I agree, in fact adding gimmicks to characters is a great way to make them all play very uniquely even if they have some similar moves here and there. BlazBlue does a great job at demonstrating this with the unique Drives each character has, no two characters are anything alike:
Ragna steals health
Jin freezes opponents
Noel changes and links her combos
Tsubaki charges her specials
Hazama uses that chain thing to pull himself/opponents closer
Bullet has auto-grapple combos
Azrael finds and exploits weakpoints
Mu-12 deploys auto-fire guns at a distance
etc...
Anyway, on a slightly different topic, I know we've talked about this before, and I may be a bit slowpoke here, but I've heard this rumor that I just can't seem to ignore.
You want an unexpected left field character that would be as surprising for most to see as Snake? There is only ONE character that can do that at this point:
[COLLAPSE="Yep..."]
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Anyway, I keep hearing rumors that Nintendo was negotiating with Microsoft to try and buy Rare just for the sake of earning rights to the Banjo IP. Well, I did some digging up and this is what I came up with:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkai...-japanese-video-game-market-one-ip-at-a-time/
http://www.zeldainformer.com/news/c...negotiate-its-way-into-ownership-of-banjo-and
Now, as much as I want this to be true, it seems somewhat unlikely, however, if you think about a few things for a little, there is chance this MIGHT be true after all.
First and foremost, there's the fact that Retro is supposedly working on a game that "everyone wants them to work on." Now I find it unlikely that it's Banjo Kazooie, but nowdays, people do consider Retro Studios the spiritual successor to Rare, and with how Nintendo treats them, there certainly is a resemblace. In fact many old Rare devs are working at Retro now supposedly. There is also this little tidbit about the old Banjo team wanting to make a spiritual successor for the series:
http://gamerant.com/spiritual-successor-banjo-kazooie/. So, what if? What if Retro was working on a 3D platformer similar to Banjo, and Nintendo just decided to try and buy rights to the game in hopes of having a stronger name to stand on?
There's more though, a couple pages back, we talked about that supposed Diddy Kong Racing game supposed to be in development for the WiiU. We talked about how Monster Games would have to find ways to replace beloved Rare characters like Banjo and Conker and Tiptup with other IPs. But, if Retro was working on a title like what I suggested, then Nintendo would now have TWO reasons to try and make those Rare IPs 1st party Nintendo IPs.
Now, with Rare being M$'s Kinnect team, it's very unlikely they would sell the studio to Nintendo and tbh, Nintendo's better of without them, as they're Rare only in name nowdays. However, considering how poorly Rare did with the past generations, and how M$ doesn't seem to have any interest in either working with the Rare IPs, nor letting Rare make any more games. It is possible they might sell the rights to "dead" IPs for some quick cash. Think about it, as far as M$ cares, Banjo Kazooie was a failed project, and even Rare voiced their opinion on how "modern gamers only wanna shoot stuff." So what if negotiations DID indeed happen and Nintendo earned the rights to the Rare IPs and may even bought a couple employees? As mentioned in the forbes article, Nintendo DID buy Monolith Soft, and they've been very focused on getting their hands on exclusive IPs for their WiiU, so it's not too much of a stretch really.
Maybe I'm just grasping at straws because I REALLY want this to be true, but picture this:
@E3 2013
-Nintendo showcases a new trailer and demos for Pokemon "Coldplay."
-People are excited, but it's expected.
-Then a trailer for the new DKR, the trailer has many of the expected faces, and it's similar to how we remember it, suddenly, we catch a glimpse of a notorious Bear with a pesky Bird nagging him about his poor piloting skills, then we see Conker and even Tiptup.
-Fans cheer at this unexpected reveal and figure M$ allowed them in, or something.
-Then, Reggie comes on stage and talks about how "WiiU won't only let you race with familiar faces, but also fight with them."
-And fans cheer at the announcement of the new Smash 4 trailer.
-The trailer comes up, and we see the expected stuff, Mario, Link, Pika, Samus, some new faces, maybe Saki, and Ridley, and the Gen 6 Pokemon. Finally, when things begin to slow down in the trailer we see a glimpse of our new Namco 3rd party be it Lloyd or Pacman.
-People cheer as the screen goes dark.... but WAIT!
-Suddenly we hear the sound of wind... Followed by the squawking of some bird as words appear on screen beside the face of a familiar Breegull, telling her partner how he got them lost again. Then, "Gu-gugu-gu-gu-gugu" as the bear replies "it's better to be late than never." All of this as the strings of a Banjo begin to intensify in a familiar Jingle as the screen begins to pan to the ground and the music speeds up, then we see a bear's foot leave a Blue Footprint on the ground followed by the classic "Gu-huh!"
-Only on WiiU Summer 2014
-Throughout all of this fans are dead silent as they cannot BELIEVE what they've just seen. "How?" "What?" "There's no way!!" " A rival 1st Party IP in Smash Bros?" And then, people begin to cheer, it echoes so loud that cheer can be heard across the planet.
-"But wait, there's more!" Reggie says as he comes on stage.
-"The promise of an old enemy, 'Just you wait until Banjo-Threeie.' That's right our very own Retro studios and the old banjo Team have come together to bring you the game you've always wanted. Banjo-Threeie, exclusive to WiiU."
-And the titles to the game appears behind him with the WiiU logo.
And then, at that moment, thousands of fans die due to increased blood pressure caused by the excitement of that day. E3 2013, the day the internet imploded.
That made the Deoxys fad (which sadly I was a part of) seem original! 
