On the old one I loved Kirby, and I could beat the majority of people with him, and I had all of the old "Advanced" moves more or less perfected.
Melee made Kirby feel weaker, however, and memorizing more skills, considering I lack a Gamecube, would be a hassle. Although I love Marth, there (Fire Emblem!), and I am not too bad, the controls and some of the "advanced" moves have the same concept as the stuff on the old game, although there are way too many to remember now.
EDIT: And it seems a lot of the special skills for Melee are character-reliant, so...