hoaxes hoaxes, while i still believe sonic is in the game, stuff like this gets me kind of angry. But whatever. This was interesting, i wonder what else we could pull up from closer examination of other pics. This wasn't real, but there might be secrets in others...

Nice hoax. Kinda like the formation in the clouds that we imagined in the emmisary vid. If Sonic is in here he will be revealed just before the release of the game. And why haven't we got yet a Snake update?

I figure Snake will be saved for late as well.  I think Sakurai will do him near last.  The most interesting thing is, if the next newcomer update is Lucas then it confirms that one guys' claims almost beyond a shadow of a doubt.  If it's not Lucas then it confirms he's full of it.

Right, but according to many rumors Lucas was going to replace Ness in SSBM originally but they decided not to at the last minute.  The Franklin Badge was in previous games, but take a look: http://mother3.fobby.net/2007/08/10/38/#more-38

Starmen seems to think Mother 3 is going to be very prominant in Brawl, and if anyone knows they do. 

Oh I'll go nuclear if Ness isn't in this. Starmen.net is the ultimate EB fan-site (an incredibly committed group of guys), but I'm not sure they're confirming that Ness is out. He could just as easily be there next to whatever character they use from Mother 3 (Lucas, Flint, whoever)... Surely they must realize that most people outside of Japan will not be able to appreciate the new character from Mother 3, and I would expect them to include Ness to sort of bridge the gap a little...

And why not have more than one EB character in the game? As I've mentioned, Hal Laboratories put out Earthbound, and cared about it enough to include Ness in the very first game, among 11 Nintendo uber-stars. I'd just be rather shocked not to find him in this, that's all. And rather pissed too.

Well there are a couple of problems with that.  For one thing, Ness and Lucas are pretty much identical characters, and making their movesets differ would be very difficult.  Another thing is Hal is not making Brawl, it's being made by Sakurai and a team of specialized Nintendo developers.  Again, I'm not SURE that Ness is out, but there is a chance, and you may want to go ahead and prepare for that chance so that you'll be less disappointed if he is out.

Bye Bye Luigi?

Actually, I somewhat fear for my Jigglypuff. He needs to sing more to get back in the public eye.

I thought jigglypuff is a girl. Only Final Fantasy can pull of the transgender confusion.

Jiggly is a girl.