Why would Sakurai ignore the most popular character choices?

[SAMaine]

what better way is there to make a Melee 2.0, than by adding (first and foremost) all the characters who were speculated for Melee to the entire Melee roster minus 2 (Pichu and Doc). We get Wario, Pit, Lucas, Wolf, and Snake (and I think Meta, DDD, and DiddyK were rumored hopefuls for Melee, too.) Then make some updated characters...replace Roy with Ike, and Mew2 with Lucario. "But wait...were not trying to make Melee 2.0, are we?" So, we add Sonic, Olimar, PokeTrainer, and ROB. Suddenly, this (hopefully false) roster looks more and more like Melee 2.0 plus 4...."Super Smash Bros. Melee 2.4", if you will.

Red WAS a rumored hopeful on the list of People wanted for Melee, so it's pretty much just Sonic, Olimar, and ROB! And heck, Sonic has been desired for Smash Bros ever since Sega went third-party! So it's just Olimar & ROB, and only Olimar actually deserves it! This is Super Smash Bros. Melee 2.1: Everyone planned for Melee, three of which are clones, and Captain Olimar!

If this is the roster, then we better get a Smash 4, sooner rather than later or never.

The only reason people don't want to believe that the 35 roster is real is because all of the good characters are people we already know about. Imagine if we had no idea that Snake and Sonic were going to be in the game and then this roster leaked out. Everyone would think it was the greatest roster ever. But because we've known about Snake, Sonic, P. Trainer, Diddy, and all the other cool characters for so long now people keep think there's going to be a character that lives up to or tops all of them.

No, we be getting stuff like...

"Snake and Sonic?! OMGWTFBBQLOL! Not from Nintendo, you moron!"

"Pokemon Trainer?! What's he gonna do? Hit people with his bike?!"

"Pikmin & Olimar?! FAKE!"

In addition to...

"No Krystal, Ridley and Geno = FAIL!"

"ROB is teh suck!"

"This list fails!"

 

[Smash-X]

There is a difference between popular and most popular...

You are not trying to tell me that Geno, Krystal or Black Shadow are more popular than Pit, Wario, Ike, Diddy, Metaknight, Sonic and Olimar?

 

[Trakor]

I believe that this is the real roster just because people are reacting to it exactly how they did when the Melee roster was leaked.

I dont get this ... so your point is . because everyone hates that Roster , it must be true ?
Dont you think Sakurai learned something from past mistakes ?
Believe me guys ... the final roster will not suck. With all these incredible original game modes , Sakurai just CANT have given the game such a crappy roster.

Its like ... having one of the best films ever. With brilliant actors ( Mario , Link , Samus ... ).
But with some clearly messed up Guest - Actors.

Believe me. Sakurai will not do this. He just cant.

 

[J18]

trakor, so you extensively know sakurai and the workings of his mind? don't pretend that you know what he's going to do. and i personally don't think that the 35 character leak is real, especially cuz THEY SAID IT WAS A MOCK-UP.

 

[Black/Light]

trakor, so you extensively know sakurai and the workings of his mind? don't pretend that you know what he's going to do. and i personally don't think that the 35 character leak is real, especially cuz THEY SAID IT WAS A MOCK-UP.

GODDD******!

They MADE the mock up to SHOW how a LEAKER was saying the select screen would LOOK. It's not made to fake anyone out. . .just to show clearly how the person said it would look and it happens to go well with the vid roster.

 

[freeman123]

Trakor
I dont get this ... so your point is . because everyone hates that Roster , it must be true ?

No, it's because people live in a fantasy world and they're never happy with reality. In reality, nothing is perfect. You have to take the bad with the good. So when people think of their fantasy rosters they imagine something with every character they want and none of the ones they don't. So when they have to face reality, and the roster is missing some characters they wanted and includes some they didn't, they can't deal with it and they throw tantrums on message boards.

Trakor
Dont you think Sakurai learned something from past mistakes ?

He didn't make any mistakes. Melee was great. It was the greatest last gen game on any console in terms of replay value. It's still as fun to play today as it was 6 years ago.

