26th August 2014, 2:34 PM
I guess I just disagree on that count, but on with the news.
Meta Knight's in. Just got confirmed recently on the site.
The bigger news though is an apparent leak. Now, a lot of the time these leaks will consist of edited character roster images or editing in some character into a still image of the game. This one's different though. There's actually video of the game in action with these characters, taken on "shaky cam" hovering above a 3DS. Seems pretty legit there, so I'm going with it, although unfortunately the video that proved it to me has been taken off Youtube.
Well, the roster from that video is interesting, to say the least. Most of the characters I listed above that had no confirmation one way or the other have that now. Ice Climbers are gone. They were somewhat awkward, and the way they talked about Rosalina did suggest she was intended as a "replacement" for a "team" character. Some suggest the Ice Climbers would have pushed the 3DS too far, but that's silly. The 3DS is essentially a portable Gamecube with more RAM, and if the Gamecube could handle 4 Ice Climber teams, so can the 3DS (for that matter, it can handle 4 Rosalina teams, so there's that).
Aside from Ice Climbers, Snake seems completely absent as well. That's a shame in my opinion, and it basically means Nintendo doesn't have anything worked out with Konami this time around. It also means no Simon Belmont. Numerous "clones" are missing in action. No Ike, No Lucas, and no Wolf this time around. Oddly, an old clone seems to be coming back from Melee, Dr. Mario. (Considering how minor his differences were, it's a bit of a lame addition unless he's really changed this time around.) Beyond that, Ness, Ganondorf, Jigglypuff, ROB, Wario, and Mr. Game & Watch seem to be coming back. That's good, although Ganondorf himself is a clone, he's important enough to the Zelda universe to merit a character anyway (hopefully he's even more differentiated from Captain Falcon now).
For brand new characters, where the video really told all, there seems to be Bowser Jr. (in a koopa clown car, which looks adorable), Shulk (from Xenoblade, the game Weltall NEEDS TO PLAY, but won't because the name confuses and infuriates him), and lastly the dog from Duck Hunt. Yeah, that last one is really out there, but makes a sort of weird sense when you consider a defunct accessory (ROB) and a character that was never even a single character (Game & Watch) got to be in the series.
I'd say the lineup is pretty solid. Of course I'll add the caveat that it could have been faked, but considering the videos, it would have to have been a very masterful fake indeed. I'd say this crosses the line enough to say it's more likely that this is real than that they actually hacked entire levels and uniquely animated unique characters into Brawl (plus adding the black outline) and then hijacked the video feed into a 3DS's screen.
So that leaves one last little detail. There's 6 extra spaces total on that roster sheet, all empty. That COULD just be how it was set up, but considering how easy it'd be to set up the rows to eliminate most of those empty gaps, I'd say that means there's room for yet more characters. My hypothesis is that the new Smash Bros. actually will be set up for DLC. This would be the first game in the series released on systems that actually properly support patching and DLC (the Wii... kinda did? Not really though...), so it's certainly a possibility worth considering. They're already adding in DLC for Mario Kart 8, so I believe that their work won't be done just because the game's complete. I think we can expect those empty spots to be filled with yet more characters in the form of DLC.
That's a weird feeling. Even seeing the full roster in a complete game won't be enough to kill fan hope of this or that character showing up in the game. That'll be something.
Meta Knight's in. Just got confirmed recently on the site.
The bigger news though is an apparent leak. Now, a lot of the time these leaks will consist of edited character roster images or editing in some character into a still image of the game. This one's different though. There's actually video of the game in action with these characters, taken on "shaky cam" hovering above a 3DS. Seems pretty legit there, so I'm going with it, although unfortunately the video that proved it to me has been taken off Youtube.
Well, the roster from that video is interesting, to say the least. Most of the characters I listed above that had no confirmation one way or the other have that now. Ice Climbers are gone. They were somewhat awkward, and the way they talked about Rosalina did suggest she was intended as a "replacement" for a "team" character. Some suggest the Ice Climbers would have pushed the 3DS too far, but that's silly. The 3DS is essentially a portable Gamecube with more RAM, and if the Gamecube could handle 4 Ice Climber teams, so can the 3DS (for that matter, it can handle 4 Rosalina teams, so there's that).
Aside from Ice Climbers, Snake seems completely absent as well. That's a shame in my opinion, and it basically means Nintendo doesn't have anything worked out with Konami this time around. It also means no Simon Belmont. Numerous "clones" are missing in action. No Ike, No Lucas, and no Wolf this time around. Oddly, an old clone seems to be coming back from Melee, Dr. Mario. (Considering how minor his differences were, it's a bit of a lame addition unless he's really changed this time around.) Beyond that, Ness, Ganondorf, Jigglypuff, ROB, Wario, and Mr. Game & Watch seem to be coming back. That's good, although Ganondorf himself is a clone, he's important enough to the Zelda universe to merit a character anyway (hopefully he's even more differentiated from Captain Falcon now).
For brand new characters, where the video really told all, there seems to be Bowser Jr. (in a koopa clown car, which looks adorable), Shulk (from Xenoblade, the game Weltall NEEDS TO PLAY, but won't because the name confuses and infuriates him), and lastly the dog from Duck Hunt. Yeah, that last one is really out there, but makes a sort of weird sense when you consider a defunct accessory (ROB) and a character that was never even a single character (Game & Watch) got to be in the series.
I'd say the lineup is pretty solid. Of course I'll add the caveat that it could have been faked, but considering the videos, it would have to have been a very masterful fake indeed. I'd say this crosses the line enough to say it's more likely that this is real than that they actually hacked entire levels and uniquely animated unique characters into Brawl (plus adding the black outline) and then hijacked the video feed into a 3DS's screen.
So that leaves one last little detail. There's 6 extra spaces total on that roster sheet, all empty. That COULD just be how it was set up, but considering how easy it'd be to set up the rows to eliminate most of those empty gaps, I'd say that means there's room for yet more characters. My hypothesis is that the new Smash Bros. actually will be set up for DLC. This would be the first game in the series released on systems that actually properly support patching and DLC (the Wii... kinda did? Not really though...), so it's certainly a possibility worth considering. They're already adding in DLC for Mario Kart 8, so I believe that their work won't be done just because the game's complete. I think we can expect those empty spots to be filled with yet more characters in the form of DLC.
That's a weird feeling. Even seeing the full roster in a complete game won't be enough to kill fan hope of this or that character showing up in the game. That'll be something.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)