The Melee Roster Rebooted (Again)

[Pupp135]

I made few rosters in different perspectives: two will follow the thread’s rules, but the other two use more realistic conditions.
Also, two will use a ground up perspective, and the others will just swap fighters around.
I’ll just explain changes or controversial decisions.

Following the thread’s rules:
Ground Up:
Veterans:
Newcomers:
Starting Roster:

Reasons:
Jigglypuff: The character is pretty close to a clone in terms of development time, so I’m fine bringing it back.
Sheik: Sheik was a major part of Zelda’s identity at the time, and a transforming character is a cool idea, so Sheik stays.
Ice Climbers/Mr. Game & Watch: They’re cool ideas, but I’d never come up with the partner gimmick, and a Game & Watch character isn’t something that I’d think of at the time.
Dr. Mario: He is cut for being a filler choice for a clone.
Ganondorf: There was room to declone him, so I’ll use a ”slot” for a unique version of him.
Wario: He was third on the poll and only one vote behind Peach.
Pit: The gimmicky/absurd retros wouldn’t have been on my mind, so he’d be my retro pick.

Swapping:
Veterans:Veterans:
Newcomers:
Starting Roster:
Reasons:
The reasons for Jigglypuff, Sheik, Wario’s inclusion, and Dr. Mario’s removal are the same.
Ice Climbers and Mr. Game & Watch: The ideas are already there, and they’re cool choices, so I’d add them over Pit and a unique Ganondorf
Ganondorf: Too make room for the retros, he stays as a clone. I have Zelda already, so I’m fine giving other franchises a chance.
Roy: Young Link and Falco would be decided earlier, Ganondorf was requested, and Jhoto is a bigger priority than Binding Blade, so he’s cut in this case.

More realistic conditions:
Ground Up:
Just put Ganondorf into a clone and add Daisy

Swapping:
Mr Game & Watch is cut, and Roy and Daisy are added.

In terms of honorable mentions, they would probably be Dedede and Meowth. The former was requested, and the latter was a major player in pokemon.

 

[Dan]

DK Jr. as a Diddy clone? Very interesting. I'm onboard!

 

[EpicNoob]

I looked through most of these and I thought they were all pretty interesting, so I did my own roster.

Super Mario:
DK:
TLoZ: *
Pokemon:
Star Fox:
FE:
Solo Reps:

*with new moveset

Which adds up to a total of 23 characters.

Changes:

• added (at the cost of and )
• given a new moveset (at the cost of old and )
• added (replacing )

 

[Diddy Kong]

I looked through most of these and I thought they were all pretty interesting, so I did my own roster.

Super Mario:
DK:
TLoZ: *
Pokemon:
Star Fox:
FE:
Solo Reps:

*with new moveset

Which adds up to a total of 23 characters.

Changes:

• added (at the cost of and )
• given a new moveset (at the cost of old and )
• added (replacing )

Perfect ! Only thing I would probably change is switch the Ice Climbers for Mr.Game & Watch, but I literally love all your choices. And to top it, it's realistic.

10/10

 

[Dan]

You know, I've commented on people's long enough that I should do one myself. I think the Melee roster is pretty great, but I would personally cut Dr. Mario, Captain Falcon (that would catch a lot of hate), Ice Climbers, Young Link, Pichu and Mr. Game & Watch and replace them with Wario, Dedede, Chunky Kong (DK clone) and Raichu (Pikachu clone). Two clone characters replacing an original is not at all realistic but I'll roll with it and add Banjo as my final character.

I guess cutting Falcon would also make Ganondorf unique, thusly catering his moveset toward him which is a double-win.

So for the peeps who don't want to read:

Out: (makes unique)

In: Chunky Kong

The concept of cutting Zelda is also interesting because that's two unique characters in one.

As for reasoning, you can obviously see I removed the oddball picks in favor of more popular characters (I guess it's debatable that Chunky Kong is anymore important than the rest of the clones... that's just a personal pick lol). I'm kinda surprised at myself for not removing Marth (let alone Roy) for how much I hate Fire Emblem ruling Smash now.

 

[Pupp135]

You know, I've commented on people's long enough that I should do one myself. I think the Melee roster is pretty great, but I would personally cut Dr. Mario, Captain Falcon (that would catch a lot of hate), Ice Climbers, Young Link, Pichu and Mr. Game & Watch and replace them with Wario, Dedede, Chunky Kong (DK clone) and Raichu (Pikachu clone). Two clone characters replacing an original is not at all realistic but I'll roll with it and add Banjo as my final character.

I guess cutting Falcon would also make Ganondorf unique, thusly catering his moveset toward him which is a double-win.

So for the peeps who don't want to read:

Out: (makes unique)

In: Chunky Kong

The concept of cutting Zelda is also interesting because that's two unique characters in one.

