The main reason I think Link is better is because his down-air doesn't force him downwards, and so if you miss that spike attempt, unlike toon link, you don't die for it. It's harder to get back to the ledge, but it's still not too big a problem.
Again, a character-to-character comparison is hard to make, even with clones. They gave Toon Link things that made him better than Link, and things that made them worse. That's just how it goes.
Toon link has a better recovery, better projectiles, better killers, combos, isn't as big, and is much faster. Toon link > Link.
Recovery: Yeah, not noticably though. Projectiles: no. Killers: *crag* NO. Size & Speed: He's smaller and faster, but who needs that when you have range, power, and more hits + quicker attacks?
Toon Link = "noob-friendly" Link. Lucas = "noob-friendly" Ness.
Toon link has a better recovery, better projectiles, better killers, combos, isn't as big, and is much faster. Toon link > Link.
Recovery: Yeah, not noticably though. Projectiles: no. Killers: *crag* NO. Size & Speed: He's smaller and faster, but who needs that when you have range, power, and more hits + quicker attacks?
Toon Link = "noob-friendly" Link. Lucas = "noob-friendly" Ness.
Projectiles: yes. Toon link has bombs with bigger explosions, arrows that don't need to be charged to be effective, a boomerang that isn't useless when coming back. Tl's recovery is way better because he's floatier and gets better horizontal movement. Tl has range power, and COMBOS.
Toon link has faster killers, and his second hit of his fsmash has more knockback than the first hit of link's, and believe me, when the person you're facing is at killing percentages, you're not going to land that second hit. Tl's upsmash is insane in both knockback, range and speed.
This is brawl, if your character is easily gimped, (Link) you're not gonna win. And I can say that Toon link is a lot harder to master than link.