1. Isaac - Another notable new IP put out between Melee and Brawl. They were kinda going nuts pumping those out! It would be unfortunate if we made the same mistake as IRL Brawl and neglected several of the most promising ones, only to never make it into Smash past that. If Nintendo introduced all these cool new series, I think we should make it a priority to reflect that. And Brawl was the perfect time to introduce Isaac - he had two games under his belt now which put him at least on par with the likes of Pikmin, which we already have on here. His Djinn abilities make for a welcome mage archetype on a roster that doesn't have very many of those, as well as earth bending, plant summoning abilities and big floating hands. He's just cool man.
2. Pokemon Trainer (Gen 3) - Alright, I think I'm ready to bite the bullet on this one. I agree, Pokemon Trainer is a cool concept. But committing to three characters is a lot when we have fairly limited space. I really love Squirtle and Ivysaur, and Charizard is pretty essential, but seeing the Gen 3 focus here convinced me that we can do something fresh. Granted, I am not fully convinced that these Pokemon will be that much more unique or compelling than the ones we already have... so I have a slight hangup about it, since one is just kind of a "ninja" archetype and the other is a martial artist like Lucario. But without Sheik, we don't have a ninja archetype. And Lucario has all his aura junk, so Blaziken can probably stand out right? Mudkip is an easy sell, I love that little guy.
So yeah, let's make it happen. The presence of Gen 3 would do a lot to diversify this roster beyond what our real version of Brawl had been able to achieve, and I think these three are all fairly popular and have the potential to be fun. Mudkip could be kind of a zoner splashing around mud, Grovyle with speedy rushdown and Blaziken with hard punishes and finishing moves. The team dynamic is there. And to be honest, May is my favorite trainer anyway.
3. Little Mac - Putting him at a bit lower priority because it doesn't look like the enthusiasm is there right now, and I'd rather ride the momentum of some of these other characters. Both Isaac and the Gen 3 'Mon would be new to the series as well, so it's an exciting new face whereas Little Mac will have another shot next game on the heels of his new game. I may still nominate him one more time a bit later, but at least we have Pit for a throwback character and it feels like we're tapping into a few more traditional fighters and/or rushdown characters here and there.
Honorable Mention to Mr. Resetti, but I don’t think he should be the first Animal Crossing character. Nook is the central figure in the series at this point and Villager is the playable character, so I still believe either of them are a bit more practical. But I do like Resetti and would like to see him playable anyway, I may have thrown him a vote if I had another.
Bowser Jr. is still a good idea, but I’m in no rush. He could even be added later on akin to Toon Link or Wolf as a smaller, faster take on Bowser. Or he’ll just make it next game, probably. But I am still curious what a Brawl version of this character would have looked like with the material available at the time.
And yeah, Diddy Kong. We should obviously add him. Although I’m kinda into revisiting the Diddy / Dixie team still.
Job 23:
For Zelda and Dedede, it feels like it's time to round out those casts respectively. Ness should be here by now if we're not planning to add another Mother character. He's the only representative from an O12 series not to have made it back yet. I'm still content waiting on Marth just a bit longer since Ike is here, and I think at least one of the Pokemon should return but it may or may not be getting three new characters this round.