SMASH: No Hopers

Naturally I didn't just fall upon my fifty characters in one attempt, I considered a few others and had to trim the fat where applicable (and speaking of trimming the fat, this one gets a bit wordy). Of course I'd be more than happy to play as most of these characters, I just prioritised other people for other reasons.

Mii: I was so convinced Miis would appear in Brawl I made a few new ones just for the occasion. When Mr. Game & Watch was revealed as the final unlockable character in Melee (no matter what method you use he's always last) I thought it was a great surprise. The very first Nintendo character as the last unlockable character. So then I wondered how they could top that. The last character? Not an easy feat when the company's still going but then I thought Mii was appropriate since it represented the new era of Nintendo gaming (and Miis are still in use now.)
Other people who have suggested them married it with customisable movesets. I didn't agree with that and felt they were better with moves based on the sports they take part in with only customisable appearances. Because of their simple designs I used the Mario Baseball wooden puppet body to give them a little more character. Eventually I thought there were more deserving characters; It wasn't that I wanted them, but I expected them.

Waluigi: Why do I keep drawing Waluigi in this awkward position!? This guy's a bit of a fan favourite, so much so that his assist trophy reveal came with an apology that he wasn't playable. I even got as far as a moveset for this guy: Whiskered Eggplant (poisonous projectile) Stomp (from Brawl) Twist Dunk (swimming through the air) Whirluigi (to cement the Luigi connection) and Waluigi Reign (from a Mario Party e-reader game, he pulls a lever and hammers fall from the sky) and not one of these moves resorts to giving him a bloody tennis raquet! Now I love Waluigi and the fact that he exists in this weird limbo of never actually being in a proper game, but it's precisely this reason that convinced me to remove him, since he's not as deserving as some others.

Robotnik: As I said in Pac-Man's entry, I treated third party as one category and so only added one new character but if I was going to include a second Sonic representative it would be Professor Eggman himself. So many people were saying "Well now that Sonic is confirmed Tails will definitely be playable!" which is ridiculous because I don't think he even has enough abilities to make a serviceable fighter and Robotnik is the only other character to star in the first Sonic game while fulfilling the "one hero then one villain" rule I tried to implement. He would play like Tron Bonne in Marvel vs. Capcom and move around in an egg walker, which is something nobody else has done in Smash and is accurate to his character.
(I had to draw this one recently and as I was doing it was pretty pleased with it for no reference but now I realise I was mistaken.)

Kamek: I tried to add one character to every franchise and F-Zero and Yoshi are the only two from the first Smash game that have never had a second character. For F-Zero I recruited Samurai Goroh but Yoshi was troublesome. Unlike Donkey Kong and Wario the Yoshi series is still heavily intertwined with the Mario series so there aren't many characters who originated in the Yoshi series and are at all relevant. Evenetually I settles on Kamek because he was a recurring villain but modified him with design elements from Super Princess Peach and a Baby Bowser clasp to try to individualise him. However, because Yoshi is still very much a part of the Mario franchise his ancillary cast member was one of the first to go.

Deoxys: In my Brawl prediction picture: [link] I suggested Deoxys as a new playable Pokémon. The reason was that since Mewtwo he seemed to be the only unique monster with a suitable body type for a fighter and I thought his form changing would have been a nice mechanic. Of course, since we're a long way from those old monsters now it seemed very unlikely for him to get a look in and so was excised.

Bomberman: I think this was less of an actual prediction and more me wondering how I'd draw Bomberman for this project. That said, the fact that the Turbografx was in the first wave of Virtual Console consoles led me to believe that Hudson had a very strong working relationship with Nintendo, giving the Bomber a good chance. But now that Hudson are no more, who can say for sure? Maybe Konami will let him out for his swansong.

Mr. Peepers?: At least, some say that's his name. The Duck Hunt Dog was a character I saw on a few fan rosters and I originally dismissed it as lunacy. But then I thought about it and I don't know about Japan but in the West this guy has a significant role in classic Nintendo gaming lore, so why not? We've got more villains and more females, why not more quadrupeds? It's a character I keep flip-flopping about but I think eventually I just didn't have the extra room for him.