I'll give you a list but it's just my opinion and probably not even close to a legitimate reason. For one, I'm bored to death of all the SFII characters. I really don't think the game needed the entire SFII cast.

1. Guile- He's boring, his move set is small, and everyone who uses him seems to use him the same way. They always duck in the corner, throwing a never ending stream of Sonic Booms, and as soon as you get near they use the flash kick. The strategy seems to be very limited with him.

2. Dhalsim- Because I've never ever been good with him. He's so painful to play as that I don't care to bother. The people I've seen that are good with him are really cheap.

3. Blanka- I just don't like him as a character. He's got a good set of moves though. I know this reason fails.

4. Zangief- There's just better grapplers out there, he just feels too basic to me.

5. Fei Long- He's got generic written all over him. Boring moves and never really seems to have a purpose in any SF game.

6. Dee Jay- I've never really found a practical way to use him, he's also another uninteresting character.

7. T-Hawk- Holy shit could they have made him any more cheap? Also has boring moves, most of them are the Condor Dive but from different angles.

8. M. Bison- They just can't let him go it seems like. I'm just sick of him.

That's who I'd cut from the SFII side. Akuma, Ryu and Ken are givens. I like E. Honda, the series needs a Sumo rep. Cammy is cool and fun to use. Chun-Li is too classic though I'm also burnt out on her. Balrog, Vega, and Saget are always bad ass.

9. Dan- Just seems like an utter waste of roster space to me.

10. Gen- Who wants Gen? He's not fun to use and I don't really see anyone else use him. He's always been forgetable to me.

11. El Fuerte- This guy seems designed to annoy all around. His character is annoying, he's annoying to play as, and he's annoying to fight.

12. Seth- Lazy design all over. I even hate his name. Seth??? They seriously couldn't think of anything more threatening? Scrap him and try again. Maybe Gill isn't a much better name but at least he was very memorable.

Since I've been playing SSFIV Rufus has grown on me, I didn't really play much of the original version to get a good feel for him. He's pretty funny too. I feel like the new characters in SFIV were really pushed into the background and there weren't enough of them. The game just felt like a combination of SFII and SF Alpha. From 1-2-3 you had an almost entirely new cast each time, most of the characters in 4 were one's we've played as for years. I think Capcom was being too safe with it. I think at least half the roster should have been new characters. Introducing 6 new characters doesn't seem like a good enough reason to release a new game. The additions to SSFIV are satisfying enough to balance things out though. I was also piffed that SFIII was totally ignored in the original.

Like I said though, just my opinion. Not saying that none of these characters should ever return, I just don't think we needed all of them. If I was making my dream SF game, I just wouldn't use them.

Edit:

RobotGumshoe wrote:

FNJ wrote: who would you cut and why? don't say rufus plz. Or Hakan.

I like Hakan. A lot of it for me comes down to the personality of the character and how memorable they are. A Turkish oil wrestler? That's something new and unique.

lordsathien wrote:

Seth was named after CAPCOM's Seth Killian. That's the only reason.

I remember reading that somewhere. They should have just named the last boss Killian! It sounds cooler and it has the word KILL in it!