When I played the Japanese version, I loved playing with the following 4:

Sonic (Great for building up damage/evading, but poor at getting KO's)
Pit (some decent attacks, especially the side B move and a ridiculous recovery)
Metaknight (good moves, ridiculous recovery)
Ike (strong moves, lots of KO moves, very slow, but doesn't matter on small stages)

I used to use only Link and Captain Falcon in the past iterations, but these 4 newcomers have stolen my Brawling heart. Soon I hope to have the pleasure to face all of you online (maybe by this weekend). Hope you all have a smashing good time in the meantime.

Kirby, a powerhouse in the N64 version and then nerfed in Melee, is my champ once more. I love his new tackle-A move and his smashes are nice range for his size.

I played Dedede once and he seemed pretty cool. Wouldn't want someone that slow in PvP but against AI he is pretty fun. A great guy for 100 man Melee.

Metaknight also seems cool. I wouldn't use him in a battle that I know will be hard but he's just fun to play as. His little combos and hoping around never fail to bring a smile to my face, and he is a joy to use in SSE.

I don't like Pit personally. Doesn't seem to have any good power moves and is too light for my taste.

I'm lovin me some fat penguin.

I've actually found myself liking Pikachu after playing through SSE. Now that I have Sonic though I'm loving him.

Don't own the game yet, but just got back from a friends house.

Have any of you all tried King Dee Dee Dee yet?
He is just plain awesome! Everything he does is a power move! I busted open a smash ball with one hit, and I had everybody running for cover in 3 player mayhem with friends. He is slow I know, but soooo strong!

King Dee Dee Dee and Olimar and Pikmin for me. O & P are challenging on account of the limited moveset, but so much fun to use.

BTW; Snake nor Sonic were playable; are they unlockable in the U.S. version, as I thought that they were part of the starting cast of selectable character. I was really looking forward to trying Snake.

Other I had not tried on account of not unlocked yet:

ROB
Wolf
Lucario
Sonic

I'm really into Mr. Game and Watch right now. Ike and Meta Knight are pretty solid also. I only recently got Sonic so haven't messed around with him yet.

 You can unlock Snake about 1/3 way through Subspace Emissary and Sonic doesn't get unlocked until the very end of SSE.  You can unlock them through vs. mode but that takes so much longer.

The only character you can't unlock through Subspace Emissary is Toon Link and he's (suppodly) pretty easy to unlock though for some reason I couldn't get him to unlock. 

Thanx twesterm.

Maybe to get toon link you have to beat classic mode with Link?  Worth a try.

This is my first time playing a smash game but I have enjoyed using pit and meta knight so far

 Yeah, that's what Gamefaqs said to do but that didn't work, though I did it on easy just to get it done as quickly as possible so maybe I have to turn the difficulty back up.