I'm pretty sure no one has to worry about Ness, he's one of the original 12 he should/must be in the game. And i hope that the next stage we get is a big one. I ended up playing on 3 stages mostly, Hryule Temple, Corneria, and Final Destination for the simpicity, but even that was medium sized.

I'd like the stages to go like this:

40 "Character Stages" - there are about 40 characters so there would be 40 stages for each of them; 15 of them are big, 15 of them are small and 10 of them are wierd (Flat Zone, Ice Climbers Stage) 

10 "Smash Stages" - They would be like Final Destination and Battlefield, basically randomly generated stages.

god I hate Flat Zone...it's probably the smallest stage there is.

@rickthestick - Yeah, based on that I'm pretty confident he'll be in there, but I just don't like that they haven't announced it yet.

@BenKenobi88 - Agreed, stages like FlatZone, the classic Mario stage (Mushroom Kingdom 2) and the F-Zero stage with the cars coming right at you are rough because you don't get the chance to really work your way back onto the stage with your jumps and B-up move. You can get knocked off with literally no damage % if you just stand in the wrong place and get caught with the wrong move.

I like Flatzone. I like how the characters appear to be 3-D, but they are 2-D. I do hate how close the sides are and that you can't really zoom in at all!

With every installment of SSB we've gotten further and further away from when Earthbound was released. Now, Mother 3 was just released in Japan last year, but Ness wasn't in it. I'm sure he'll be in SSBB, but the he'll be a hidden character, not a primary character anymore.

Hey... what?! MOTHER 3 WAS RELEASED?!

In Japan on the Gameboy Advance, IIRC.

EDIT: Wikipedia is your friend!  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_3 

pitfall mode:

items set to very high.

pitfall + bob-omb + banana + motion sensor bomb + freezie (or not) + Rumble Falls = very fun!

^_^;

I want to see a stage based on Phendrana Drifts from Metroid Prime, with the big Thardus in the background throwing big rocks on the stage and sometimes rolling on us. Please Sakurai !!!!! I'm hoping you read forum like this one !!!!!

My favourite stage in Melee was actually Pokemon Stadium. I just loved the way it changed throughout the fight and you had to adapt quickly. I hated the Temple stage. It was way too big and you could knock someone from one end to the other without the dude falling out. People just used to run and hide all the time. it was pretty annoying. Hyrule castle in the first one was good and I think it was the most played in my house at the time.