So now that I've had 24 hours to digest it, this is what I'm thinking. (Also with these new pictures on the web today, further thinking.)
WIth everything shown, he's obviously holding tight to Brawl's memory, but this time wants to improve on some things.
Obvious things first:
- Metaknight, Wario and Captain Falcon were indirectly confirmed, though they've all been no brainers the whole time.
(Now with Franklin Badge and Mr. Saturn in the pictures, I'd say Ness is a lock as well, but again, duh.)
- Palutena is all but confirmed. Pit's final smash and the trophy trolling made it a done deal.
- A Fire Emblem Awakening character is imminent. (Chrom, Lucina or Robin are all welcome in my book.)
- I love Ivysaur and Squirtle, but I don't have much hope left for them. And I think people should have even less hope for a Grass Starter character that's not Ivysaur.
- Not showing Isaac (and to a lesser extent Tingle and maybe 1 or 2 others) doesn't mean much, but should give us hope.
- The Kremlings mean that K. Rool was a consideration for at least a second. (There's more hope now than ever before.)
Less obvious things:
- Ridley's a stage hazard. He's the "boss" on Pyrosphere. But then again he was TWO DIFFERENT bosses in Brawl. He has multiple forms, like Toon Link and Conductor Link, a stage element himself. And giving the argument, "It'd be weird to have him fighting himself", Sakurai published pictures of Samus fighting Zero Suit Samus. Same deal in my book. And if Spirit Tracks can change based on Toon Link's appearance, then why couldn't Pyrosphere do the same for Ridley? Like I said, he seems to be holding tight to Brawl, a game in which they made TWO Ridley models, why not modify one (hopefully the Super Metroid one) into a playable character? And plus we all know the shadow was Ridley. Why not just come out with it? He thinks he's cute, but he knows we're not stupid. Why keep holding it over our head if he's JUST A BOSS? Even with all that said, I'm only giving him a 25% chance now, but it's still better than I'd give most characters.
- About Ike. Like I said before, he's big into perfecting Brawl's shortcomings this go round. So why cut an original character with a fun moveset? We have last game's "flavor of the month" Pokemon in Lucario again as well as a new Pokemon, why would they not treat FE similarly?
- Mewtwo. I want him so bad, and I'm gonna grasp at every straw possible. But my big straw from this is Mega Evolutions. Lucario and Charizard are BOTH getting Mega Evolutions. And Mewtwo had a Mega Evolution before we even knew what Mega Evolutions were. I would like to believe that Mewtwo was on the table before developing ME's for Lucario and Charizard was. Plus he explicitly said he was catering to fan expectations with the ME he showed, and there are no higher Pokemon specific fan expectations than Mewtwo's return. It's not set in stone, but it still looks pretty good from where I'm sitting.
- I'm not gonna say that I expect specific characters to be cut, but with Squirtle and Ivysaur's absence, I'm gonna say at least one is probable. Wolf and Lucas seem suspect, but I honestly don't wanna see either of them go. And Snake is either in or he's not. It's not that they would choose to cut him, it's that, as things went down, he won't be included this time. The people with the money made this decision.
- So much mind blowing stuff was shown, but I think he's still got us in the dark about a lot. I think the roster size is something for us to be optimistic about. I'd expect 6 to 8 more newcomers, as well as 95% of Brawl's roster back. (2 cuts max, 4 if Ivysaur and Squirtle are indeed gone.)
And, as always, Falco's the man. That is all.
