Ha! It's really, really easy to differentiate between the older and younger posters in this thread.
You don't need to explain Ryu's inclusion to those of us who are older and grew up on the NES, SNES, and Street Fighter II.
It's sad how many people here straight up don't grasp Ryu's significance or icon status, but I suppose that's just different generations for you. Same thing happened with Mega Man, too - older gamers fully understand the fact that he's one of the all-time gaming icons, but kids (understandably) often seem to have no idea who he is or why he's in the game. To a lot of younger folks, he's just that "blue robot from Smash."
I do agree that Ryu is pretty generic and "vanilla" compared to many of Street Fighter's other, more interesting characters (hell, even Ken is more interesting IMO), but it just doesn't matter. He's Mr. Fighting Games. The poster boy of the fighting game franchise that started the entire fucking genre that Smash owes its existence to. Those are inarguable facts that the people who don't "get" Ryu are just going to have to come to terms with (or not, I suppose).
I really can't find it in myself to be hyped for Roy at all, though. I'm happy for the Fire Emblem/Melee fans who really wanted him back, and I generally have no problem with clones being in the roster, but at least back in Melee he was the only Marth clone. In this game, he'll be the second Marth clone. Barf. But hey, like I said -- good for you, Roy fans! This is your day, and many of us have already had our days for our favorite characters!
I'm still hyped for Lucas, though!
