I scored a private interview with Brawl's creator Masahiro Sakurai at his home in Tokyo just last week (it took me a while to catch up with stuff at home, before I could post this list)... YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!! (I won a contest, held in November)
Since it was a private interview, I cannot reveal Sakurai's exact words. However, he said that if I 'watched my back' I mIGHT be able to reveal the full character roster to the general public. Personally, I had no idea what this meant so, I just assumed that it meant that I could reveal the full list. I hope I interpreted his message correctly (I don't want to break any laws or anything). Anyway, here it is:
STARTING CHARACTERS:
Mario, Link, Kirby, Pikachu, Samus, Fox, Ness, Ike, Olimar, Wario, Yoshi, Ice Climbers, Bowser, Zelda, Meta Knight, Pokemon Trainer, Lucas, Peach, DeDeDe, Villager (What Sakurai called the nameless protagonist from the Animal Crossing series), Captain Falcon, Ganondorf, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong
UNLOCKABLE CHARACTERS:
Sonic, Snake, Jigglypuff, Lucario, Luigi, Poo, Marth, Mr. Game and Watch, Geolyte, King K. Rool, Falco, Wolf, Toad, Ridley, Chibi-Robo, Sukapon, Demiru, Issac, Mega Man, Bomberman, Kamek, Black Shadow, Ray 01, Dark Samus, Krystal, Phoenix Wright
Here are the reasons Sakurai put for some of his character choices:
*Sakurai thought that the Mother series deserves more attention than it gets and thought that a thrid representative for the series would be appropriate for Brawl. He said that he chose Poo because 'His kung-fu style of fighting makes him an interesting Brawler'.
*Sakurai put Geolyte in Brawl to represent Sora as an independent branch of Nintendo, seperate from Hal Laboratory. 'I was declaring our independence', he said, with a laugh.
*Sakurai's reasoning for Toad over Bowser Jr was that it felt it wrong to put only 3 of the playable Super Mario Bros. 2 (Doki Doki Panic) characters in Brawl when he could have put in all 4. When asked about Peach's B-move he said 'It's only a puppet'.
*Sukapon and Demiru were put in to represent Japan only games from a series that wasn't already represented in a PREVIOUS Smash Bros game. (Fire Emblem and Mother characters were both in Melee)
*Issac, Ray 01, and Chibi-Robo were put in Brawl based on Sakurai's idea that Brawl should represent as wide an array of Nintendo games as possible.
*Kamek was put in Brawl because: 'Yoshi games need an opportunity to stand out from the rest of the Mario series. I figured that if Yoshi was represented twice in Brawl, then people would stop looking at him as a purely Mario character.'
*Most of the other newcomers were added to appease the fans.
Some things to clear up: (If I reveal them in full detail then... DEATH TO ME!!!!)
*Ridley is roughly the size that he was in the Melee intro.
*Ganondorf and Falco have altered movesets.
*Ness's moves focus more on his 'weapons' (bats, yo-yos, etc.) than his PSI powers.
*Dark Samus's moveset is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT than Samus's.
*Jigglypuff's Final Smash is indeed her famous 'Sing and Doodle' move.
*Mega Man's moveset is a mix of the many different 'forms' he's taken throughout the years. (original Mega Man, NT Warrior, X, Zero, etc.)
My opinions:
All in all, I was very impressed with the roster of characters. I was a little bit disappointed when Yoshi got a second rep. and Wario didn't (Wario Ware has TONS of plausible characters, Yoshi's Island has about two) but since Yoshi's been in Smash Bros. since the N64 version, I GUESS it makes sense. I thought that Geolyte and Phoenix Wright were funny choices but that's not a complaint, that's a compliment! I thought it was wise for Sakurai to represent as many series as possible and that 51 characters was the perfect number. There is one question that must be answered, though, Where the hell is Young/Wind Waker/ Majora's Mask Link?!?!?!?
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