I really wanted to say Melee, but when you think about it half of it's roster were clones, and a lot of them shouldn't have been and still are today. (
) Plus a few of the newcomers were just bland and uninteresting to me (
) Also, I'm the type of person who likes to have many series represented in Smash, and Melee only introduced
&
representing Fire Emblem,
for Game & Watch, and
for Ice Climber.
Ultimate was out of the running for me just because there wasn't that many newcomers, and the appeal of the game moreso came from everyone returning. I did adore the newcomers they picked;
&
were a long time coming.
,
, and
show that Nintendo is still capable of producing fresh and interesting characters. And
/
are just awesome.
Choosing between Smash 4 and Brawl was so hard. On one hand, Brawl introduce 3rd parties for the first. One was from a more mature series that no one ever expected to be in Smash, being
. The other was a longtime rival of Mario who finally had his day to battle it out with his arch-nemesis, being
. Brawl also introduced beloved Nintendo series into the mix for the first time like
(Pikmin),
(WarioWare), and
(Kid Icarus). Plus, another retro character was introduced, who is a way saved gaming,
. On top of that, Kirby finally got some more representation with the widely popular
and fan favorite
joining. Fire Emblem added a swordfighter with an actual unique moveset,
. Transformation characters became more prominent with the introduction of
and
, the latter which really needed to be in Smash in some way.
finally got some exposure in the west by being in Smash, as he had widely been neglected a chance to shine in this hemisphere.
joined DK and finally gave the series some more recognition. Star Fox added another clone-like character who felt different enough to warrant and inclusion. Plus adding
gave the roster another villain. And lastly, we got the most popular new Pokemon at that time,
in the game. It might've seemed a bit much to go through and explain each character, but I did so to exemplify how important every single one was. It truly seemed like each addition had reasoning behind it and was truly for the fans. And it appeared as if something new was always going on: whether it be the introduction of 3rd parties, transformation characters, new series, fan favorites, a villain or two, or underrated gems. Personally, I don't know if any other roster was able to do this, and while Smash 4 did have some hype picks like
and
, and some fun ones like
and
, a lot of them wouldn't have been possible without Brawl. and In my opinion Brawl focused more on hype fan favorites, and Smash 4 was more about getting all of the deserving characters and series in rather than the ones the fans wanted. I'm glad characters like
,
, and
got in, but they're not exactly hyped if you know what I mean. So in conclusion, Brawl still reigns supreme as far as newcomers go.