slightly lacking in recovery potential because of his fast-falling and being easy to get into combos.
#23:
Lip returns again, though I'd now change her design just a little to indicate an "evolution" of her own character - maybe making her look just a couple of years older. Other characters in
Panel de Pon have a slightly older physique (given I think Lip's about 10), so it'd be a good way to evolve her design a little.
#24:
Sukapon also remains pretty similar. I considered having him have the ability to use different segments from other opponents in
Joy Mech Fight, but I don't think that'd work very well - so rather, I'm suggesting he'd just use some moves from other characters in that game to give him a more rounded moveset.
#25:
Olimar remains similar too, though I'd now add Purple to his list of Pikmin as opposed to just Red, Blue and Yellow.
NEWCOMERS
#26:
Toad is our newcomer from the
Super Mario series, coming out from under Peach's dress to fight as part of the roster. I imagine for the most part his design is based very loosely on his various playable appearances, with a fast ground speed and generally powerful attacks whilst being pretty small - but also predominantly fighting with items from across the
Super Mario series given the history of Toad Houses and the like. Hell, if we would be able to, it'd be good to include the Propeller Mushroom as an up special.
#27:
Impa is unique as a newcomer in that her design is pretty much original to
Smash. Akin to how real-world
Brawl used concept art for a Sheik design in
Twilight Princess to design his appearance in the game, a similar design would be devised for Impa, with her moveset being inspired by the Sheikah in general as well as various concepts and tropes related to ninja in media.
#28:
Meta Knight actually got handled pretty well in terms of basic design in
Brawl, and whilst I'd obviously balance him a little, I quite like that many of his aerial tools leave him actionable (which would actually be a more general change across the board in my case.) That said, to offset this, he's a lightweight - so if you do manage to hit him, it has a nasty effect.
#29:
Deoxys is my first
Pokémon newcomer, and I think this was a foregone conclusion. A Gen III rep felt like a big, gaping hole in the real-world
Smash series' representation, and whilst there's a lot of interesting picks that'd work in this case like Gardevoir, Blaziken, Sceptile and so forth - but Deoxys is another Legendary and has a lot of potential with a mechanic where certain moves switch it between its Attack, Defense and Speed forms to give it different properties.
#30:
Piplup is our Gen IV rep, and a practical replacement for the (as of now) still Water-type Marill. Given Piplup's nature as a starter and a prominent Pokémon in the anime, I think it makes sense to include here - plus, based on a penguin, there's other potential for its moveset too.
#31:
Donkey Kong Jr. is our first newcomer from the
Donkey Kong series, chosen perhaps controversially over Diddy because I'd quite like to represent "classic DK" in a character - this making Junior a sort of composite of the different arcade titles. He's also appeared in games like
Super Mario Kart and
Mario Tennis, so it's not like he's been completely forgotten over the years. In terms of moveset, he's a little smaller than DK as you'd expect, but his moveset is a bit more technical, featuring plenty of trapping tools and the like.
#32:
Dark Samus is our first new
Metroid character, probably another controversial choice considering it's here opposed to Ridley, but I think it's justified given Dark Samus is a prominent, well-recieved antagonist from one of Nintendo's more well-renouned franchises - and has more than enough potential to have an incredibly unique moveset overall. Plus, I like the idea of including more villains anyway, so it's pretty obvious in my mind to go with it as opposed to ZSS.
#33:
Lyn is a newcomer from the
Fire Emblem series, who - unlike Marth - doesn't have the summoning mechanic, instead being based more on the combat animations and the like seen in the franchise. Picking her over Ike was a difficult decision to make, but I felt her importance being from a game so vital to the history of the franchise in the west makes sense - and her being a more lightweight, fast-paced swordfighter and bow-wielder would make her unique compared to almost anyone else.
#34:
Slippy is another newcomer from the
Star Fox series, based on his
Assault design here. In terms of moveset, I imagine him as your very tech-focused zoner-trapper - he'd use technology to his advantage and plays very differently to both Fox and Wolf. As for why Slippy over Falco or Krystal, I think Falco would run the risk of being too similar to the Fox/Wolf dynamic, and Krystal isn't really from a well-recieved game in the first place.
#35:
Ness is a perhaps surprising decision, being our second
MOTHER character. Whilst his moveset does feature some PSI attacks, it's predominantly made up of the normal weapons seen in
EarthBound that he can equip - specifically the Bat, the Yo-Yo and the Slingshot. I want him to feel like he represents the character and quirkyness of the series whilst Paula represents its more esoteric aspects.
#36:
Pit actually doesn't need many changes! I like the decision to recontextualise him as though the
Kid Icarus franchise had continued onward to the game's release, and his segmented bow is a really unique weapon concept.
#37:
Sami is a newcomer from the
Wars franchise, a long-running strategy series most prominent in the west through
Advance Wars. In terms of moveset, I imagine she'd have elements of CQC and some explosives in her toolkit, akin to real-world Snake - though she'd also be able to call in reinforcements with different effects, loosely based on Marth's ability to do something similar. I think she's more than warranted in a game like this, and representing a new long-running series is also a great call in this roster.
#38:
Yuka is a newcomer from the
Rhythm Heaven franchise, chosen due to her prominence on the boxart for
Rhythm Tengoku though her actual moveset would feature a variety of characters and objects from the different minigames there. Her main "gimmick" is that many of her attacks use a rhythm mechanic in that they're powered up when you perform the inputs indicated to you - so, for instance, her smash attacks may work a little like the hammer swings in the
Paper Mario series.
#39:
Sonic is our first third-party newcomer - and our only one. In terms of his inclusion, this is in a hypothetical world where SEGA played ball from the very beginning, allowing us to represent him in a more effective manner without as many restraints. As for his moveset, it's mostly based on the
Advance series, the
Rush series,
Battle, elements from the
Adventure games (as well as
Heroes) and one or two callbacks to
'06. I want him to feel like "modern" Sonic in his 2D form, and maintain a fast and fluid moveset that'd reward speed and constant pressure.
(
is removed. There is another Mario character I'd like to add more than him, and having four Mario newcomers is just too much, even for a diehard Mario fan like me.
/ Grovyle / 
