Why when the hyper beam is fiering are all the characters getting blown off the stage? Isn't a pokemon only supossed to hurt other people and not the person who threw it?

 look closely, pikachu didnt get hit

Yeah, you can always change frequencies, but I generally like to play on the "standard" settings. 
I mean, I did my fair share of pokeball only matches, hammer only matches, and warp star only matches (along with other combinations I can't think of at the moment), but I usually play with all items set to the same frequency.

Gah, I'm tired, and everything I write after the above ends up sounding stupid.  Like I said, it's just a possibility, and it's not like this is a make-it or break-it element of the game.  But it's a point of wariness.

are there any rumors on new playable pokemon ??? I don´t know Jack sh*t about pokemon but the ones in melee where really fun to play with and the pokeballs where really fun because you sometimes ran away in terror only to see that goldini fish flop around stage...very fun items.... I hope the hammer is back too, some people hated it and wanted it turned off but I loved seeing 3 enemys stop fighing instantly trying to get away from the hammer, had a very cartoony atmosphere

and good to have you back fishamaphone, hope your brain isn´t all blank from learning stuff not related to videogames ;)

The new playable pokemon that most people who are familiar with the franchise expect to make the cut is Lucario El Duderino. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucario

There are a few reasons why he is very likely to be in this game:

1) Pichu is certainly out, and I expect him to be replaced with someone.

2) Lucario is very popular among players of the game.

3) Stylistically he matches SSBB perfectly. It's almost like he was made for the game.

4) He had a movie made about him, giving him appeal to the kids who watch the anime as well.

I've never heard of Lucario, but I don't really know anything about Pokemon.

Don't feel bad, neither do I Ben. Still a cool update nonetheless.

thanx naznatips, that pokemon would be nice addition, looks like the cartoon version of an egyptian god, very nice

I can't say that I really like the design of some of the newer pokemon. All of the first generation ones had this cute cartoony thing going; it's just going to be odd seeing this guy come out of a pokeball.

On items, it'd be interesting if they implemented frequency sliders for individual items.

I'm not totally out of what's been happening in Pokemon lately, and looks to me like Lucario is the most likely playable Pokemon for Brawl. He's super popular, and best of all a fighting type, so really easy to fit in the game.

I'd really love a non-biped character for the sake of variety. Imagine how weird a playable Venusaur or Charizard would be. =P