Sounds like some kind of sitcom comedy duo.
I'd watch that home.
Ridley: Hey Gennie, do you know how I truly feel about you?
Geno: As God sent from Heaven to cleanse you of your sins?
Ridley: Nah, I see you as a brother, but not quite a smash brother.
I can say that I was around for the pre-Melee release days. The hype for Melee was great but nowhere near that of Brawl. There actually did exist a lot of support for Ridley to be playable during the pre-Melee release days, primarily due to his appearance in the 2001 E3 trailer (which became Melee's opening) and the incoming resurrection of the Metroid series. Wolf and Samurai Goroh also benefited from this trailer.
[snip all your character analysis]
The reaction to Brawl's roster unveil would not have been as bad if the hype was not through the roof. Only ROB was not a popularly requested newcomer for Brawl. I also think it would have been mitigated if some of the big guns like King Dedede or Olimar were kept hidden.
Overall, the pre-Melee era was very interesting, and I am glad I was speculating for that era. Smash 4's speculation is a bit bleak for the people who are realistic (due to much of the important characters already being in, leaving many of the casual fans requesting a bunch of unimportant or "stupid" characters).
I have no idea what Sakurai is going to do in terms of newcomers for Smash 4.
Yeah Melee had hype was jogging at a fast pace; Brawl hype was like a rocket to mars with hype speed. Smash Wii U and 3DS will probably be not much bigger (hopefully it stays a little tamer than Brawl; towards the end, many people unraveled, and the noobs got annoying and acted like know it all's).
Yeah hindsight there were some interesting trends in gaming.
1. Metroid was finally coming off a half decade hiatus. (Metroid was in a similar state as Star Fox is in now, but not as bad)
2. Rare was being bought out by Microsoft, and the DK series was in a state of uncertainty (if Rare wasn't bought out, Banjo would have definitely been in Brawl).
3. Star Fox was flying high in popularity then; now it makes an A's game look lively.
4. Wario's popularity was weird. He was nearing the end of a long run of Wario Land games, and was nearing the beginning of the Wario Ware era.
5. Zelda had just redefined itself with Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, and was entering a new era.
6. The Dreamcast was about to fail, and Sega was about to stop making console games; Sonic was just a tad smaller than Mario then (now he's his shadow basically).
7. Pokémon Crystal had just been released, and it's popularity was still as big as when Red and Blue came out (or in Japan's case, Green and Red).
8. Pikmin had just come out.
9. Paper Mario came out, and with it the N64 era was ending.
10. Mario spin-offs were taking off; Mario Party 1 2 & 3, Tennis, Golf, Kart, and even Luigi's Mansion.
11. The Xbox was getting huge, with Halo 1 (remember the before Halo-noob times, lol?)
12. The PS2 just came out, and MGS2 was hyped like mad (that game is awesome).
I have a feeeling Sakurai is going to add most if not all of the characters that we all wanted in Brawl and Melee (who are still relevant), and maybe bring back a lot of retro characters, especially ones that have been recently revived. From what he said about Ridley and Metroid representation, he sounds disappointed. Ridley seems harder than most characters to make, and I'm sure he wants to make him.
I think with so many less characters wanted as badly as Wario, Meta Knight, Pit, King Dedede, Ike, Olimar, Diddy Kong, Toon Link, and of course the hype itself, Sonic, there's not going to be as much character hype.
Really, the only one who could be labelled as that big is Ridley and Mega Man, especially with Capcom wanting him in Smash according to sources (Te battle for the 5th Gen Pokémon Rep is up there, too). Perhaps maybe Paper Mario, Dixie Kong, King K. Rool, and a few others are gathering a lot of hype (Miis? Samurai Goroh? Black Shadow?), but it's nothing compared to Brawl.
With Brawl, there were a dozen of "Required" characters because of the weird Melee roster, and there was also a lot of de-cloning requests. 1/4th of the Melee newcomers were also cut, including an original character in Mewtwo.
However, that state of demand and receive has become... different. Now there are also some weird trends. Requests for Mewtwo and Roy (of all things!) are through the roof, even amongst people who were neutral towards Roy not being in Brawl.
Takamaru requests are still as high as they were in the pre-Brawl days (I was against him in Brawl due to roster limitations; now I am for him). And with two games, we could get a bunch more less popular characters or even 3rd party characters thanks to all the new roster spots. Needless to say, once we see most of the obvious choices, it's gonna get weird, like that Ridley-Geno sitcom!
