I usually would prefer a concise roster; ~40 wholly dissimilar characters is all I want or expect for this or future Smash games.
The problem with that is it's getting harder to keep a "concise" roster since every sequel picks up new characters like a Katamari ball and you end up having to break people's hearts by cutting a few from time to time.
I'm actually surprised how many new characters we have in SSB4 after all the interviews where Sakurai would say, "We've reached the feasible character limit with Brawl," or "the emphasis this time isn't on new characters," and especially "we're focusing on the distinctiveness of the characters."
I'm not complaining about having a lot of characters; I just think it's weird that the game's cast is turning out to be the opposite of what he talked about several times. (He also said a simple expansion of characters won't work and that the series needs some kind of change, but that also didn't happen.)