As for reasoning, you can obviously see I removed the oddball picks in favor of more popular characters (I guess it's debatable that Chunky Kong is anymore important than the rest of the clones... that's just a personal pick lol). I'm kinda surprised at myself for not removing Marth (let alone Roy) for how much I hate Fire Emblem ruling Smash now.

Chunky Kong sounds like an interesting out of the box pick. The funny thing with cutting is that he’d be the first original 12 member that I’d cut in Ultimate’s sequel if I had to cut one since I don’t really care about his character compared to (In the case of Melee, it’d be instead since F-Zero was relevant, and I’d prefer keeping the original 12 if possible).

 

[Depressed Gengar]

Mario, Bowser, Peach, Luigi, Pikachu, Mewtwo, Heracross (replaces Jigglypuff), Raichu (Pikachu clone, replaces Pichu), Link, Zelda, Ganondorf (replaces Falcondorf and Roy), Young Link, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong (replaces Ice Climbers), Kirby, King Dedede (replaces Dr. Mario and Falco), Samus, Yoshi, Fox, Captain Falcon, Ness, Wario (replaces Sheik), Marth, Mr. Game & Watch

Spoiler: Additions

Wario and Diddy outright should've been in by Melee. They were way too important to leave out. Hell, Wario should've been in from the very start.

Ganondorf deserves a moveset that actually represents who he is past being powerful. Granted, Ganondorf being Falcondorf for a single game wouldn't be too bad, but still. Despite a moveset that better represents him, Ganondorf still shares a bit with Captain Falcon, like up special and down air.

Dedede didn't need to be in quite yet, but he's still a pretty damn important Nintendo character, so he wouldn't be out of place in Melee. That said, the main reason for his inclusion was mostly to get Dr. Mario and Falco out.

Gen 2 needed a newcomer, and since Pichu ended up getting cut, Heracross gets in. Heracross may not have been a mascot of Gen 2, but it was still pretty popular within Pokémon's fanbase, and had more potential than any of the Gen 2 mascots did.

Raichu's still a pretty major Pokémon, and it would make a better Pikachu clone than Pichu. That, and I just love Raichu. Yes, I'll admit, I'm a little biased.

Spoiler: Cuts

Shiek was, and still is, just a one-off form of Zelda's, and isn't even as significant as other one-offs like Skull Kid or Midna are. Plus, Shiek's really only there for the sake of a gimmick, which takes more time to develop and just isn't even a good gimmick either.

Ice Climbers are in a very similar boat. Their gimmick just takes more time to develop and isn't worth the extra time. They're extremely irrelevant, being from a game everyone basically forgot about.

I already explained Falcondorf and Pichu's removals lol.

The other three cut clones (Dr. Mario, Falco, and Roy) didn't have much of a justification of being in past just being last-minute clones. Especially Roy, who was just an ad for game exclusive to Japan that hadn't even come out yet, and from a series that was really minor anyways. Dr. Mario and Falco definitely had more going for them, but Dr. Mario wasn't that big of a spinoff to warrant a character, and Star Fox was just fine with just Fox. And yes, Young Link gets to stay. OOT was still recent and obviously relevant, and unalike Shiek, Young Link was a major form from OOT.

Jigglypuff already was only a reoccurring gag in the anime, and even then, that little bit of relevancy was already starting to fade away. That, combined with the fact that I would be redesigning Jigglypuff's moveset, Jigglypuff would probably take nearly as much work as a newcomer anyways.

And now for a more realistic roster:
Mario, Bowser, Peach, Luigi, Dr. Mario (stays), Pikachu, Mewtwo, Heracross (replaces Marth instead of Jigglypuff now), Raichu (still replaces Pichu), Link, Zelda, Ganondorf (still unfortunately a clone), Young Link, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong (still replaces Ice Climbers), DK Jr. (DK clone, replaces Roy), Kirby, Samus, Yoshi, Fox, Wolf (Fox clone, replaces Falco), Captain Falcon, Wario (still replaces Sheik), Mr. Game & Watch

Jigglypuff and Ness get cut in this version to spend time on polishing out Melee more. Melee really needed more polish, and both Jigglypuff and Ness were easily expendable (and outside of Captain Falcon, the only vets expendable).

 

[Dan]

Speaking of Gen 2, I actually had a dream Xatu was an Ultimate DLC character (along with Toad and Harry Potter among others lol). I personally would pick Scizor for my unique Gen 2 rep, though Heracross is awesome as well. Even Tyrogue could've been a cool WTF pick, but I honestly think Gen 2 doesn't have that many great Melee fighter candidates. If they did a unique I bet it would've been Feraligatr, but I would've went back to Gen 1 for Machamp.

DK Jr. being included alongside Diddy is pretty odd for a realistic pick, but I honestly like the idea of him being a DK clone in the same way Young Link was for Link, but by Melee I imagine Nintendo wanted to bury him; not pair him alongside Diddy in one of their bigger games. His inclusion in Mario Tennis 64 instead of Diddy is pretty bizarre in hindsight.

