Actually, no one has said he’s replacing Ness. Granted, it looks like he might have a similar moveset, and if so at least I’ll have someone to play as (I basically only play Ness).

That said, the site introduces him with the following:
“The youth with the psychic powers has appeared—it’s Lucas! He makes his anticipated debut from the Japan-only release MOTHER 3.

While he is timid in nature, he fights splendidly. Is it possible he can surpass even Ness?!”

My hope is that “surpass” Ness means that he must be able to beat him, which means both must be playable.

I agree with Hamm… I’m almost certain they won’t leave Ness out of this one. Ness was one of the remaining characters who didn’t have a second or third player from his series in smash brothers, and I think Lucas is being put in to fill that gap. The only real problem now is the whole deal with the translation… but I can wait for that to be done. It’s going to rock!!!

I think of this as a way of Sakurai sorta pissing of Nintendo and urging them to release the Mother games stateside. I personally don’t care. I started playing EB but it never really stuck with me but I know that EB faithfuls live and die by that game.

Personally, I think 4CR should be posting a front page news story on todays VC releases instead of this…

Stadium Status…

As Goji said, maybe this is a push for Nintendo to release M3 over here, as sort of advance press. We definitely have seen an increase in Fire Emblem games since SSBM. Maybe we will see the samething happening to Mother.

I actually don’t even care about Lucas being in the game until I actually get to play an Earthbound/Mother game or something.

@Doug

If that ends up being the case, Sakurai will end up being my favorite person in the entire world.

Oh man, thank you Nintendo! Mr. Masahiro Sakurai, you did it again. I was on the Super Smash Bros. Brawl website before midnight, looking at all of the character profiles and just imagining how each character will play out and then switched over to the main page at Midnight…well when I saw the “WARNING! CHALLENGER APROACHING!” post, I was grinning ear to ear.

I’ve never played Mother 3 before, but do like the Earthbound series and thus, Lucas is totally welcomed to the Brawl. I’m looking forward to his attacks and think that P. Ness will come back as well. The dude is looking good too; nice attacks. This week sure started off quite nicely.

no one said ness was gone
edit this article or i will kill myself

@ Skyler

I agree. Mitch edit it or you’ll find some marsupials head in your bed.

The move set for Lucas looks a little different than what Ness had in SSBM. The electro-thingy attack reminds me more of Mewtwo’s psychic charge attack. Plus, it looks like Lucas has Kirby playing made-ya-look Interesting addition to say the least. Though, I don’t think I’ll play with him much if he’s similar to Ness…never was effective with him, not with my play style anyway.

I’ve a feeling they’ll avoid duping characters…really hope so…Ganondorf with his own move set would be cool

Yeah, they definitely never said that he was a replacement for Ness. Its possible, but unlikely.

So….how is Lucas’ presence a spoiler for Mother 3? I understand asking that question will involve revealing spoilers, but on the surface, I don’t see how his presence will reveal deep plot details of this game I have not yet played.

Prediction?
Ness = Lucas ala Zelda = Sheik

@ Scsimian

Ganondorf with his own move set… I like it. That got me thinking, Bowser transforms into Giga Bowser for his final smash… maybe Ganondorf will morph into Ganon? That would be the ultimate in badassery.

just sayin’.

Benor - Given he and his family’s deep involvement in the plot of MOTHER 3, the probable existance of biographies for him and likely other MOTHER 3 characters through trophies, and the alleged other MOTHER 3 thing in Brawl that was said to have been leaked by “a reliable source” along with news of Lucas being playable, there’s a lot of areas big plot points could be told.

And why would Ness transform into Lucas when the only relation they have is being similar protagonists in their games?

Ganondorf morphing into Ganon would indeed be cool…provided he’s in the game…*crosses fingers*. I’m assuming a redesign since he was pretty different between twilight princess and ocarina. But we’ll see what happens.