Trakor
Believe me guys ... the final roster will not suck.

I know it won't. It'll have Snake, Sonic, Diddy Kong, Meta Knight, Olimar, Pit, P. Trainer, and several others.

Trakor
Its like ... having one of the best films ever. With brilliant actors ( Mario , Link , Samus ... ).
But with some clearly messed up Guest - Actors.

And Heath Ledger as the Joker.

 

[Nasir]

You are not trying to tell me that Geno, Krystal or Black Shadow are more popular than Pit, Wario, Ike, Diddy, Metaknight, Sonic and Olimar?

At least not Black Shadow, no. I didn't mean popular characters in general, I meant popular characters for Smash Bros. I think that Wario, Diddy, Sonic and Olimar is some of the most popular characters for Brawl. Pit was such a suprise character that I don't think anyone expected him and therefore he wasn't that anticipated really. I don't know how much wanted Meta-Knight were. And I didn't notice many looking forward for Ike before he was announced.

So you do have a point that some of the characters who has been confirmed is very popular, but it doesn't change the fact that it feel strange that Sakurai would choose Wolf over Krystal, and Rob over anyone, and so on...

 

[freeman123]

At least not Black Shadow, no. I didn't mean popular characters in general, I meant popular characters for Smash Bros. I think that Wario, Diddy, Sonic and Olimar is some of the most popular characters for Brawl. Pit was such a suprise character that I don't think anyone expected him and therefore he wasn't that anticipated really. I don't know how much wanted Meta-Knight were. And I didn't notice many looking forward for Ike before he was announced.

So you do have a point that some of the characters who has been confirmed is very popular, but it doesn't change the fact that it feel strange that Sakurai would choose Wolf over Krystal, and Rob over anyone, and so on...

You're wrong, I can remember people talking about wanting Pit in it way back when the game was first mentioned at E3 in 2005. Everybody in the first trailer, except Snake, were expected characters. Even Zero Suit Samus had a lot of supporters, although most people referred to her as Suitless Samus back then.

A lot of people thought that Poo from Earthbound/Mother 2 would be in too. This was back before anyone here knew anything about Mother 3. It's actually kind of funny thinking back on how different people's "most likely character lists" looked back when the game was first announced. Fawful was considered one of the most wanted characters back then too, and so was Blaziken. This was all back before Brawl had its own section on Smashboards, and there was only one topic for us to talk about it in in the Melee section. I think that topic literally had thousands of pages of posts.

 

[A Link to the Snitch]

People keep ignoring one fact:

Under your logic, Wario's absence in Melee means that Melee's roster never actually happened.

Wario, Ridley, Meta Knight, King Dedede, etc. were all highly requested, but didn't get in. Why? Because he picked someone else. Same with this one.

 

[Shadow Calibur]

Why are people still believing the mock-up roster to be real?

 

[Igneous42]

People keep ignoring one fact:

Under your logic, Wario's absence in Melee means that Melee's roster never actually happened.

Wario, Ridley, Meta Knight, King Dedede, etc. were all highly requested, but didn't get in. Why? Because he picked someone else. Same with this one.

Melee also had a more limited roster. And at that point there were characters like Bowser, Zelda, Ganondorf and Peach. I mean I wouldn't argue that Ridley (or any of the character you mentioned) should get in over bowser or even Peach. The newcomers in Melee pretty much all made sense. The four weird ones were

Mr. Game and Watch, who represented an entire line of handheld games which were the predecessor to the game boy.

Ice Climber- Got in mainly because of Sakurai's personal Bias, but they also filled a space for Retro character.

Pichu/Dr. Mario- Who were both clones, I seriously doubt either of these characters would have made it in had they not been clones.

So pretty much everyone else (except maybe roy who was an advertisement, but still pretty well liked in the end) was wanted. And even those 4 were pretty popular, I mean Ice Climbers were what one of the most requested characters to return on Japanese polls?

