Ever since last week's surprise revelation of Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Nintendo Wii fans have been brainstorming about which characters should be added to the roster. Now that Solid Snake has shattered the "Nintendo only" rule of character inclusion there's been quite a wish list of first and third party characters building up on fan forums and around water coolers. I've heard all kinds of suggestions ranging from Kid Icarus's Eggplant Wizard to Street Fighter's Ryu to Devil May Cry's Dante. There's an important point that I think people are missing, however, and that is that the Smash Bros. series celebrates gaming's top #1 all stars.
I believe that a prerequisite to joining the fight be that characters appearing in the game must be evergreen characters; that is, they must be part of a long-running popular franchise. Using flash-in-the-pan characters cheapens the timelessness of the game. Newbies such as Katamari Damacy's Prince and Super Monkey Ball 's AiAi need not apply just yet. Eggplant Wizard is still too obscure to stand on his own. Hell, we're lucky we're getting Pit from Kid Icarus at all. Ryu has the background, but could he adapt to the wacky Smash Bros. world? If Snake can blend in, then Ryu certainly has a chance.
Speculation being what it is, here's a sample of who I'd like to see appear in Super Smash Bros. Brawl:
- Mega Man. Not X or Zero or MegaMan.EXE or ZX or any of the other spin-off characters. I want the classic original Mega Man, complete with pea shooter and ability to copy other characters' powers.
- Sonic the Hedgehog. Standing on his own, too, without Tails or Knuckles or the other two dozen Sonic characters. Give him his spin jump and homing attack for starters.
- Pac-Man. We can't invite timeless characters without asking Pac-Man to participate. Can't you just picture the other characters turning blue and running away from a hungry Pac-Man?
- Melee's Young Link replaced with Wind Waker's Link. It would make for a nice contrast with Twilight Princess's Link (who is already confirmed to be in Brawl).
- FAWFUL HAS FURY!
No matter which characters you're backing, here's hoping that all our Smash Bros. dreams come true.
