Trying to keep up with this thread today has been a nightmare lol
Assuming this "Grinch Leak" is real (which it does seem very likely), I feel so sorry for Sakurai for having these characters blown out like this. What a shame to not be able to surprise us with
7 newcomers, which most of us weren't expecting after taking Sakurai's words of "don't expect too many newcomers" to heart, and I personally would liked to have been surprised by the man himself than through a leaker.
However, this is honestly a very solid set of newcomers that would please pretty much everyone, especially those of us who have been involved in speculation for a long time, and I myself would be very happy if these were our remaining newcomers. Geno, Banjo-Kazooie, Chorus Kids, Isaac, Mach Rider, Shadow and Ken essentially round out the roster of dreams, and all are choices I could see Sakurai choosing for Ultimate.
On a personal scale, Geno, Isaac and Banjo appeal to me the most, while the other four are also solid choices. Super Mario RPG is one of my favorite SNES games, and Geno does evoke the sense of nostalgia I had when playing the game for the first time. Golden Sun + The Lost Age is one of my favorite series on the GBA, and I'd love to see Isaac's abilities represented in Ultimate. Banjo-Kazooie is a game I love dearly from the N64 era (which perfected the collectathon in my opinion), so their inclusion would be wild for me, as I never thought that they would truly see the light of day in Smash.
Mach Rider is the Retro pick that I would totally see Sakurai choosing, and was considered for Melee from what I recall, so seeing the character make it in now would be wonderful. Chorus Kids would be the final Smash 4 scrapped character to make it in, and bring new franchise representation as well, which I appreciate. Shadow has been a long-time request even back in the Brawl days ever since Sonic made it into the roster, and I'd be very happy for his fans to see him make it in. And Ken makes perfect sense to join Ryu as the OG Echo Fighter, but I would also hope that he has at least a couple unique differences with his moveset as well.
I'm not going all in on this leak, as there is the possibility that it could be fake, but it certainly seems more likely to be real than fake from what I've seen throughout the day. What I really hope for is that the next Smash Direct will confirm or deny these newcomers, so that we can move forward with discussing Ultimate itself and the possibility of DLC candidates. If November 8th turns out to be true for our next direct date, it's going to be a wild two weeks until then, you can bet on that. Until then, I'm going to keep my expectations tempered, but will remain hopeful that our characters will make it in. I will be very interested in seeing what happens when we reach the end of this crazy hype train we're on now.