Looking back on it, the Direct wasn't as great as I initially thought, at least from my perspective. While the gameplay info was amazing, I'm not exactly a fan of something that, within forty minutes, either confirms or implies that half of the characters that I want in the game, returning or veteran, aren't going to be in it, leaving me with a grand total of one character to look forward to.
As far as veterans go, my favourites to play as throughout the franchise have been Kirby, Luigi, Mewtwo, and Snake. I never really cared about tier lists; I just found Mewtwo enjoyable to play as, which is why I was disappointed when he was cut from Brawl. Kirby and Luigi were already confirmed, so nothing to worry about there. However, with Greninja and Charizard announced as playable, that brings us to four Pokemon characters. Assuming Jigglypuff is a guarantee since she's been in three games already, and Squirtle and Ivysaur are cut (another negative in that Direct - I had been expecting and hoping for no cuts from Brawl, since the characters (aside from Toon Link) were mostly unique, or at least unique enough compared to the Melee clones), that brings us to five Pokemon characters, and it doesn't seem likely that we'll get a sixth unless Mario gets another newcomer. It could still happen, but it just doesn't seem likely.
For Snake, Sheik's random grenade move (do grenades even exist in the Legend of Zelda setting?) doesn't bode well, and neither does the fact that they're running out of time. It seems like they're revealing third parties entirely through Directs and events like E3, and if they're going to reveal all of the third party characters before the 3DS version is released, they've got E3 and one other Nintendo Direct at most. I know people are going to question why I want Snake back, or say "he doesn't fit" - I've been through all of that before. However, Metal Gear has made huge contributions to the gaming industry, it's Konami's most popular franchise, and Snake's appearance in Brawl was both entertaining and an opportunity for many fans (myself included) to learn about a franchise that we may not have paid much attention to otherwise.
As for newcomers, my four most wanted were Little Mac, Ridley, Saki from Sin & Punishment, and King K. Rool. Little Mac being confirmed was great, and I hoped it was a sign of things to come; a sign that maybe, SSB would focus on more than just franchises that are popular in Japan. At the very least, I was hoping that we'd get a second Metroid character out of it, but that was shot down with extreme prejudice. (No, I don't consider Zero Suit Samus a second character - she may have a different moveset, but she's still the same person as Samus) Admittedly, this could just be Sakurai trolling Metroid fans (he already did that in that very Nintendo Direct, and he's going ridiculously out of his way to avoid showing Ridley or mentioning his name, even though he's been extremely open with every single other stage hazard), but it doesn't seem like it.
Honestly, this whole nonsense with Ridley would be like if the Legend of Zelda series was only represented by Link and Young Link. Even if Young Link's moves are different, he's still Link, and while Ganon and Zelda would appear in Smash Bros., it would only be as trophies, bosses, or other NPCs, because the development team felt that there wasn't enough to work with as far as a move set goes. Even though this would continue throughout three straight games, the Smash Bros. development team would just assume that fans of the series would be fine with that and grateful for it, in spite of evidence to the contrary.
As for Saki, seeing him as an assist trophy was bad enough - I figured that, since Sin & Punishment had gotten a Wii sequel, it was popular enough to get at least one character in the game. Seeing the series represented by a generic Smash Bros. logo was even worse, since it meant that (in all likelihood) there's no chance of another Sin & Punishment character being playable.
Now all I have to look forward to in regards to Smash Bros. is King K. Rool. The appearance of the Kremlings helped, but given how this has been going, it seems more likely that Dixie Kong will be the third DK character, and K. Rool will be relegated to a trophy, assist trophy, or stage hazard.
Sorry about the rant; it's just that when half of my most wanted characters appear to no longer be options after less than an hour, it rubs me the wrong way.
