Sakurai let the toon-cat out of the bag and revealed that Toon Link is joining the Smash Bros. roster again.

Screens:

In other news, I went ahead and added all the previously released official images to the wiki gallery earlier today. You can now feast your eyes upon them sorted by various criteria (3DS/Wii U screens, artwork, character art).

Man fuck that. Clones are back then.

I would prefer more new characters, or at least different takes on returning characters.

That makes sense given the release of Wind Waker HD. I just hope he plays differently enough. Give him some boat-based attacks or something.

@themasterds: Toon Link doesn't play like Link, though.

The fact that they continue to use the name "Toon Link" angers me greatly.

@def said:

This image makes it seem like it's just a regular ass human wearing a giant Link head.

@probablytuna said:

@def said:

This image makes it seem like it's just a regular ass human wearing a giant Link head.

Fuuuuck. Now I can't not see that.

Mascot Link.

Kinda weird to be announcing clone-types at this juncture, when there's already so many questions in the air about the roster at large.

Ah well.

@mariachimacabre said:

@probablytuna said:

@def said:

This image makes it seem like it's just a regular ass human wearing a giant Link head.

Fuuuuck. Now I can't not see that.

Mascot Link.

Hell, I like the idea of that waaaaayy more.

I'd like it if Young Link came back and pressing down on the right analogue uses the Goron, Zora and Scrub masks. Fierce Deity link would be the super smash.

That's actually a really neat idea. It'd function similar to Red in Brawl but you could still play as Link.

Oh good, I thought I was only going to have one Link to play as.

When I read Toon Link I thought the Toon Army.

Is it a clone if he plays very differently (at least in Brawl)?

@def: I'd say yes, because that's the way it usually is with clones/palette swaps across the genre.

Though it definitely gets kinda fuzzy here. I'd say there's pretty few shared assets between them at this point, and since they're announcing him so early, I wouldn't be surprised if that means they're changing more of his core fundamentals.

Not the most exciting reveal for me, either way. Gameplay aside, I think it's kinda funny that we're getting a "second Link" when they're supposedly cracking down on the roster size.

He looks damn amazing with those graphics though.

I really hope this means we get Wind Waker Ganon this time. He'd be way more interesting than OoT Ganon.

Last time we got TP ganon and that design is ever worse. The character himself was poorly designed are very bad competitively. I am curious what Toon Link's moveset shall be like. Project M showed it possible to make Toon Link rather different from Link. The PM fsmash for instance is way better.

I was almost impressed. I expected Toon Link though. You know, that guy.

I like Wind Waker Link, I'm ok with this.

Can't wait to see what other fighters are returning to this game. Don't care about newcomers. Those are never the exciting announcements.

You are objectively wrong because of Mega Man.

@jacksukeru: (that's the point)

@theht: Yellow-spotted octopus pancakes.

Why do they keep rendering Toon Link with realistic textures? Sheeeeeit, Nintendo, get your head outta your ass.

I'm getting really worried about the lack of a King Dedede announcement.

On the cusp of sanity hoping it comes soon.

You have many many many many many more months with daily updates for that to possibly happen. :)

Now we just need the Link who says "well excuuuuuse me, Princess" which I thought I made up for a moment there.

Cool, Toon Link is back, but this time as a starter? Guess they're giving him the Luigi treatment.

Wondering who the next "new character" will be and when that character will be revealed? Calling it, next new character is a Nintendog!

With the reduced roster he seemed like one of the most obvious characters to get rid of. They haven't announced anything I find exciting for this game yet.

Captain N, por favor!

I would also argue that Toon version is the better of the Links in Brawl.

I bet he will come back for sure. Meta Knight as well.