I've been following Brawl since day one, and I can tell you that Ridley, Krystal, and Geno were more popular than some newcomers. I really wanted Olimar, but honestly his support wasn't super huge. I'd say All three of the characters I listed had/have a bigger fan base then him. Ridley was easily more popular than DeDeDe (though Meta Knight was a shoe in before Brawl was even shown) .

People are saying that people don't accept this roster because characters they don't like arne't on it. Do you realize that if even only Ridley and Krystal were on this probably 50% of people if not more who don't like this would be fine with it? Do you really think Sakurai would ignore that to put in ROB?

 

[User33]

Yep, he didn't give us any characters that were popular choices. Metaknight, Pit, Wario, Snake, Ike, Dedede, Diddy Kong, Lucas, Sonic, Lucario and Olimer don't count.

 

[Mario77]

What... you mean Brawl doesn't have Ridley, Mewtwo, Geno, OR Krystal?

This roster literaly fails, I won't even care about Brawl if Ridley or Mewtwo are not in...

Sonic is a great addition at least... and ROB? Is he gona be just as fail and Game and Watch?

 

[Dogenzaka]

What the sam hell are you talking about?
All the most popular characters ARE making it in.
Sonic, Snake, Dedede, Lucas, Lucario, Sheik, what are you on about?
The only person left we need is Geno.

 

[A Link to the Snitch]

...If ROB is just as fail as G&W, he'll be pretty awesome.

 

[JoJoRukus]

I bet if he had the means, the money, and a way to slow down time so people wouldn't be sitting around and groaning for years and years waiting for a perfect game, he would try to make everyone happy. But he could do is the best that he could, and in a short while we'll be able to see just how good his best was.

 

[ShortFuse]

*First post updated*

Edit: LOL! Sorry, wrong thread.

 

[Iboid]

It's fake.

The creator said so.

 

[Black/Light]

^^^God I wish people would read. . . HE DIDN'T MAKE IT UP!

 

[KaiserX]

People have said it...people are going to continue saying it...but just to get the **** word out of the way, I'll say it again.

The 35 roster is not fake because some guy said he made it up.

He made a speculated roster. He wasn't sure if the speculated roster was entirely true.

However, at least two extremely GOOD SOURCES are saying that what he made was more or less true. Maybe not exactly 35 characters, but it sounds about right from the looks of how it ties in with Nysae's additional leak.

Making a photoshopped mockup does not mean that the 35 character roster is FAKE, it simply means he made a fake OF the 35 character roster.

It's like saying if I made a solid photoshop screen of a roster of 45 characters, it deconfirms that all of those 45 characters can be in the same game. But that's simply not true. Photoshopping what it MIGHT look like doesn't mean it won't be that way.

I'm trusting Reno and MarkMan on this. If they're wrong, everyone can rest happily knowing they're banned from the NeoGAF forums.

Happy?

 

[Saltwater Gem]

The part that bothers me...

Yes, the roster does include a lot of people who we thought would be in Melee but weren't... it also leaves OUT a lot of characters who were highly wanted. Typically this wouldn't be much more then an annoyance because obviously based on the past, Sakurai has had questionable rosters. Except that this time, he specifically expressed that he assumed this would be the last Smash Bros. game. 'The Brawl To End Them All.' In that sense, I feel like he failed greatly.

 

[Zinfandel]

Zevox has made the strongest case yet. Apart from the R.O.B. being an SSE enemy/R.O.B. 64 being a trophy inconsistency it seems airtight.

I wish it to be untrue but I stood by the Prima leak because it seemed credible and I stand by the 35-roster now even though it makes me want to petition for DC.

 

[A Link to the Snitch]

At what point was Sakurai going to please everyone?

 

[JoJoRukus]

I got this crazy idea in my head about how ROB would be unlocked... You play through SSE all the way to the Ancient Minister, he sends his last ROB out at you, but then it somehow has a change of unchangeable robot heart and turns on the Minister. D:

 

[A Link to the Snitch]

Nah, it's gotta be a more difficult method of unlocking him, like if there are "sidequests". Perhaps one of the characters meets Professor Hector, who created the ROBs? :o

 

[KaiserX]

Glad I'm seeing some sense in people.