So with Lucas, we’re up to 20 selectable characters from the get go? Not a bad number! SSBM had 14, right? I really hope the secret characters aren’t clones…

What makes you think you can select them all from the start?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elihur/1473689998/

who is with me??!!

*THEORITCAL SPOILER* I think that ness wouldn’t be left, They’re probably gonna include some of the moves that ness didn’t have (PSI Freeze) for example, i was pulling up reasearch and this is unconfermed but in my opinion i think lucas will have (PSI Magnet) but like shown it only goes it one direction (weakness) he might have (PSI Freeze) like how it shows he is doing to metaknight (theres a reflector image which looks similar to the ingame earthbound PSI Freeze that paula did, that or somehow they got that in there from foxes reflection technique…) For the Second Picture it seems like he is landing from a jump. but that still leaves out one move that i noticed was new to me(besides PSI Magnet, PSI Freeze) PSI Ground, i dont remember getting this move when playing earthbound one. but when i looked at a walkthrough and PSI moves for Mother 3 they had PSI ground which was a different physical attack, though they might add some support like PSI Heal or something the offensive move PSI ground seemed kind of interesting and the type of thing nintendo MIGHT want to see, tho the problem being that how are you going to use PSI Ground on star foxes ship for example, i dunno what they’re gonna do. but thats just another move that i noticed was new that they didn’t add for ness. But ya, that fourth picture just looks like they had kirby turn around in camera mode while lucas was doing some sort of taunt, that or guiding a PSI thunder, but ya all this is just theoretical… *THEORETICAL SPOILER*
GAWD I CANT BELIVE I TYPED THAT MUCH !! WTF?

I really dun have anything that truely backs that up except the pictures and reasearch on the original games.

I really Really REALLY REEEAAALLLLLLYYY Want them to add a recording feature, like at the end of the brawl or begining it asks if u want to save the battle. and u can record it, problem is space with recording to much, but o well im sure they can think of something. Like it sends to your computer….?

It just sounds to me like in the wording that Ness is being replaced…ness in my #1 guy, and Its a make or break thing almost…ALMOST if hes not in it…the way he says ‘the kid with the psychic powers has appeared….” hinting at Ness…but instead tricks us and says ‘Its lucas!’…tricky…It almost seems redundant to have them both in, but then again, I dont see why not. If they vary the moves enough and one has one big strength (speed or jumping better then the other) I wouldnt mind. I guess I’d have to settle for Lucas, I am a huge Mother fan, but can’t get excited for a character I’ve never played before in the game it came from.

…here’s to hoping!

@ Stephen

Just a hunch…I wouldn’t imagine them revealing secret characters prior to launching the game, if at all. Wouldn’t be very secret…

@Doug
Thanks cuz that is what happens with everything in ssb. UHM besides ice climbers..
looking for that kid icuras remake on the wii (too bad its gonna play like wario world on gc)
ness is totaly gone. this guys an update and they want to generate some fan knowledge about there upcoming remake of mother 3 on the ds

and.. @StuartDx .. .. ……….

Lucas will be Ness’s Luigi.

I agree with Skyler. Ness is my #1 player and it would suck if they took him out. He was there from the beginning meaning that this is somebody that people (like myself) have played with since Smash started. Taking Ness out would be like taking Ryu out of Street Fighter just because Ken came into the game. EarthBound/Mother deserves atleast 2 characters in Smash and would lose a lot of fans if they removed an original. Personally i would love to fight against somebody playing with Lucas against my Ness it would be a worthy showdown. I also think that Sheik should stay in the game just because…she was cool.

i think Ganondorf should get his own moveset and Black Shadow should get Ganondorf’s old moves, weight, etc.

“…you should probably already know that Lucas, one of the protagonists from Mother 3, has replaced Ness in the Smash Brothers lineup.”

My dreams have just been crushed from the inside out.

Does it really confirm he’s replaced, or simply is not as strong as Lucas(or MIGHT not be as strong, though the video shows Lucas moving a boulder.)