People have gotten their hands on the game, and the roster is the same as it was in the ESRB leak, no extra hidden characters that weren't in the photos. I'm pretty happy with it, though I do think there'll be more characters in the Wii U version so they can generate hype for its release, and those characters will be added for free into the 3DS version. What do you guys think of the roster? The final list of characters, for those not keeping track:

• Mario
• Luigi
• Peach
• Bowser
• Yoshi
• Rosalina & Luma
• Bowser Jr. (With Iggy, Larry, Lemmy, Lugwig, Morton, Roy, and Wendy costumes)
• Wario
• Mr. Game & Watch
• Donkey Kong
• Diddy Kong
• Link
• Zelda
• Sheik
• Ganondorf
• Toon Link
• Samus
• Zero Suit Samus
• Pit
• Palutena
• Marth
• Ike
• Robin (Male and Female costumes)
• Kirby
• King Dedede
• Meta Knight
• Little Mac
• Fox
• Falco
• Pikachu
• Charizard
• Lucario
• Jigglypuff
• Greninja
• Duck Hunt Dog
• R.O.B.
• Ness
• Captain Falcon
• Villager (Male and Female costumes)
• Olimar (With Alph costumes)
• Wii Fit Trainer (Female and Male costumes)
• Dr. Mario (Mario clone)
• Dark Pit (Pit clone)
• Lucina (Marth clone)
• Shulk
• Pac-Man
• Mega Man
• Sonic
• Mii (Sword-Fighter, Gunner, and Brawler types)

I think it's great. I was disappointed when it was confirmed final, but, I mean, there's not really a whole lot of other characters I really want, sooo. Duck Hunt Dog is amazing.

Not characters, but I'm more than a little upset about Onett being cut, though. And why is Corneria so small.

I've certainly got a few "wish list" characters that didn't make the cut, but I can't rightly complain about how the roster looks. In fact, I'm quite pleased with it. I'm more excited for the newcomers this time around than even what Brawl had.

Hyeepe.

Seems to me like too many options. Even in the original SSB there were characters I never used because I didn't like how they played. So with the roster being this large it seems like there are too many to choose from, and once you find "your guy" you won't branch out to the others. Just my opinion though.

@steadyingmeat: Duck Hunt Dog might be my new main. I've seen some gameplay of him and he looks insane. A bunch of his attacks summon sprites from Wild Gunman.

Definitely happy with it, even if Dr. Mario and Dark Pit specifically are super dumb.

Also you forgot the 3 types of Mii Fighters.

I think it's fine. Not my ideal list of characters, but still, it's fine. Those specific clone characters are kinda shitty though if you ask me. Maybe it's because Roy got shafted once again (I don't give a fuck what people say. I liked him.) or maybe it's because I could not possibly give less of a shit about them and their respective games, but those are about the only characters included who I just kinda go, "fuckin really?"

I think it looks solid. Still curious why Dr. Mario is back (my favorite character in Melee) and why Dark Pit exists. Either way, I'm looking forward to both versions of the game.

No Snake so FUCK THIS GAME!

I bet the day the Wii U version drops the first DLC character will be released and the Wii U will get all the DLC free.

@wess: Whoops, my bad. Certain modes don't support Miis, and I was looking at a character select screen from one of those.

Duck Hunt Dog and no less than 4 Fire Emblem characters. Honestly can't complain with that.

@jjor64: Both Mario and Pit have both had part of their move sets changed. Dr. Mario and Dark Pit play like the old versions.

Kind of disappointed that the leak was the full roster, it looked like there was space for more characters.

The clones are extremely stupid. I have no idea why they would be included - especially considering Dr. Mario and Dark Pit could have just been alternate costumes and not taken up a whole extra character slots.

Kind of weird that they would remove Ice Climbers too, they would be much more worthwhile than including a reskinned Pit.

@49th: Dark Pit isn't a reskin. As stated above, Pit's moves have been changed. Dark Pit plays like Brawl Pit.

@49th: Clones are in the game because it doesn't take much work to implement them. Sakurai once said he had a choice between putting Dedede in Melee, or putting in the five clone characters he ended up going with. Designing and animating an entirely new character is a lot more work than just taking another character and tweaking a few variables and maybe changing a move or two.