Even if we don't like it, sometimes we need to accept the worst in the sad event it might be true. :/

Even if it is, the characters we love may still yet be bosses (Ridley, K. Rool), assist trophies (actually good ATs...not just pop out for 3 seconds, hit the enemy, and disappear), or have a role in SSE.

I am prepped for the worst so if the worst comes, I wont be as disappointed. Of course, I'd love Brawl even if the characters that have been revealed are literally all that's in the game. There's a great roster here, even if it's not everyone I'd have wanted.

It'll all blow over, and the disappointment will subside and we'll enjoy it for what it is.

 

[freeman123]

To unlock ROB you have to fight Ridley, Mega Man, Krystal, and Geno. After you beat them it says "Congratulations! None of those people are playable, but you can play as ROB!" Then the following image appears on the screen.

 

[Trakor]

Glad I'm seeing some sense in people.

Even if we don't like it, sometimes we need to accept the worst in the sad event it might be true. :/

Even if it is, the characters we love may still yet be bosses (Ridley, K. Rool), assist trophies (actually good ATs...not just pop out for 3 seconds, hit the enemy, and disappear), or have a role in SSE.

I am prepped for the worst so if the worst comes, I wont be as disappointed. Of course, I'd love Brawl even if the characters that have been revealed are literally all that's in the game. There's a great roster here, even if it's not everyone I'd have wanted.

It'll all blow over, and the disappointment will subside and we'll enjoy it for what it is.

See thats my whole point ... why on earth would Sakurai roll with this roster , that he knew beforhand , more than 9/10 of Brawl fans would find a bit odd.

I mean , there are those who protest it , there are those who claim it because they lost already all hope , but how many people are out there that u already heard saying : "This roster would rule !!!! "

Lets jsut face that it isnt that what we expected. Sakurai should. give us Geno , Ridley and Krystal and more than 8/10 of the people will be completely satisfied ... even with a 35 man roster.

 

[A Link to the Snitch]

Did people say "This roster would rule !!!! " to SSBM's? Nope.

Why do people talk about SSBB's roster as if they reacted so much better to Melee's roster.

 

[SinisterLizard]

I don't get why people assume things like Ridley, etc. are such impossible dreams. He is like one of the bare minimum characters like Meta Knight or Dedede. He isn't some pipe dream. Sure I have a dream roster, and I realize that every character wouldn't get on it. But in reality, almost all of my desired characters are characters that should get in either because of their relative importance, franchise balancing, etc. I don't have some crazy off-the-wall wanted character.

Not only that, but I get tired of people saying stuff like "be glad Snake and Sonic at least got in..." or any number of other characters, like I give a rip about them...they just make the selections for this roster even more absurd. Random non-Nintendo character? Check. Duplicate protagonists who had a total of 3 games in their series? Check. Redundant characters in a lesser franchise? Check. Boring/uninspired newcomers? Check. Most important franchise(s) properly under-representated (relatively) check.

Simply put, characters in a roster that only consists of 35 characters should not be the ones included here.

 

[Chaosblade77]

Did people say "This roster would rule !!!! " to SSBM's? Nope.

Why do people talk about SSBB's roster as if they reacted so much better to Melee's roster.

That is one reason why I fear this might be the real thing. I have to agree with SinisterLizard in general though, as the characters chosen are just... not all that great.


Basically, these are my opinions:

I am not ranting because my favorite characters are not getting in, none of my dream characters have any chance whatsoever. I am also not complaining about the size, 35 characters could easily be an excellent number for Brawl, had better characters been chosen. In fact, if you dig up some old roster size threads in the Characters board you will see I was saying "about 35" back when people were saying less than 40 was completely unreasonable.

I'd really rather see more fan favorites in the game than those who are in the current 35 character line up. As I said, I agree with SinisterLizard as this roster offers little that is actually new at all other than Rob, and a couple of new characters that didn't exist when Melee was made (Olimar, Ike, Lucario). Everyone else is Melee scrap material that they just didn't have time and space for.

