I didn't really like Brawl; it felt like it tried to do "too much" and the end result wasn't as endearing as Melee was. I tried the online mode a few times, and it was a laggy mess. With this new game, I don't need a story mode or any of that fluff; keep it simple, like the first game & Melee.
As for characters, I hope more representations from other series are present, and no, I don't mean Solid Snake. He just seemed totally out of place (it reminded me how they just decided to include SPAWN and DARTH VADER in the Soul Calibur series. like seriously?) Although my bias would allow Simon Belmont to be in it, naturally. Sonic, on the other hand, fits right in. MegaMan fits right in. Klonoa, even Crash Bandicoot would fit right in. I don't wanna see Ryu Hayabusa or Bayonetta, because they don't really fit in this type of game. All my opinion, of course, if they add Sephiroth or Ryu or some other random character, then whatever, I'll deal with it.
Lastly, I hope they don't use a certain series characters & overshadow the cast with that series' characters. We don't need more than 5 Pokémon in this game. Pikachu, the "trainer," maybe another & that's it. Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Yoshi, that's enough. Any more characters are just excessive. I just want an equal amount & fair representation from each series. UNLESS they decide to go buck-wild Marvel vs. Capcom 2 style and add a shitload of characters, then by all means!
But at the end of the day, I just hope it lives up to the hype. I don't want this to be "Brawl 2.0," I want it to be BETTER than Brawl, like Melee was better than the original.