Behold! Lots o' Smash Bros. Brawl Info!

Brawl is released on Feb. 1st, in Japan, and copies are already obtained by some people over there. Characters have been unlocked, stages unlocked. What is there to report? Find out now! Needless to say, expect a lot of spoilers!

Let's start off with today's entry at the Dojo. The initial roster has been revealed.



As you can see, the default characters are:

Mario
Donkey Kong
Link
Samus
Kirby
Fox
Pikachu
Diddy Kong
Zelda/Sheik
Pit
Meta Knight
Pokémon Trainer
Ike
Peach
Yoshi
Ice Climbers
King Dedede
Bowser
Wario
Olimar
Lucas

That's who's playable when you first play the game. Everyone that had said that the Dojo didn't reveal unlockable characters has just been proven wrong. Right now, there is a rumor going around that Brawl will have a total of 35 playable characters. Now, it seems a lot of characters are unlocked through Subspace Emissary, but people who have been unlocking things on the game haven't really been trying the other modes, such as Classic, Adventure, or the Target Test modes. I'm sure additional characters can be unlocked that way.

Now, the intro video was one of the first things leaked. In case you haven't yet seen it, watch it here. It's pretty sweet, but take note of something:

Ness.

Yes, the video reveals that Ness is a playable character. As if you doubted he'd return, but his presence is causing many people to worry that clone characters are returning.

Besides that, the intro is a collection of snippets from cut scenes.

Something that's been flying under the radar, as far as I've seen, is the reveal of the Item Switch screen.



This was included in today's massive Dojo update. This screen shows us all the items that will appear in battles. Note that the Smash Ball is considered an item, and can be switched on/off during battles. Other items that I'm noticing are the Sandbag, soccer ball, and the absence of Red Shells.

Moving on.

Something else we've got is the initial stage selection screen.



23 default stages, all of which are new for Brawl. What do we have to choose from?

Battlefield
Final Destination
Delfino Plaza
Mushroomy Kingdom
Mario Circuit
Rumble Falls
Eldin Bridge
Norfair
Frigate: Orpheon
Yoshi's Island
Battleship Halberd
Lylat Cruise
Castle Seige
WarioWare
Distant Planet
Smashville
New Pork City
The Summit
Skyworld
PictoChat
Shadow Moses Island

Then we've got six returning stages, all from Melee:



Temple
Yoshi's Island
Onett
Corneria
Rainbow Cruise
Brinstar

Okay, you're probably wanting to know: Who's unlockable? Well, here's the most recent character roster.



Unlockable characters include:

Marth
Mr. Game & Watch
Luigi
Falco
Snake
Ganondorf
Wolf
Lucario
Ness
Sonic
Toon Link
Robot
Capt. Olimar
Jigglypuff

Is this the complete roster? If it is, that would confirm the 35-character roster (it was at 34 for a while, until Wolf was unlocked). Already this is angering people, as it implies that clone characters are back, with such clones as Capt. Falcon/Ganondorf, Ness/Lucas, Link/Toon Link, and Fox/Falco/Wolf.

An interesting new character, as I see it, is R.O.B. (called Robot, on that screen).

New stages revealed include a Luigi's Mansion stage, an Electroplankton stage, a stage based on Wind Waker, and stage called "Port Town" that I gather is based off of an F-Zero game. Oh, and also Green Hill Zone stage for Sonic, and a classic Mario Bros stage.

More information can be found here.

Oh, and have I mentioned the soundtrack for this game? IT'S GONNA SERIOUSLY PWN!!!!!!!!!!! Give a listen to some of the tracks in this thread over on NSider2. Seriously, the music is awesome.