I suppose Ice Climbers have to make an appearance as DLC, right? Hm, well I'm still disappointed at their absence. Aside from that, the roster seems fine. I like the alternate costumes. Bowser Jr. looks fun to play as, but I'm an old fogey who will always be swapping him to one of the Koopalings.

Still disappointed about no Lucas, but Shulk more than makes up for that.

As someone who has no interest in this game, I still feel compelled to say that Wii Fit Lady and Duck Hunt Dog are amazing choices.

Snake... had a hard life.

They could have done Naked Snake/Punished Snake/Venom Snake/Big Boss to tie it in to MGS5.

I played him in SSBB mainly for his Up B which is insanely powerful.

Seems fine to me. Also LOL at the people who think a clone character A) is just a costume swap B) took the place of a non-clone character.

Looks pretty neat. I'm not a fan of clone characters, generally, but there seem to be fewer of them than there was in Brawl, and there's enough weirdness and variety in that roster for me to just shrug and accept the parts I don't like.

Also, no Roy, so FUCK THIS GAME.

People hating on Dr. Mario are crazy, in Melee he was the Lord King of all Pimpaliciousness.

Duck Hunt Dog looks crazy legit. I love weird ass characters that don't really fit a mold; I would go entire games in Brawl as Wario farting on people.

None of the other new characters get my juices flowing all that much, so as long as I have Game & Watch, Dr. Mario, and Captain Falcon (show me ya moves!) I'm good. I'm really happy that there's such a huge number of fighters, character diversity is the most important way for this game to get better.

People liked Dr. Mario? Now people are going to tell me Pichu wasn't totally lame. Dark Pit being Brawl Pit is not bad, just kind of boring since Pit is not that interesting to begin with. I wouldn't mind if he just had a different weapon at least.

Pichu was totally lame. He (she? it?) is worse than Pikachu in every conceivable way and even DID DAMAGE TO ITSELF WITH THUNDERBOLT.

I feel like the inclusion of Dark Pit can be attributed to Sakurai being the lead designer of Kid Icarus Uprising. If you're going to include a clone character, might as well be one from a game you made. Which reminds me, that game is on sale on the eShop. I should probably pick it up since physical copies are weirdly expensive online.

Also people who want Roy back... no. Lucina is a way better Marth clone because she doesn't come from a mediocre Fire Emblem game that only came out in Japan.

It's because it's the only way to get the 3DS stand it came with and Nintendo games just don't depreciate in value for whatever reason.

I'm pleased with the roster overall. I was never disappointed whenever the official charter trailers were revealed, I was either pleasantly surprised or stoked to see characters like Little Mac, Rosalina and Pac Man. Its a shame that certain characters like the Ice Climbers and Lucas couldn't return, but there's hope that they might return in DLC format in the near future. I know some friends who loved Snake are going to be pissed though.

The more I hear about how the clone characters have actual different moves from their normal versions (Dark pit plays like Brawl Pit instead of the new Pit for this game), the more I'm warming up to see these characters in the game.

Also at first I wasn't a fan of Bowser Jr's inclusion, but now knowing he's a unique character and has the Koopalings as alt costumes, I say welcome to Smash! One more thing, Duck Hunt Dog looks Dope!

Pichu was the Dan of Melee and yet still somehow better than Mewtwo.

The Ice Climbers! No! I will miss them. I played them a lot in both Melee and Brawl. Doesn't make sense they would go... It's a huge bummer Snake is out, but at least that makes sense.

Anyways, I like the roster. I'm glad my Brawl fave Ike is back, I didn't see that coming. Robin looks really fun to play as, and the Duck Hunt Dog is more than a pleasant surprise.

One day. One. Day. They will add a Monster Hunter fighter, and I will be happy.

one day….

Shulk is basically a Monster Hunter fighter.

I posted this in streaming comments already, but I'm genuinely curious:

Can anyone here explain the culture of this "character hype" thing to me?

Why does there seem to be such an outcry about Ridley? I mean, I get that he's a big villain in the Metroid series, but it's not like he has much characterization at all. He's basically a purple pterodactyl. Why so much rage that he wasn't included?

Why do people seem so upset about the clone characters when that's a) been a thing in the series since the first one and b) a thing in pretty much every fighting game with a roster this big?

