Snake's a beefy dude, and Meta's a potent fellow too...but compared to Melee, Brawl's balanced.
I'm more inclined to complain about Pikachu than anyone else though, if only because thunder jolt is good for pressuring and Pikachu plays a very good defensive game (dsmash, chain throws, wop dairs to outmaneuver most aerials). Basically, you're needled into going on offense and exposing yourself, you never get to engage Pikachu on your own terms. I expect Pikachu to be high tier.
And personally, I nominate my Ganondorf, Zelda, Olimar, Lucario, PT, DDD, and Ness for god tier.
Segue, Sonic sucks, ignoring his poor kill potential he can't really combo (ignoring spindash>aerial and jab fakes, nothing links up). Sonic can potshot, but when you break even in damage when your opponent makes four mistakes to your one, you don't stand a good chance.
Also, Mike said he would host a Brawl tournament, and he never did anything with it! If people are still interested, I'll set one up in the style of my MKDS tournament. Basically, there would be ridiculous conditions to satisfy in battle against pools of people, and an arbitrarily assigned point value for each placing. Every few challenges, the low scorer would be dropped. Exactly like my MKDS tournament! Though probably without a full revival after the final.