It's All Over!

"It" would be the wait for the official Super Smash Bros. Brawl roster. So beware this post if you didn't want that spoiled (weirdo).
That's right, folks! Or... Well, OK, it's not. But I decided I'd put off this post long enough and would go with what we've got.
Someone in Japan or something got the game early; it's totally true this time. From last night to now we've been slowly getting new videos and screenshots. Now, a lot of people are apparently upset with how the roster turned out, but we don't technically know the full roster yet. The roster so far is 34-deep, which is a pretty healthy amount, I think. This is leading people to believe that the final character selection will be the one allegedly leaked in the "35 roster." Nobody really knows where this came from, and not many people believed it, but once R.O.B. was confirmed as playable, everyone figured whoever came up with this list couldn't have guessed that. I mean, seriously; the Super Scope was one thing, but an NES peripheral as a character?! Now, just to clarify, I'm not saying that's bad. It might be kinda cool, and it was the perfect character to replace the pure crazy shock value of Game and Watch (who, by the way, is still in). I am saying that that's a pretty crazy guess right there.
This is the full roster so far:
Mario
Luigi (As if that's a surprise)
Peach
Bowser
Donkey Kong
Diddy Kong
Yoshi
Wario
Link
Zelda
Ganondorf (Not a clone I hope!!)
WW/PH Link (YES! pwn4ge!)
Samus
Pit
Ice Climbers
R.O.B. (Weird, but cool, right?)
Kirby
Metaknight
Dedede
Pikmin & Olimar
Fox
Falco (Hope he's not a clone either)
--blank--
Captain Falcon (Of course!)
Pikachu
Pokemon Trainer
Lucario (Yay; told you!)
Jigglypuff (Not one of my favorites, but still a good one and fun to beat up)
Marth (He's back!)
Ike
Ness (We can be pretty sure he's not a Lucas clone)
Lucas
Mr. Game & Watch (Yay, I loved that dude!)
Snake
Sonic
--random--
According to the alleged "leaked" 35-character roster, the "blank" is Wolf from the Star Fox series. Note that, if you look at the picture given in the link above (which is NOT fake), there isn't actually a blank there, but it's exactly where a character should go to make everyone line up by franchise.
Now, of course, the first question we should ask is, is the "35 roster" real? I'm inclined to believe it is. It's just got one more character than this does, and it's a fairly believable character. Basically, what I think is, in order of likelihood:
1. The "35 roster" is 100% true.
2. The "35 roster" is 100% true, but there are in fact more characters beyond that.
3. The "35 roster" is totally false and was comprised of lots of rumors and lucky guesses that ended up being right.
So now, the next question is, what do I think of the roster? Well, that depends on something; being whether the "clones" from the old games are still clones. It claims they are on a lot of the websites I went to, but I think that's being way to hasty. Basically, there's a picture of Falco doing the same Final Smash as Fox. OK, but what about his special moves? We still haven't seen those. There's a picture of "Toon Link" using a bow. So what about the other stuff?! The Ganondorf thing is worst of all. The ONLY pictures we have of actual gameplay with him is one of him doing his final smash, wherein he turns into Ganon as seen in Twilight Princess (I would have preferred the Ocarina of Time version, but oh well), and another where he's just standing there. I read some complaints that said he was clone because he has no sword (I admit it's a disappointment nonetheless, but there are enough guys with swords, right?), and because he has "Captain Falcon's stance." The response to the second was that, of course, that's completely ridiculous (plus it really doesn't look like his "stance" anyway), and a response to the second that I thought was particularly funny was "So what? Mario doesn't have a sword, and he sure isn't a Captain Falcon clone!" ROFL points to whoever that was.
Anyway, I'm going to make a similar list for what I think is going to happen with these, again in order of likelihood:
1: They are all semi-clones, like Luigi; they share some special moves, but not all, and have different weight/speed/etc.
2: They are barely clones at all.
3: They are pretty much total clones.
4: They're only clones in the few minor details already seen.
Of course, I'm not including Ness as one of those, as we already know Lucas's attacks are quite different (although it's been confirmed they have the same Final Smash; oh well), or at least most of them. That's how I think all of the characters will be, but I'm not certain. I'm basing this entirely off of things Sakurai-san has said; he said he didn't want clones but there were still some "semi-clones" or something like that.
Anyway, the only sad bit of news is that Mewtwo probably got the axe. It's too bad, because as a character, he was pretty neat. He was a good representation of the old-school Pokemon games that started it all (and I really mean ALL of it; the whole money-printing franchise), moreso than even Pikachu or Jigglypuff (who are pretty mascot-ly). Plus, gamewise, he was really unique. He never touched anything, not even the ground. He just floated around and tossed stuff around with his psychokinetic powers. It was pretty sw33t.
Otherwise, I could care less about the other characters who were cut. I mean, it was just Pichu and whatnot, right? Who cares?
The one thing a lot of fans were mad about was the exclusion of:
Ridley
Geno
Isaac (Apparently I wasn't alone!)
King K. Rool
But the thing is, none of them had much of a chance. Isaac (from Golden Sun) was second party (specifically Camelot), and they were only doing first-party stuff and a very small number (apparently two) of third-party ones. Still, he woulda been a great character. In fact, it was just him and Andy (from Advance Wars) who I really wanted in, but I knew I was just dreaming. Anyhow, Geno only ever appeared in Super Mario RPG, and even though he's really popular among fans, he's still pretty obscure. King K. Rool doesn't have much moveset potential (or at least that's what I think), and I think two Donkey Kong characters are enough, really, especially since they're still part of the Mario franchise in a way, which has a lot of representation now. Now, I'm glad nobody reading this (I don't think) was a huge Ridley (from Metroid by the way) supporter, because I'm just going to say it. He didn't have a chance. He made it in as a boss (allegedly fought more than once, even) and that's good enough I think. He's just not humanoid enough to me. I don't see how they could shrink him down and make him fit in with the rest of the characters, I dunno....
Anyway, the conclusion is that I'm pretty happy with the roster. If this is the full roster, and those characters are indeed total clones, I'll still be content, because the game as a whole is going to be nuts (it's packed with cool features!). If the characters aren't clones, or are semi-clones, I'll be super-duper happy. If they aren't clones at all, and/or there are more characters, it'll be mind-blowingly cool.
No matter what, there's no reason to gripe about the selection (I know, nobody who reads this blog is probably going to be they type to do that, but after reading all that depressing stuff I decided I needed to say something.). Even if you think it's horrible, it still has some really awesome new people. For instance, have you forgotten guys like Sonic? I mean, seriously.... Anyway, the game is also going to be loaded to the brim with other secret content and cool features. I say it's going to be awesome!
Also, it was rumored to be coming out early, but the same rumor said Bomberman was playable, so I doubt it. Either way, it's still coming up pretty quick here!
That concludes this post. Tomorrow's will probably be also totally related to Smash Bros., because by then I'll have total confirmation of the details I wasn't sure about, and new information and stuff like that. Regardless, there will be some stuff about the game in the next post I bet. If I find out something new tonight, I'll even put down a quick note about it when I find out, if it's not too late.

:::Source=Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII
Postity-postity-posty-post-o-post!