Well, I've been talking about this some. Smash Ultimate as a game is easily the game I've been most excited for in at least a year, if not even earlier. The Smash Bros. franchise has been an important series to me, and this newest installment has me super excited. I wasn't initially when I heard some of the roster, but since then my opinion has changed drastically. Since I learned some of the mechanical differences between Smash 5 and Sm4sh, I've been interested, and a specific crocodile really made me hype ( no names ) since then. I feel a list is in order here.

Yoshi- My Sm4sh main, Yoshi has been a favorite of mine for a long time do to his reliable combo chains, and the way his kit flows together. Also, of course, how annoying he can be to fight against with the right player playing him... I felt the need to mention him here, because I don't think that's changing. The game's speed increase is actually going to make me like Yoshi a lot more, because it will be easier to volleyball (term used for Down Air into repeated Up Airs) up into higher percentages and fair them off. Of course, that's just one example, but Yoshi will be even more fun to play than he already was for me. Really going to be a solid mid-tier character for sure this time around., maybe even upper mid possibly. Of course, I can't really say because there has been no gameplay of Yoshi because he wasn't in the demo for some weird reason... Disappointing, but I'll get over it I think... RIGHT? F***ING D*** IT SAKURAI!

King K. Rool- You know I have invested interest in this character if you've really been looking at my posts. He's probably going to be the best heavy in the game, because he can easily rack up percentage and chain a lot of combos with his crown toss and his cannonballs. That's not even to mention the versatility of the blunderbuss ability as a whole. It's quite easily the most versatile projectile in the entire game. You can either just shoot it at them and do decent damage, or you can shoot it at them, suck it in, and then shoot again for insane damage. The suck in also works on other characters as per his trailer (when he did it to Kirby), so it's potentially possible to shoot them out and begin a combo that way. I just see so much potential for loads of insane combos here, that just makes me really excited, not even to mention I've really wanted a good heavy for a while that feels good to play (Well, Samus could be good for me also, but I'll get to her later).

Young Link- FINALLY! The boy from Melee's BACK! There's some catching up I really want to do here. You know I like reliable bursty combos that do a lot of damage. Well, Young Link has those in spades. His Forward Smash does a huge chunk and is potentially chainable with enough speed, his Down A almost acts like Yoshi's (but I don't think it spikes)... Sounds just right I think. A big thing for me on Young Link is that (at least in Melee) he could rack up percentage really easily with two or three short bursts of damage. I've seen people say that Toon Link was a straight-up improvement... And I have to say that's totally wrong. Toon Link is lighter than Young Link and actually does less damage with combos than Young Link does. They both offer their own unique advantages, but I don't like Toon Link because I prefer characters closer to medium-weight generally (K. Rool and potentially Ike and Samus can be exceptions). I always preferred Young Link, so I like that he's back.

Ike- I didn't like Sm4sh Ike a lot. He was a bit too heavy for my tastes, and very sluggish. He had a LOT of ending lag on his combos that was a huge issue when you ran him. I should know, my brother was an Ike main (and probably still is, I don't know) and I kept beating him because I could start combos between the ending lag on his smash attacks. But now with the new Ike he's a good bit lighter, and his ending lag was absolutely SLASHED. He went from probably a lower mid tier character to perhaps even high tier. He probably got one of the biggest buffs between Sm4sh and Ultimate out of the whole cast. His damage output is surprisingly close in consistency to Marth's and that's pretty shocking. I didn't initially have my eye on Ike, but after all of this, I think he'd fit me decently well. Just have to adjust to him a little (which shouldn't be that difficult considering I played him some in Sm4sh).

Ness- I started getting into Ness when I started playing Ness v Villager matches (probably the lightest character I intend to play), and I really like his moveset. It makes for unique opportunities to damage opponents, but also to begin a combo or two with PK Fire's stun (it's short, but it can be enough to start something with a bat hit). Also, his recovery can be used to route an opponent into a direction (as it knocks enemies back further into it's path each time it hits). Also Ness' bat could be pretty important for blocking projectiles like K. Rool's Cannonballs, which is more useful in what I think the Smash Ultimate meta will have in store than it is in Sm4sh's meta (especially after Cloud and Bayonetta came out). I think though I'd more likely play this sometimes more than I would all of the time, because Ness is a character I'm decent with, but never could get good with (as mastering Ness is pretty hard).

Samus- Samus is a character I would go to from time to time in Smash 64 and Melee, but I started to drop around Melee because she was too slow to really provide good damage output at about that point. In Smash Ultimate, she didn't really receive much of a buff in the general mechanics of the game getting faster, but there is one there nonetheless, and it makes me want to pick her up as a potential pick. I always liked her high damage neutral B as well as the damage she could output with her forward smash and her fair in particular. I still think she'll be lower mid tier as of Smash Ultimate, but I think that she can still be a viable choice potentially. Not like I'd want to choose her over K. Rool most of the time, but she does have a decent air game, and she can do a lot of damage in single hits. It also helps her that she's smaller than K. Rool is, and therefore a little harder to hit. Still would play K. Rool over her 90% of the time, but I'd still play her occasionally.

I also have some interest in Wolf, Meta Knight, Simon, Pokémon Trainer, Pikachu, and Inkling, but the six I listed are who I'd likely play if I got to play the game, personally.