Most likely 3rd-party character in Brawl?

Well, after Solid Snake, of course.

Sonic is the obvious one, of course, and everyone wants to see Mega Man, but someone recently pointed out that Bomberman and Pac-Man are both especially likely, because both have already appeared in Nintendo games. Pac-Man appeared in an arcade version of Mario Kart, and there was a Bomberman game featuring Wario. Throw in that Hudson is owned by Konami, and I think Bomberman actually looks pretty likely.

Now, Sonic; everyone wants Sonic; the question is will Sega allow it? There's the upcoming Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, but there Sonic gets equal billing with Mario. A lot of people are suggesting that Sega is too proud to allow Sonic to simply cameo in a Nintendo game, without his supporting cast, while Mario gets all of his. (Of course, I would think it would be easy to simply arrange a trade...)

Pac-Man's case is obviously hurt by, well, he's Pac-Man. He's... I mean, c'mon... do people really want Pac-Man in Brawl? Sure Nintendo has wholly made up movesets for Smash, but Pac-Man seems to be pushing it just a bit. Not impossible, but were it not for his appearance in Mario Kart I wouldn't even think it worth considering.

So, with the cloud hanging over Sonic, I'm going to guess that if there are any more third-party characters in Brawl, Bomberman will be one of them.

-Harry

For instance, ostriches in the Balkans

I have nothing to say about mountains or flightless birds.

Really.