The reason Ocarina of Time versions of Link no longer appear in Brawl,

If you take in mind that each game's Link is a different person and that the Smash Bros universe is a Crisis Crossover then it makes sense that Link encounters his younger self and Links from alternate realities created by the Ocarina of Time. But then, why aren't the Ocarina of Time versions of Link no longer present in Brawl? Well, Young Link set out in his quest to find his friend and ends up in Termina, which itself is an alternate universe to Hyrule which has counterparts of evry person of Link's universe. Ben is this universe's Link, manifesting itself as a statue when Link plays the Elegy of Emptiness, which reveals the true nature of his soul. There seems to be an alignment reversal too, with the Dekus being, while not outwardly friendly, civilized and lawful and the Happy Mask Man being rather creepy compared to his Hyrule counterpart and often speculated to be evil. So Termina's Link, Ben, is the complete opposite, instead of a warrior of light who brings salvation, Ben is a horrifying dimensional warper destined to ultimately destroy Termina.

Being bound to Link's soul the moment he entered Termina, Ben forces Link's unconcious to produce a temporal anomaly (known to us as the Fourth Day glitch) that would free himself from Link's soul and allow him to get Majora out of the way. After torturing Link, Ben removes Young Link from existance, which in effect, also destroys Adult Link and his universe , for Young Link no longer exists to open the gates of The Temple Of Time and pull out the Master Sword. Master Hand got notice of the death of both Links and the possibility of Ben spreading across the Multiverse if he ever linked Termina to the Smash Bros Universe again, so he cut off Termina from Brawl and replaced the old Link with two Links from different timelines to prevent a time paradox from destroying another Universe. Master Hand also replaced the Zelda from the Destroyed universe but since Ganon had nobody to stop him in Young Link's universe (Which ended up in the Great Flood which gave birth to the Wind Waker timeline) and The Ganon from the future being sealed by the sages into another dimension, saving him from the Destruction of his Universe (to be later released back in Twilight Princess)), The Ganon we see in Brawl, is the same Ganon we see in Melee. That's right folks Ganondorf exploited Ben's actions to his advantage..somehow.

edited 27th Oct '10 8:32:57 AM by heartlessmushroom

Bennnnnn... -shakes fist angrily-

I've got a better WMG. The developers willed it.