| BasilZero said: Keep Ike, Marth, Diddy Kong, Olimar and R.O.B. - boot the rest though imo. Less clones = more original characters plox. |
On the contrary, removing all of the clones would perhaps result in one new original character - clones are far easier to make and balance, so they can include a lot more of them.
Personally, I'd rather see it handled in exactly the opposite manner, and have clone characters actually STANDARD in the game... to the point that every character (or nearly every character) comes with its own clone.
A lot of characters have a natural choice for clone. Obviously, existing clones work for this - Mario/Dr Mario, Link/Toon Link, etc. And some are pretty natural, like Bowser/BowserJr, Peach/Rosalina, and Donkey Kong/DKJr. But with a bit of creativity, you can come up with clever clones for just about all of the characters. For instance, Ice Climbers/Mario+Luigi (as per the Mario & Luigi RPG series), or Mr Game+Watch/Paper Mario, or Ike/Shulk, or Little Mac/Alex Kidd (yeah, I went there). Villager/Farmer (Harvest Moon), Wii Fit Trainer (Female)/Wii Fit Trainer (Male), and Mega Man/Proto Man are obvious options, too. Note that clones aren't just alt costumes - they change traits like speed, weight, power, etc, as well as modifying behaviour of moves (like Fox's vs Falco's blaster).
The only characters I'd drop entirely would be ROB, Wolf, Snake, and perhaps King Dedede. ROB due to, in my opinion, not really fitting in with the rest of the characters, Wolf because he's a forgettable rival character (and we don't need three characters with practically identical movesets all from the same game), Snake because Konami have failed to bring Metal Gear to Wii or Wii U, and King Dedede because... well, I just don't "feel" it with that character (but that one's entirely personal preference).
