I'm not going to go into a bunch of detail with this since this is a mugen forum and I would assume most people know how 2D fighting games work but I am going to list some of the things I would personally want to include.

• Forward and back dashes - I don't know if I want to include running or not and I will probably not include any air dashing
• 2 attack buttons - both autocombos, I'd still include motion input specials and supers since I'd assume they'd be separate from the autocombos
• Assists. They'd be the third button, they'd function a lot like the KoF 2000 strikers where it can either be an actual character in the lineup or a different entity, though I don't really know how I'd implement it that sort of way. It'd also be a good way to represent characters that wouldn't really work as fighters.
• Alpha Counters - Because I do want a combo breaker (more like a blockstring breaker?) and bursts or KI combo breakers would be kinda lofty.

There's probably a bit more but those are the main ones.

The fun part! Some of these are characters I've already worked with, some of them just have spritesets that I could actually use. I'm going to be even more strict with it and not include anything nintendo because some of the nintendo characters I would want to include would probably not be easy to work with. I also don't really feel like including anything primarily associated with playstation or xbox, not because kratos and master chief have bad spritesets or whatever but moreso because I kinda want to keep this to companies that aren't really associated with being exclusive to a certain console in the current day.

• Atari Dragon - Adventure (1979)
  It'd be very dissonant but because it's a beep boop so retro character it would probably be really easy to work with and actually justify. Roysquadrocks already has a decent case of making it a composite character I would just need to axe the stuff that isn't actually owned by the atari brand.
• Pac-Man - Pac-Man (1980)
  Brucewayne made a spriteset for him almost 10 years ago but its primarily based on the hanna-barbera cartoon even though I'd assume it'd be pretty easy to edit into the conventional pac-man world/arcade flyer design. I don't know how much actual pac-man stuff he has but it is pac-man and I'd feel cheated if I didn't find some way of getting him in here.
• Solid Snake - Metal Gear (1987)
  The seanaltly spriteset is 15 years old and isn't very good but whatever. I think it'd be kinda fun to translate some of the stuff he has in project m to a traditional fighter.
• Ryu - Street Fighter (1987)
  It's Ryu. It can be cvs ryu with all of the extra stuff pots added to him. I made ryu for the nintendo vs capcom revival i mentioned in the beginning paragraph. This is too easy to not include.
• Sonic the Hedgehog - Rad Mobile / Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
  The seanaltly spriteset is fine. When I made him for that sega idea thing i mentioned in the beginning paragraph I kinda made him way too oppresive because he could just spin dash and then combo out of it by pushing people into the corner and doing walking jabs. I dont really know if i want to do that but its sonic and a game like this does need this kind of platformer rep.
• Arle Nadja - Puyo Puyo (1991)
  The sfxvi spriteset and the stuff nexus games added to it is also fine. Arle is probably the character I've worked on the most because I first made a standalone one before making another for the sega thing i mentioned in the beginning paragraph. Her and sonic were the only two to come from that project so i'm keeping them.
• Lara Croft - Tomb Raider (1996)
  There is a spriteset for her. Orochi gill made a video about a character that used it. I think there is also a MMV user that made a more up to date version. The BAFTAs call her the most iconic video game character of all time. I don't know why I wouldnt include her. Core Design is very interesting to me and idk why.
• Jill Valentine - Resident Evil (1996)
  Another character that would probably be easy to implement because she has been in an actual fighting game but I don't know how easy. The RE1 outfit is probably the higher quality spriteset and that spriteset's appearance in marvel 2 is probably what I'd want to base her gameplay off but I kinda like the RE3 outfit more even if I don't really know if it'd have what I want.

There is probably a lot of stuff missing (especially from the 2000s onwards) but those are the main ones. Arle is my bias pick because everyone else would pick a tetris block as the falling block puzzler rep and I don't really know how exactly I'd handle it.