Oh cool, the page thing is fixed. Must've been that mod from the last page, props abounds.
It's pretty disappointing to hear quite a few of you guys buying into rumors and misinterpreting Nintendo's general status and strategies, especially all the Sakurai stuff. At least the E3 meltdowns will be something.
As I have learned back in 2005, be skeptical of all console rumors, and don't believe anything until its official.
Also, one thing to keep in mind is that Miyamoto will be showing off a new IP at E3. He has hinted at last year that he was making a new one (one that could produce a recognizable game character), since the last series in which he did that (Pikmin) was nearly a decade ago. I think there is a very good chance that the main character of this new Miyamoto IP will be a playable character in Smash Bros. Well, we find out in a month now.
We are only a month away from seeing Nintendo's next home console. Next year is when I expect to see the next Smash Bros. Though there is the chance that it won't be unveiled until 2013 at the latest. Although I think development of Smash 4 is very likely to begin toward the end of this year, and that they would very likely be able to have something to show of it by E3 2012, I thinks its possible that Sakurai and Nintendo might opt not to show the game until its much further along in development, which would mean no unveil until E3 2013. So at the most we are looking at two years until we see Smash 4. If it is not shown until E3 2013, I expect some sort of announcement at E3 2012 that it is "in development".
I am very curious on where Sakurai plans to go from Brawl. While many competitive players were disappointed in it, I thought it was pretty much a fulfilling follow-up to Melee. With Melee, it was obvious about what needed to be done for Smash 4 (add online, add the rest of the major Nintendo characters). With Brawl, basically every major Nintendo character was made a playable characters, guests (non-Nintendo) characters were added, online was added, stage editor, powerful finishing moves, etc.
However, what does Sakurai do for Smash 4? Brawl was pretty much Melee but with much more characters, stages, and online (though for competitive players it was a definite step down). The problem is that Sakurai has already done "bigger, faster, and better" for the past two Smash games and added some new elements along with the massive roster increases. The problem though is that it will be much more difficult to increase the roster this time around, so he might have to be looking at ways to change up the gameplay a bit. It might turn out to be a gimmick (like with Mario Kart Double Dash), or it could "renew" the series.
I think in terms of characters, I think even Sakurai realizes that the selection for newcomers is dismal. There is probably only 1-4 Nintendo characters left that are as major as most of the newcomers that were added for Brawl. I have a feeling that Sakurai will instead opt for a smaller roster increase, but hope to mitigate it by adding mostly third-party characters (most of whom would be major characters). But even if he did that who could he add?
The only two guys from Capcom I think who would have major "star-power" would be Mega Man and Ruy of Street Fighter. The only other "star-power" Capcom character I could think of would be someone from Resident Evil, but there would be a problem of trying to integrate them into Smash Bros. without the use of their guns and knives and not being too much of a Snake copycat.
With Konami, there is no one else aside from Snake that has major "star-power". Simon Belmont and Castlevania may have a prominent place in the heart of many Nintendo fans, but the character and series are basically on the same level as Little Mac, a popular retro character and "retro" series. Konami also recently acquired Hudson, which means they now own Bomberman now too. While the Bomberman series has been on almost every Nintendo platform (even the Virtual Boy), the series and character is basically in the same situation as Castlevania but worse (at least Castelvania games are still critically acclaimed).
Sega's only major game character (especially in this age) is Sonic. Most other Sega characters outside of the Sonic series are basically obscure.
Square-Enix could obviously add some sort of Dragon Quest character, whether it be Slime or the nameless "Hero". However, even then Square-Enix's other major characters have problems. Sora is owned by Disney, and Cloud (the most popular protagonist of the Final Fantasy series) has never had a proper appearance on a Nintendo console so that would disqualify him. A generic Final Fantasy character would not have very much "star-power" (examples of generic Final Fantasy characters include Chocobo, Moogle, Warrior of Light, Black Mage). Also, even though Chrono Trigger is among the most popular games ever, Crono is hurt by the fact that his series is dead, and he himself is a one-shot.
So all things considered, I think the only third-party characters that Sakurai could get for Smash 4 that would be on the same level as Snake and Sonic would be Mega Man, Ryu, and Slime. While these three characters would add the same amount of hype as Sonic and Snake did, they are still only three characters. Sakurai will pretty much be forced into focusing more on gameplay improvements than roster growth.
I think that Smash 4 will turn off many of the non-competitive fans of the series the same way Brawl turned off many of the competitive players. I can already see the angry threads about the smaller amount of newcomers and amount of veteran playable characters that were cut. As I said previous times, I myself am getting pretty burned out on Smash Bros., and if Brawl's roster were simply tweaked a bit, I probably would not even be following Smash 4.
Its strange to say that I probably anticipate to see what direction Sakurai goes in for Smash 4 as much I anticipate what characters he selects as newcomers.
