Smash Bros.- What's Next?

To prepare you for the release of this year's most anticipated game, Smash Bros. Brawl, Installation 04 will be bringing you an entire month of features and updates. Smash Bros. releases on February 10th in the U.S. (a mere month away) and the 24th in Japan (just 13 days away!).

Today's Update: What's Next?

The question on everybody's mind has to be "What more could they possibly include in the game?" A good question indeed. Well, there's plenty of things. The Dojo is constantly updating with little things here and there: unlockable trinkets, modes, items, music, control schemes, etc. That's all fine and good (Don't think those are insignificant- they're not. Subspace Emissary and the level editor look especially cool.), but what everybody wants to know, the real meat and bones of the game, are the characters and stages. Currently the roster of characters stands at 24- that's one less than the last installment. Chances are, Nintendo won't stop there. There's still half the Melee cast yet to be announced, and with a roster rumored at around 50 characters, there's still a lot to be announce. And so, where does that leave us? We can only speculate. And speculate we shall!

So, what are the chances that any given fighter will return? Let me break it down for you. For starters, I believe that clone characters are a thing of the past. That means young Link, Dr. Mario, and Pichu are out. I personally believe that Starfox and Zelda could use more characters. Ganondorf has a pretty high chance of returning with a new moveset. Falco would be a nice addition if he could be given his own attacks. It would be easy to give Ganon his own moves, but I'm not so sure about Falco. Then there's Marth and Roy. If either return, Marth has a better chance. Marth has been a recurring character in several Fire Emblem games, whereas Roy was included in Melee as a publicity stunt. Around the release of Melee, a new Fire Emblem game was released staring Roy. For instance, Ike is a character from recent Fire Emblem game. Roy hasn't been in one since.

Next, are the unannounced original characters. Let me say this first: Captain Falcon will be in. Stop your bickering. There is a 99.9% chance that he'll return. There is obviously a good, and probably awesome, reason they haven't announced him yet. Be patient. Ness is out. He has officially been replaced by Lucas. Get over it. Jigglypuff. Who cares. No one uses Jigglypuff anyway, but just because she(?) has been in since the beginning, she'll probably be back. Now for the toughies: Mewtwo and Game & Watch. They've got about as much chance as the Ice Climbers, who are already in. I hope they include these two again because they were Melee's most original characters. Finally, there's Luigi. He'll probably return sporting the Poltergeist 3000. He's Luigi- you can't seriously just include half of the Mario Bros. can you?

So lets recap the chances of characters returning:

Young Link- very low (unless of course they do something totally different with him)
Dr. Mario- very low (maybe just an alternate costume)
Pichu- very low (he may already be gone...)
Ganondorf- moderately high (with a new moveset)
Falco- moderately low (hey, if they could make him original...)
Marth- moderate
Roy- moderately low
Captain falcon- extremely high (no chance he's not in)
Ness- out (officially replaced by Lucas)
Jigglypuff- fairly high
Mewtwo- moderate
Game & Watch- moderate
Luigi- high

Well there you have it. Next time, I'll tackle what new characters could be included. Stay tuned.