THE GOOD:Third party characters
Gameplay
Controllers
Extra features
Subspace Emissary
THE BAD:
Online play
Clones
SUMMARY:
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is overall a great game. It blew the original game away, and beat the sequel(Melee) in awesomeness. There were very important improvements to the game like the competiveness, characters, and features. Heres what i rate some of the things in Brawl that show its shining glory and its falling pits of doom.
CHARACTERS: Rating = 90%/100%
Characters are practically perfect. There are plenty of new and improved characters to play, especially Sonic and Snake. They are very unique and make excellent new characters. The characters have also been sped down or nerfed.
In my opinion, I think it is better that they got nerfed. It makes it easier for the average players to win.Finally, there are still clones. Thats why I didn't give a perfect score. A perfect example is Link and Toon Link. They basicly have the same moves and thats just wrong.
GAMEPLAY: Rating = 100%/100%
The gameplay may be nerfed but its for the best. The more casual players now can stand a chance against the higher level players. One thing thats been nerfed the most is the speed. In Melee, the game was fast paced and chaotic. Now,Super Smash Bros. Brawl is just the right pace and still chaotic.
CONTROLLERS: Rating = 100%/100%
The amount of controllers are amazing. There are 4 different ways to play now, and although some ways aren't great, its still awesome to have the option of so many controllers.
EXTRAS: Rating = 95%/100%
There are still the extra stuff we all love. Like the trophies, stages, music, and the newest things, stage builder and stickers. The stage builder lets you customize your own stage, but its not the best program of course. These extras always give a sense of accomplishment that you have finished everything 
.
SUB SPACE: Rating = 95%/100%
This is a new feature in Brawl that is like adventure mode. You actually get to see characters that don't know each other interact. The adventure mode has problems though. For example, the story is a little bit sloppy and looks rushed.
Oh well... its nothing to cry about right?
ONLINE PLAY: = 75%/100%
This is one of the only things that holds Brawl back has the perfect game. I know Nintendo is new to the online community, but they could have made a little better effort. The online play is just barely average, although we are all just grateful to get online play. I mean, you can't just have a stock battle with just anyone. The only way to get constant battles is to go on a forum like here. Man, its horrible but its bareable.
All in all Super Smash Bros. Brawl is one of the best games out there, and only some minor things keep it from becoming the best.
forums
The only thing I would have to disagree with you on is the whole "clones" thing. I think that Brawl did better to eliminate those. In your example, you provided Link and Toon Link as an example of clones. Ok, yes they have very similar moves..But I personally prefer Toon Link over Link because he is small, light-weight, and very fast. Link, while agile, is kind of a heavy character with all that gear and for me is an awkward character to fight with. It depends on your preferences, but in the long-run, what you have is two playable Links that should server everyone's fighting style.
A similar comparison could be said of Falco and Fox. In Melee, they were nearly identical in their attacks (except for the gun..) and in their speed as well. In Brawl, they've kept their moves similar, but focused on Fox for speed and Falco as a bit more average (making him a bit stronger than Fox). With these kind of gameplay elements in Brawl, I think it makes the Character Selection unique and fun!
Thank you very much for your review! =)
-DT
"...two playable Links that should SERVE everyone's fighting style."
Forgive me for that.