Why do people always talk about "series reps" and how many there are? Do people really want more characters from the same 4 Nintendo franchises? Wouldn't it be more exciting to bring in, I dunno, Mystical Ninja Goemon characters? Buck Bumble? The main dude from that SNES game Gods? I dunno, it seems (to me) like anything interesting that Dixie Kong would bring to the table is probably covered by Donkey and Diddy Kong.

Not trying to be a dick, I'm not a big Smash guy and the conversation around it is insular and confuses me.

@homelessbird: Ridley is the only popular figure in the Metroid franchise other than Samus that people would think of as even vaguely appropriate for Smash Bros. But "vaguely appropriate" doesn't mean he'd make a good playable character. In any case, the main issue there is that there's a contingent of fans out there that are really, deeply attached to Ridley and just want to be able to play him in Smash Bros. despite how unworkable he is as a playable fighter. And when this contingent doesn't get what they want, they scream about it on the internet.

Also, people get upset over clones because they just don't want to see them in these games. They'd rather see Ganondorf have an original moveset more inspired by Zelda rather than be what amounts to a super-slow Captain Falcon.

Waluigi assist trophy ain't gonna cut it Nintendo.

@hailinel: Well, yeah, I get the general "no clones" sentiment. I just mean that, in light of the fact that there's like 50 characters, and that this is exactly what Street Fighter has always done, you would think that there would be a little less ire. But hey, what do I know.

And yeah, I still don't get the Ridley thing. He's not even really a character, unless I'm missing something.

I have a feeling the whole Ridley thing ends up coming out of a DeviantArt page somewhere that I really don't want to see.

It's really hard to be upset about this roster in any capacity when I'm staring at the names of four Fire Emblem characters. Everybody I play returned in this entry, and I don't really care about any of the characters that got cut, though I can sympathize with people who do.

I sort of understand the whole Ridley thing, from a series representation angle. Metroid is one of the most beloved Nintendo properties and when you compare its 2 characters to Mario's 9, Pokemon's 5, Zelda's 5, and Fire Emblem's 4, you can kind of see why some people feel Metroid got the short end of the stick. That being said, Ridley is literally like the only other person they could possibly include. I could see them having some Charizard sized Ridley character, but if they feel diminishing his size takes too much away from the character, I'm not gonna argue.

I do wish there was a guest character from Konami and Square though, because then I feel like every major Japanese developer from Nintendo's golden era would be represented. Simon Belmont, and Black Mage would be my picks.

tell me about it, guy gets shafted left and right. #Walugigate2014

I think someone is very sad that Mewtwo isn't on the roster.

@demoskinos: This is a look into the mouth of madness.

I'm very happy with the roster and can't wait to get my hands on it.

As others have said I am a little disappointed the Ice Climbers didn't make it in. There is still hope they'll be brought back as DLC characters (which I'm hoping is the case for Lucas and Mewtwo too). I'm not too fussed about it though, I liked the Ice Climbers but they weren't even close to my mains. Lucas on the other hand I was big on, but Ness is so similar I don't mind. They were both two of my mains. Although Mewtwo was pretty awful in Melee I still loved playing as him, just cause he was such a different character and I'm a huge Pokemon fan.

Also I don't really have a problem with the clones, as has been mentioned above their move sets are different enough and go back to the older games. Also, people might hate me for this but I'm quite glad Snake didn't make it back. Although he was an interesting character in how different he was, I never felt like he really fit into the Smash Bros. atmosphere. I also found him incredibly frustrating to play against.

Anyways, very happy with this roster.

My only complaint is that there's no Snake.

@demoskinos: I want to meet this person. It's rare to see that kind of whirling madness expressed with such precision and clarity of language.

@demoskinos: It's always good to be reminded how... emotional certain contingents of the Smash fanbase can get about their character choices.

@demoskinos said:

I think someone is very sad that Mewtwo isn't on the roster.

I read this whole post in this voice.

I really wanted to see King. K. Rool in there but I like the line up.

@demoskinos said:

I think someone is very sad that Mewtwo isn't on the roster.

That is absolutely fucking nuts if that guy is serious.

Also, in response to the original question:

I was going to get the 3DS version of the game regardless of the roster, so I have no real thoughts other than a bit of confusion as to why Ice Climbers were removed. They felt like main-stays after Melee since they were also featured in Brawl, but eh, whatever. Pikachu all the way.