I would say it is possible for Ness to be in as a costume change for Lucas. Look at the electric move in that pic, it looks VERY similar to Ness's move. And looking at Sakurai's comments, he is trying to get people hyped more for Lucas in hopes he might be stronger. Lucas IS the character, whether Ness is a simple costume change is yet to be seen, but he isn't going to have two characters that are similar in looks and performance from a franchise that hasn't been represented in over 10 yrs in most territories. Or do you think he was lying about No Clone Characters.

he isnt going to replace his favorite character, that showed up in both SSB aswell as SSBM, it just doesn't make any sense

I guess we'll see, but I see no hard evidence to suggest that he wouldn't based both on this new update, the history of the Earthbound's game releases, Sakurai's past comments, and widespread rumors about Lucas replacing NESS. There was never any rumors or indication that Ness AND Lucas would be in Brawl. Just rumors that Ness was being replaced by Lucas and hopes from fans that Ness would return. The fact that an off the wall rumor like the replacement even existed is enough to suggest it might be true, plus it makes sense from a Japanese standpoint, but now that Lucas IS in the game, pretty much confirms it.

Think about it, Why would he mention NESS in an update that is rumored to be his replacement, unless he IS the replacement???? Why not just announce NESS first? Has he mentioned other characters in other updates with this kind of ambiguity? NO. This is a special case because he doesn't want to hit fans TOO hard.

I mean, come on!  They look almost the exact same except this kid is blonde with a different colored shirt. lol.

and yea.. btw.. lucas has different attacks as opposed to ness

like.. we have mario, why isnt luigi announced yet? huh ? huh?

ness will get back

Luigi HAS to be in it. He is one of Nintendo's signature characters. He is probably going to be the only character that will be similar in the game, but now that Mario has his FlUDD, I'm sure that Luigi will get his Vacuum.

well then, Ness HAS to be in it ;) he represents the total earthbound series

Lucas looks awesome, first of all. That hair = badass.

Anyways, like it or not, I doubt Lucas AND Ness will be in the game. It's such a tiny niche franchise, and the two characters are pretty similar. I bet Lucas will have a Ness "costume" with Ness-colored shirt and (maybe) hair.

Sakurai is just fooling with us with that statement about Ness, though. I don't think that proves things one way or another.

lol. to the few Americans who actually got to play it back in old days. Having Ness in any of the Earthbound series makes just as much sense as bringing Pitt back from Kid Icarus. They never really had to do it at all. But Sakurai loves his old school. The industry is a different world these days though, and that cannot be ignored. Sakurai still has a game to make no matter how loyal he is to game fans.

yea well i imported it back then, and i really loved the series, never played mother 3 so i really have no info on lucas..

I played a ROM on the PC of it.  It was pretty quirky but really good.  I was looking forward to sequals and was watching that canned N64 game for a while.  Too bad Nintendo hasn't given much Earthbound love to the American audience.

The main thing I find interesting about the guy who "revealed" all that info back then, other than his accuracy, is that he talked about "franchise representation." The only people who would be concerned with franchise representation in those terms would be people associated with the game. Everyone else just wants to know what characters are in it, not that a franchise is represented for the gaming audience.