One thing I have said in the past is that modes make the game and add the replay value, which is what they want with this game; but when the roster is lacking, the other modes will lack by default. In the end though, everyone who doesn't keep up with all of this will probably be happy with the roster, and I'll enjoy the game regardless.

 

[RiptheReaper]

Sakurai : At any rate, considering all our available options, what would the optimal game look like? If this was our last chance to mobilize all our forces, what features would be most appealing to our gamers? What would make our customers happy? This line of thinking was the main key to development.

^Hes making it the most appealing as possible,and that roster is not appealing at all u see.and like i have said before y would he make 10(counting Zamus)Newcomers starters if there were'nt that much.

 

[SAMaine]

Heck, I can improve this roster by 20% with just one character change.

* Replace ROB with Krystal.

Instantly, the roster kicks, even if it IS overdosed with teh furry.

 

[SinisterLizard]

Heck, I can improve this roster by 20% with just one character change.

* Replace ROB with Krystal.

Instantly, the roster kicks major ***, even if it IS overdosed with teh furry.

Instead, replace R.O.B. with Ridley and it increases probably 40%. You can use Krystal to replace Wolf. He lost his chance once Snake got in. If he was going to do anything, it would be using random artillery like Snake has already been shwn do to...

 

[A Link to the Snitch]

There are several characters that appeal to very small groups of gamers. Ice Climbers, Ness, Pit, Captain Falcon, etc.

And do I need to remind you that Melee had only five unlockables total before clones?

And just because we didn't get Ridley/Isaac/Geno/Krystal/Mega Man doesn't mean we're not getting something. You must remember tha Ganondorf, Ness, Luigi, Falco, and Young Link will almost definitely get unique movesets, meaning that they will essentially BE new characters.

And ROB for Krystal would be awful. Four SF characters? At least ROB would be a surprise.

If anything would be best, ROB for Animal Crosser would be, since we have a strongly represented series for it.

Although, it would mean two series icons without a character rep.

 

[Fox McWIN]

Looking at some peoples sigs....i see there's a lot of support for wack characters. Baby Bowser or Bowser JR or w/e...wtf why the heck would u want a baby version of a character thats already in the game. Thats stupid.

 

[A Link to the Snitch]

Bowser Jr. and Baby Bowser are two different characters. The former is his son, the latter is Bowser. The former can utilize a paint brush weapon to attack.

 

[Fox McWIN]

Excuse the Foxes ignorance then. But, theres still a lot of support for dumb characters in brawl.

 

[Tyrannotaur]

Personally, I don't really understand how this roster came to be so popular and accepted. So a few people who agreed with it have leaked stuff for games before. They could have a bad source..or they could be lying. It doesn't matter how reliable they are. EVERYONE LIES. Plus nothing is proven unless their is proof. Concrete proof. This means a picture, a video or something of that matter. Even that can be phony. The only true proof we will ever have is if Sakurai or Nintendo confirm it, or when the game is released and we start getting the same info from different sources. Thats it. No prophet will get it completely correct, unless they have the game. And even then I will be skeptical.

I say take everything with a grain of salt.

Doesn't really make sense that Sakurai would have a poll for characters then not use the results. I know he will probably use the lower scoring one's for ATs..but the higher ones should become characters. Makes sense. Putting some random peripheral that no one really knows over any character on his poll is ludicrous. It's that simple. This stupid roster was just something that someone pieced together then it gained the approval of other's and snowball'd from there. I don't mind if ROB is in. But if he is taking the place of a popular character... then no.

35 is a decent number. 40-45 makes more sense.

I am saying it will be 42 selectable, 46 total movesets.
Mark my words.

 

[S2]

Why would Sakurai ignore them? The answer is simple.

None of those characters are the "most popular".

You're siting the characters who are most popular AFTER INCLUDED CHARACTERS.

Granted, I want all those characters in. But some of the new characters (Olimar, Sonic, Meta, Pit, Wario, etc) are the ones people were clamoring about for 6 years. Characters that have gotten popular since Brawl's announcement should really be considered candidates for the next game.