List of Super Smash Bros. Melee pre-release and unused content: Difference between revisions

[[Lucas]], the protagonist of Mother 3, was planned to replace [[Ness]] as a playable character, meaning Ness would be removed and replaced by ''Lucas'', but Sakurai decided to go with Ness instead due to the delays, development difficulties and ultimate cancellation of Mother 3.<ref>[https://www.nintendo.co.jp/n01/n64/software/nus_p_nalj/smash/flash/0717/index.html Ness] at ''[https://www.nintendo.co.jp/n01/n64/software/nus_p_nalj/smash/flash/index.html Sokuhou Smabura Ken!!]'', the Japanese website for ''Super Smash Bros. Melee''. (Accessed on 15 February 2016)</ref>

According to the former head of ''Sonic Team'': Yuji Naka, [[Sonic|Sonic The Hedgehog]] was briefly considered to be in the game, but the idea was declared impossible due to time constraints.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120207220055/http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/4451/sonicinmeleeis4.jpg]</ref> Sonic was later included as a playable character in the series starting with ''[[Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'', while Tails would appear as a background character on the [[Green Hill Zone]] stage and as a [[List of Mii Fighter Outfits|Mii costume]].  

Similarly, [[Solid Snake]] was suggested to be a playable character in ''Melee'', however, the idea was rejected as development was incredibly deep in.<ref>[http://www.n-sider.com/contentview.php?contentid=2576 [E3<nowiki>]</nowiki> Interview: Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Miyamoto, Sakurai]. N-Sider (May 11, 2006). Retrieved January 1, 2016.</ref> Like Sonic, Snake would also later be made a playable character in ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl''.

When choosing a character to represent the retro gaming era, Sakurai mentioned on the Japanese ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'' website that he considered 5 different characters to represent this period of gaming before settling on the [[Ice Climbers]]. He considered [[Bubbles (Clu Clu Land)|Bubbles]] from {{wp|Clu Clu Land}}, the [[Balloon Fighter]] from {{wp|Balloon Fight}}, an [[Excitebike]] racer, the [[Urban Champion]] player and Ayumi Tachibana from {{wp|Famicom Detective Club}}. He ultimately cut Ayumi Tachibana because he felt that she lacked familiarity outside of Japan.<ref name="Source"/>

[[Takamaru]] from ''The Mysterious Murame Castle'' was briefly considered a possible fighter, but he was later scrapped due to low popularity rating and his series was highly unlikely to have a new game, it was also rather obscure.<ref>https://www.ssbwiki.com/Takamaru#In_Super_Smash_Bros._Melee</ref> Sakurai also stated that he wanted to include {{wp|Mach Rider}} in ''Melee'' because he felt that he had the "best name".<ref>http://sourcegaming.info/2016/04/29/duflupdate/</ref>

 

[[Wario]] was a planned character for the game, but was ultimately not added due to a lack of development time and the game would have far too much ''Mario'' characters. Sakurai also stated that he could have used development time dedicated to [[Mewtwo]] or [[Marth]] and [[Roy]] to add Wario instead, but he chose not to do it.<ref name="Source 2">sutamen (January 31, 2016). [http://sourcegaming.info/2016/01/31/dufl-sources/ The Definitive Unused Fighters List in Smash – Source Translations]. Source Gaming. Retrieved March 16, 2016.</ref> Wario later became playable in ''Brawl''.