I think if Nintendo keeps an eye on the process, and supervises it to make it sure major changes arent made, the result should be a very competent sw at the very least, the Namco guys involved are very experienced and have worked on major franchises like Tekken and Tales, so im pretty sure they are going to do great job.

Sakurai's response to people dissing Namco:

"Knock off looking down on them with narrow-minded thinking."

http://www.gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=179852

I like it. Someone needs to tell those saps to stfu.

im glad he said that. Also all the developers they have said that are working on it from namco are very talented. Namco should be great at these types of games imo. 

Excelent news! there are tons of benefits of having someone like Namco Bandai helping with this project :D

1) Expertise in making HD games (something Nintendo doesnt have... yet),this is reassuring for me because now I know they will make a beatiful game AND the will bring it more quickly!

2) A lot of knowledge from this developers, masters in the genre, with their own fighting games (Tekken and Soul Calibur)

3) An oportunity to have a competent online part of the game, they have already released figthing games in the HD twins with great online modes, and I am expecting that here.

4) A breath of fresh air, its the 4th installment in the series, so having someone like them helping with the project could lead to new and exciting things

5) Namco characters! Specially the one I am looking for is Pacman :), nut we could have someone from the Tales of series or one of their fighters :D!

:D

I hope this means Lloyd!

LLOYD!

The Tales team can, it's "only" the producer and the director of the series that is involved in Smash, and as such he han do both things. The thing is that when you do 2 things at the same time you can make mistakes that otherwise you wouldn't.

But I'm not so sure about the Tekken team. The people involved in Smash are the main development team. They are the guys that make the games, so if Namco wants to do another Tekken game, it will be done by the B team.

I hope there will be different versions of the same characters. Like how in the DBZ games Super sayian goku is a different character from super sayian 3 goku. I would love for there to be a MM Link as well as Link and young link. And super sunshine mario, normal mario, and sports mario.

I also wonder if the story mode will have more depth. Maybe some added rpg elements. If anything I hope the storyline is a little better not that it was a huge selling point in brawl but the fighting system is already fully established so why not add some more story elements? Of course it would be fully optional like in brawl and not as tedious.