[QUOTE="D";127253756]- Putting clones in the game that aren't Luigi. Back in Melee, Young Link even could have had his own weapons and slightly different moves since he had Majora's Mask already out and that could have given that game some good shine and attention. Ganondorf was just lazy, there's no logical way to defend this AT ALL. What's worse is his moveset was based on a character that he has NOTHING to do with in the slightest. As much as I like Roy (one of my mains), he could have been an alt for Marth with special properties or something if it arsed him that much to give him his own moveset. The way Pichu was handled was unnecessary. Jigglypuff was already the "joke" character but she was still effective in the right hands. I might be speaking for myself only but Pichu could have been left out. Dr. Mario should have been an alt as well with cosmetic changes like the pills and sfx. Nothing more. Falco could have gotten a different moveset that could have been a little creative with the blasters or maybe some other types of weapons. Luigi is the only one I feel deserves a pass as a "clone" because him and Mario are siblings and kinda share the same "discipline" anyway and this is reflected in all of their games.[/QUOTE]
If there wouldn't have been clones in Melee, we wouldn't have gotten the same amount of characters, as you seem to think. The Melee roster would've been made up of 20 characters (counting Sheik here), maybe 21 if Sakurai would've added Dedede instead of the 6 clones as he planned.
The reason why clone characters exist is to expand the roster with little workload, as the base animations etc. are already there. Yes, Falco, Ganon, Young Link etc. could have gotten a different moveset, but if you believe they would've been in Melee in that case, you're delusional. The Melee development team had the option of making a game with 6 more clones, or a game with 6 less characters.
- Removing characters. This applies to any "fighting genre" game even outside of Smash Bros as far as I'm concerned. When I think of a game, and a sequel to said game, I think of IMPROVEMENTS...adding things in to expand the player's experience with the game and make it different and better from the LAST, worthy of being called a sequel. To me, unless whatever you are removing from the game was a broken feature or something that was universally disliked, there is NO fair* reason to remove characters. *Some companies make them paid/free DLC later, it sucks but it happens*
During development, there's this thing called "time restraints". The characters that were cut from Brawl all were clones - so you actually got part of your wish! - except for Mewtwo. And why Mewtwo was cut we don't know exactly, but it most certainly was a mixture of having little time to implement Sonic into the game, as well as other aspects (Sakurai mentioned in an interview that the Pokemon company is difficult to work with because they want their characters represented in a very certain way). Mewtwo was not intended to be removed up until the very last minute, as the amount of leftover data for him suggests, unlike most of the other characters that were cut much earlier into development. Overall, Brawl updated Young Link visually and decloned the kept clones further, and replaced 3 of Melee's clones (Doc, Pichu and Roy) and 1 unique character (Mewtwo) with a total amount of 16 characters, out of which none are as cloney as the cut clones, and the 2 new characters usually complained about being clones (Wolf and Lucas) are actually extremely unique in their gameplay.
If you think that's a downgrade, then I'm sorry, but that's a pretty stupid way of looking at this.
Also, if the rumors are true and Squirtle, Ivysaur and Snake are cut, then I don't see why you would think that a travesty either - Snake was a guest character from a 3rd party company. These characters
always are in danger of not making any future rosters of fighting games. It's the same everywhere else. That's why they're "guests".
And Squirtle and Ivysaur are logical cuts. If they were kept in, we would have 5 gen 1 Pokemon, with only 2 other gen Pokemon as counterweight. Squirtle and Ivysaur also are not particularly popular within the Pokemon franchise, and gen 1 already is represented by 3 of its most popular mascots, so why bother adding 2 more semi- to notreally-popular ones? It's also likely that bringing in Squirtle and Ivysaur would remove 2 other (non-clone) characters from the roster instead.
Now, I do understand some people will say that clones don't impact the state of development due to how its perceived "easy" to implement them with very little work other than a model change and minor cosmetics...therefore not "hurting" any other character's chances of being included or removed, but at the same time for people that don't have this type of foresight, at least let us BELIEVE that having clones in the game doesn't hurt anyone else's chances. What I mean is instead of giving them their own spot on the character select screen, just include them in with the character they are "cloned" from, ala the "placebo effect."
That would be a stupid change. So if I wanted to play Falco or Ganondorf, I'd have to pick Fox/Falcon and scroll a billion times until I get that character, who is actually entirely different to play
As stated before, most people (especially casuals) wouldn't readily see the aforementioned truth without a bit of poking and prodding concerning clones but anyone who plays each iteration of the game and sees additions/removals in the roster can't help but to feel perhaps their character was either replaced or whatever the case may be.
No character that was cut was replaced. With Dr. Mario coming back, we haven't seen any character who plays remotely close to Pichu or Mewtwo, and Lucina's slightly different from Roy in how their sword mechanics work, so even Roy would arguably have a place. So who has been
replaced, then?