I mained (in order) Kirby(around 70% of the time), Luigi(15%), Ness(15%) in every iteration of smash. I didn’t give a fuck that Kirby was shitty in Melee, I love that pink ball of fluff.
I heard gen was in the game just before vanilla came out. I already mained gen in the Alpha series which I played prior to sf4. It was an easy choice, I wish Capcom didn’t fuck up vanilla>super Gen though 
It still hurts me and even though AE and AE 2012 will make him a little better but CAPCOM Y U NO GIVE BACK EX OGA INVINCIBILITY?
Used to play Ken when I was a kid playing SF2 with my brothers, started playing him in SFIV, realised everyone was playing Ken so I switched to Fei. Kept losing all the time as Fei so I picked up Balrog because he was the character I was losing to most of the time. Hit a brick wall with Rog and started messing around with Hawk whom I now main because I think he’s fun to play.
“Hey I have fun with this character, therefore, I’m going to play him/her.”
Back in 1995, I watched this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qku03H5eZRk and this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie3DnUxc7l0 (13m30s to 15m30s)
then Bison became my main in every game
Pick: gief & blanka if you want to be cheap
Pick: Ryu & Ken if you want to win on pot luck all the time and put in no effort
Pick: Fei Long, Yun, Yang if you button mash (since all there moves are safe you’re pretty much good to hit the buttons as many times and as fast as possible and you will win with counter hits)
Pick anyone else if you have DIGNITY!
What are you still doing here?
I went with playstyle:
<3 stun and mixups = Viper + Makoto
Couldn’t be happier
In a completely new game, I look at character design first, then gender(I mostly play female characters). When I’m familiar with all of the characters, I look for one that fits my playstyle. The ideal main for me would be a fast-moving, female character with good rushdown ability who requires good execution(Cammy, Viper, Litchi, Tsubaki, Storm, Jill).
I play Yun because doing stuff like this is cool as shit
As a super-casual noob back then:
SF2 - "Fireballs are cool, Ryu has fireballs…he also has a red fireball!! Ken doesn’t, he sucks. Reeee-yuuu!"
3S - “Bleh! Parries are hard.”
As a semi-serious noob now:
SF4 - "Hmm, let’s try Ryu again. Wait…Oh shi-! AIR fireballs! Raging Demon! I can has Akuma nao?!"
SF4 AE - “Ibukeeeh!” squeals like a brainwashed Bieber fangirl, sparkly eyes and all that
After Melty Blood (Ciel) and SF4, I found out I can’t play anyone else but rushdown characters, 'cause I hate the “stay back, lame it out and win” mentality. Not saying it’s wrong, just that I don’t like it.
Probably still trying to convince people that it’s the games fault that he’s bad, and not his own.
I picked Makoto because she’s exactly what I want in a character. And I like the fact that she is a pure fighter. No fancy fireballs or teleports, just straight up karate, that makes her that much more badass.
I’ve always liked Vega since SF2…loved the design and background of the character, too bad he’s ass in SF4. I really make my decisions primarily on whether or not I like the character’s overall design, oh and I also have a minor dislike for “top tiers” so I always tend to main characters that are B or less.
My father picks Zangief because he looks strong. :tup:
Accidentally picked Abel the first time I played the game at the arcades, decided to learn the character and here i am now, still learning, but hella stronger than back then obviously lol
I thought that blanka looked very solid and I liked his electricity and ultra animations ! Now what I like the more is insult messages I got from frustrated people 
Love playing female characters, particularly, the attractive ones. I have a very offensive playstyle and needed a character that reflected that, but also a character that had some “flash” to go along with it. High skill cap is a bonus, did not want a character that was “easymode”.
And really, it came down to Viper and Cammy and I took Viper 
In SF4 I quickly realized that being able to easily combo into Ultra was good. That and I like grapplers. That led me to Abel, who could go through fireballs with his Ultra, command throw and easily combo into Ultra off c.hp.
Then I went to Seth cause Yay fireball Ultra trap and combo off c.hp and I still have a command throw and I can jump back fierce and go through fireballs with EX kicks and deal with fireballs with my own!
Eventually I went to Gouken cause the true test of skill was back throw Ultra, only the elite need apply. And I had fireaballs. And I could go through fireballs. And counter. Always loved counters, though these suck balls compared to Geese and Eagle in CvS2.