 

[Otoad64]

ok it's been a while, but I've decided to update my roster.

all of the clones are cut but Pichu and Falco to make way for Wario and Dedede, unique Ganondorf replaces Sheik and Meowth replaces Mewtwo,

Also did one with more realistic conditions than the thread

Baby Mario is a clone of Mario, Black Shadow is a clone of Falcon, and DK Jr. is a clone of DK.

 

[YoshiandToad]

Just going off Sakurai's old poll in the OP, I picked some of the most requested newcomers that didn't break the third party rules(Banjo, James Bond, etc)

Wario replaces Dr. Mario + Roy. Warioware wasn't around at this point, so Wario would be based off of his Wario Land version.
Toad replaces Mr. Game and Watch. Heavily influenced by SMB2 and Wario's Woods.
Mew replaces Pichu + Young Link. Like Mewtwo but with a smaller frame, and floats higher off the ground.
Diddy + Dixie replace Ice Climbers as the tag team duo. For the sake of this, their movesets are the same, with different grab animations. Up + B is Dixie lifting Diddy into the air.
King Dedede replaces Sheik. Unchanged from Brawl.

Falcondorf stayed because...well I don't hate it THAT much to replace Falco and him with a newer Ganondorf.
Peach loses Toad in her moveset, replacing him with her heart abilities.

 

[Dan]

Man, Diddy & Dixie would've been so much better than the Ice Climbers.

 

[Otoad64]

Man, Diddy & Dixie would've been so much better than the Ice Climbers.

why?

 

[Pupp135]

Man, Diddy & Dixie would've been so much better than the Ice Climbers.

While I’d still keep the Ice Climbers, it would’ve been nice to see Diddy/Dixie pair working during Brawl and Ultimate (idk if it would work now, but they’re more similar in models compared to Rex & Pyra/Mythra)

 

[Otoad64]

wrong thread lol

 

[Dan]

why?

Because they were two relevant and popular characters, and Dixie is still not in Smash.

 

[Otoad64]

Because they were two relevant and popular characters, and Dixie is still not in Smash.

I mean, Dixie should be in Smash by now, but I like that Smash includes less relevant and popular characters

 

[Butters Stotch]

Equivalents:
=
(as the Rare situation maybe affected Diddy’s chances) =
(unique) =
=
= (same moveset, just another Toon/Young Link situation)

 

[Tankman from Newgrounds]

My roster:
Veteran roster:
1. Mario
2. Luigi
3. Yoshi
4. DK
5. Link
6. Samus
7. Kirby
8. Fox
9. Pikachu
10. Ness
11. Captain Falcon
12. Marth
Melee roster:
13. Bowser
14. Peach
15. Zelda/Sheik (2 Fighters in 1)
16. Ganondorf (Uses different moveset)
17. Diddy
18. Wario
19. Mewtwo
20. Ice Climbers
21. ExciteBiker
22. King Dedede
23. Wolf
24. Black Shadow
25. Roy
26. Mr. Game and Watch

I replaced clones like Young Link, Pichu, Falco and Dr. Mario, because they don't fit in Fighting Game, so I replaced them with ExciteBiker, Wolf, Black Shadow, King Dedede and Diddy.
Also, I cut Jigglypuff from 64 Roster, because I really despite him and I replaced him with Marth.

 

[Perkilator]

Here’s my take after a while:

1. Mario
2. Donkey Kong
3. Link
4. Samus
5. Yoshi
6. Kirby
7. Fox
8. Pikachu
9. Ness
10. Captain Falcon
11. Peach
12. Bowser
13. Ice Climbers
14. Zelda / Sheik
15. Scizor
16. Luigi
17. Jigglypuff
18. Wario
19. Diddy Kong
20. Ayumi Tachibana
21. Marth
22. Ganondorf
23. Mewtwo
24. Mr. Game & Watch
25. Young Link
26. Falco
27. Roy

This is part of a larger project I’ve been meandering over for a while.

 

[Diddy Kong]

Here’s my take after a while:

1. Mario
2. Donkey Kong
3. Link
4. Samus
5. Yoshi
6. Kirby
7. Fox
8. Pikachu
9. Ness
10. Captain Falcon
11. Peach
12. Bowser
13. Ice Climbers
14. Zelda / Sheik
15. Scizor
16. Luigi
17. Jigglypuff
18. Wario
19. Diddy Kong
20. Ayumi Tachibana
21. Marth
22. Ganondorf
23. Mewtwo
24. Mr. Game & Watch
25. Young Link
26. Falco
27. Roy

This is part of a larger project I’ve been meandering over for a while.

Luckily I clicked the link, otherwise I'd have thought you where cheating the thread concept. But great ideas. I do think a final roster would've looked like this, if of course there had been another year of development. Only not too sure about Scizor, I'd personally replace it with Charizard.