Though many will disagree with me, I think many in the Smash community are prematurely jumping to conclusions about what will and won't appear/reappear in Brawl based on some comments that have been posted on the Dojo by Sakurai.
First of all, there's the Lucas update. Everyone seems to have decided that Ness is removed from Brawl because Sakurai said that Ness has been in the series "up until now" as if to say that he wont be around anymore. The "up till now" part is actually a mistranslation. Also, that phrase has been used in other updates referring to things that have already returned. Until the game comes out or Sakurai explicitly states that Ness is gone, I don't think we should rule out a long time Smash veteran with so little evidence.
Next is the Wario costume update. The update says "Everyone can change colors, of course. But Wario alone is special". This seems to say that only Wario has a special costume, but this may not exactly be the case. We already know that mistranslations can skew Sakurai's original message. Let's not forget the whole "going-gold" theory that Samurai Panda debunked.
Besides the updates, there a lot of other claims being made on faulty logic. For example, many claim that Ike will replace Marth because Sakurai is only including the most up-to-date characters from each franchise. This is a weak, yet widely accepted claim. Ike and Marth play almost nothing alike based on Gimpyfish's impressions, thus Ike does not "replace" Marth in anyway. They're totally different characters. Besides, can you see any reason why such a popular, unique and widely used character like Marth should be removed?
I think we should reconsider these kinds of half-theories and quick assumptions. Well maybe I'm thinking too wishfully with the alternate costume thing, but you get what I mean.
EDIT: It seems I was wrong about the translation. The Japanese and English sites send a similar message. And I know I'm just being too optimistic concerning the costumes, but I still feel that people are jumping to conclusions without conclusive evidence. We can't be sure what will or won't be in Brawl besides what's posted on the Dojo, so we shouldn't be so sure about these things without conclusive evidence.
First of all, there's the Lucas update. Everyone seems to have decided that Ness is removed from Brawl because Sakurai said that Ness has been in the series "up until now" as if to say that he wont be around anymore. The "up till now" part is actually a mistranslation. Also, that phrase has been used in other updates referring to things that have already returned. Until the game comes out or Sakurai explicitly states that Ness is gone, I don't think we should rule out a long time Smash veteran with so little evidence.
Next is the Wario costume update. The update says "Everyone can change colors, of course. But Wario alone is special". This seems to say that only Wario has a special costume, but this may not exactly be the case. We already know that mistranslations can skew Sakurai's original message. Let's not forget the whole "going-gold" theory that Samurai Panda debunked.
Besides the updates, there a lot of other claims being made on faulty logic. For example, many claim that Ike will replace Marth because Sakurai is only including the most up-to-date characters from each franchise. This is a weak, yet widely accepted claim. Ike and Marth play almost nothing alike based on Gimpyfish's impressions, thus Ike does not "replace" Marth in anyway. They're totally different characters. Besides, can you see any reason why such a popular, unique and widely used character like Marth should be removed?
I think we should reconsider these kinds of half-theories and quick assumptions. Well maybe I'm thinking too wishfully with the alternate costume thing, but you get what I mean.
EDIT: It seems I was wrong about the translation. The Japanese and English sites send a similar message. And I know I'm just being too optimistic concerning the costumes, but I still feel that people are jumping to conclusions without conclusive evidence. We can't be sure what will or won't be in Brawl besides what's posted on the Dojo, so we shouldn't be so sure about these things without conclusive evidence.