Besides Geno, I would also very much appreciate Tails making it for DLC. Sonic's been with the franchise for 10 years now, it would have been great if he had been able to bring his buddy along for the ride this time around; plus that EGM hoax needs to become a reality. I'd be surprised though if he did make it despite also being a highly recognizable character in gaming.
I'm a bit late to this discussion but about favorite memories related to Smash Bros: I got the very first one boxed on my birthday in 1999. The two times I remember seeing it before were at a Toys R Us when they had those old gaming panels where you could push a button that resembled the box art and a TV screen would play a trailer for that game, and I saw Smash Bros. playing on the screen and couldn't believe there was a game with all these famous Nintendo characters fighting each other - it totally blew me away. I'd also seen that hilarious commercial at some point and got a kick out of that, so I must have told someone that was exactly what I wanted that year for my birthday. When we finished our party at the community pool I got home with Smash Bros. and played it that night with Samus Aran and beat the game. It was nice just sitting in the living room at night with the lights off and no one else around while I got to play around and see for the first time what this Smash game had going on. I was a little confused by Master Hand but I understood it must represent the player's hands or something and how they control the characters.
Sometime in 2001 I remember cruising through a Walmart when I got my first ever glimpse at Super Smash Bros. Melee being played by four kids battling it out on Mute City, and I remember one of the players was playing as Sheik. Once again I was blown away at just how much bigger and better Smash Bros. could be with all the new stages and characters and I immediately knew I had to get this game. Finally on Christmas day 2002, my dad got me a Nintendo GameCube along with Super Smash Bros. Melee, Metroid Prime and Star Fox Adventures. The funny thing is when I fired up the GameCube and played Melee for the first time I just happened to go through the end goal of stage 1 in Adventure mode to trigger Luigi's appearance, though I didn't unlock him for whatever reason, and I wondered, "Why did I see that scene with Luigi only once?" I later looked it up online and found out about passing the goal with a 2 digit at the end of the timer.
Yet another Melee memory many years later - I'm thinking sometime around late May of 2007/2008 towards the end of one of my years in high school, someone had brought their Nintendo Wii to school so they could set it up to play Super Smash Bros. Melee in class when everyone had finished testing and there was nothing else to do. We did rotations in the chairs with people who lost getting replaced by other people who were waiting for their turn. I remember this one guy who was ridiculously good with Sheik and he pretty much kept on playing. Later on the teacher left the school and we had to migrate to an even bigger classroom, and thus began a tournament mode for the whole class. I was surprised that I managed to get 3rd place in the class with Fox McCloud, although I was almost 2nd place when I very nearly defeated someone playing as Marth but they turned the tables in the last minutes. When we finished up it was finally time for all of us to pack up and head home for the Summer. I always though that was such a cool sendoff for Summer vacation.
I'm sure there's plenty more memories I could share here but I don't want to bog this thread down too badly; however, I still have lots of online recordings of
Brawl in 2008 as well as some old replay content me and a friend of mine did just for fun. We had some really
silly stuff like this happen online, and I always particularly liked a Star Fox-themed match a friend and I had as Fox and Falco: