I remember it like it was just yesterday. My imported Nintendo All-Star Dai-Rantou Smash Brothers finally arrived for the Nintendo 64. I had been an avid fighting game fan for some time, but I really didn't know what to expect from this new Nintendo mascot fighter. I called up one of my friends and we played some two player Smash Brothers for the first time. The game wasn't bad, but it just didn't seem like all that to me. That changed when the next day came around and I got my first taste of four player Super Smash Brothers.

After a solid year of all night Smash Brothers sessions at my place with about six of my friends, we knew our addiction to Nintendo's masterpiece would not soon fade. Six years later, the original Nintendo 64 Smash Brothers has come and gone, with the sleek GameCube Super Smash Brothers Melee taking its place and creating a nationwide tournament seen for the series. But it's been nearly four years since the release of Melee, and Smash fans are eagerly awaiting the next installment in the series.

This past May, and the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, Nintendo formally announced that with the coming of the Nintendo Revolution in 2006 a new Smash Brothers would see the light of day. Very little is known about Super Smash Brothers Revolution. In fact, Nintendo has only given us two details about the next Smash Brothers; first that it will be released on the Revolution, and second that it will feature online play.

Since I first played Nintendo All-Star Dai-Rantou Smash Brothers so many years ago, I've had many thoughts about what should be changed or added to the series. I'm sure many of you have had similar thoughts. Now it's time to let my imagination run wild as I take a look at what Nintendo may have in store for Smash Brothers fans come next year.

The original Smash Brothers featured 12 characters, while Melee bumped the character count up to 25. So how many characters will the next Smash Brothers feature? Well, Nintendo and HAL can't very well backtrack with less characters, and it's fairly safe to assume we'll see the return of every character featured in Melee (which includes the 12 characters found in the original). So it's really about which new characters will be added to the celebrity roster.

There are a few fan favorites that seem to be easy additions for Nintendo: Kid Icarus, Wario, Waluigi, Koopa Troopa, and Captain Olimar (Pikmin) to name a few. Then you've got the possibility of adding characters from various third parties. Over the course of the current console cycle, Nintendo has made close ties with Namco, Sega, Capcom, and a few other companies. It's certainly possible that big name characters from these games could be making the high anticipated jump to Smash Revolution. I'm sure many of you would love to see Mega Man, Sonic, Klonoa, and a slew of other third party mascots in the next generation of Smash Brothers. The possibilities are endless, but I wouldn't expect more than 40 characters, and possibly not even more than 35.

The only confirmed feature in Smash Brothers Revolution is the one thing Smash fans have been craving for years. Online play means you won't have to leave your house to get multiplayer Smash Brothers going. However, with the huge tournament scene that's grown over the past few years, Smash Brothers fans will still get together for the bigger events.

There are several advantages to online play that some of you may not have thought of. First off, since every player will have their own TV screen, it would be fairly easy for HAL to tweek the camera angles and give players the option of staying zoomed on their character, or expanding out to see what everyone is up to. This could even add to the strategy by enabling players to have a closer camera when they're in a dirty battle near the edge, then zoom out to see what everyone else if up to after they smash their opponent off the stage.

Taking a page from Dead or Alive Ultimate, it would be very nice to see a virtual arcade set up for the next Smash Brothers. Head into a lobby and chat about the game until you reach the desired number of participants. But at the same time, other players should be allowed to join the match (perhaps up to 16 players) and sit on the sidelines watching until the current session is over.

The original Smash Brothers had a very bare bones single player mode. Melee expanded on this greatly by adding an Adventure Mode, as well as a mini-game. It's a fairly safe bet that Smash Revolution will take the single player aspect of the series a step further. HAL could go the route of Soul Calibur and make the single player an RPG-like mode with the random battles being standard Smash battles. While not offering the full RPG experience, a mini-RPG single player mode would be a nice addition that might even hold some replay value (something many fighting games lack in terms of single player)

Expanding on the existing single player modes is also an option. The Classic Mode (the standard single player mode in a fighting game) could be expanded into a Challenge Mode. You could also add several basic modes that have been included in fighting games for years, but seem to miss the Smash Brothers boat. These would include: Team Battle, Survival Mode, and an expanded Tournament Mode, just to name a few.

Nintendo has been very quite about the next installment in the Super Smash Brothers series. However, with the Revolution launch slowly getting closer, details about the console and its launch games will soon begin to leak out. The Tokyo Game Show next month may offer our first insight into Smash Revolution, or we may have to wait until 2006. Either way, we'll be sure to keep you up to date on all things Smash Brothers.