I just spent the past 2 days at my friend's house on my days off playing this a hell of a lot (about 20 hours in a day and a half) and we've unlocked most of the characters just brawling and trying to unlock things. I've gotta say my best characters are Pit and Falco but I've always been good with Yoshi so he's a strong third. One of my other friends is so annoying with Metaknight it's actually funny. The game is so much easier with the GC controller though if you've played the other games, definitely