101 Characters

[timrtabor123]

If they treat this game as a GAAS then I could see this happening but even then I get the sense that DLC had diminishing returns by the end of 3DS/Wii U given how low budget the trailers were outside of Corrin.

 

[Gentletime]

I really, really would not call 71 "so close" to 100.

Assuming at least something close to the 7 DLC characters with Smash 4, and with Sakurai saying "we'll have a few more for you later," which was before K Rool, that would be 80-82 - depending on mental accounting with Pokemon Trainer. That's closer than 71.

 

[Sean Wheeler]

Yeah, I think there could be 100 considering how the roster seems to almost double in past games. But there could also be eighty characters. But however many characters there are, it will still be the largest roster in Super Smash Bros.

 

[Gentletime]

(rendered obsolete - deleted)

 

[Gentletime]

As long as the 101st is Wonder Red.

Good idea. Here's a perfect 101, ending with Wonder-Red. If we do end up with 101 characters, I think it would be very close to this layout. I managed to keep all series together, in order of appearance, and each of the original series have at least one villain. Counting Masked Man and Black Shadow as echoes, it's an 81/20 split. Karate Joe and Mach Rider are the representative WTF and retro characters. I really think that, if we get Spring Man, Ribbon Girl would come along as an echo, but I couldn't get her to fit into the grid with perfect OCD. If I were to change one character, it would be Jody Summer in place of Celica, which would still maintain the same order, but Black Shadow would have to be made unique, so that Captain Falcon doesn't have 2 echoes.

Possible reveal schedule (the echoes can obviously come in any order):

Current 65/6ε

Online direct (September) 1+1ε
ɑ: non-Smash content
Ω:

Gardevoir
ε:

Gothitelle
(Pokemon's mass appeal would be the best representation of Smash in a general direct)

Smash direct (October) 2+3ε
ɑ:

Isaac
ε:

Funky, Dixie, Isabelle
Ω:

Skull Kid

Smash direct/50 Facts (November/December) 3+6ε
ɑ:

Karate Joe (must launch with WTF)
ε:

Dry Bowser, Masked Man, Black Shadow, Black Knight, Shadow, Octoling
(Akuma/Evil Ryu could go here, as well, if they choose that over Ken)
Ω:

Kamek, Paper Mario
(Paper Mario would bookend with Mario having been the first character shown in-game)

Launch 71+16ε = 87

This is 10 unique newcomers at launch, which is less than Smash 4's 15 (including Miis and excluding Dark Pit and Lucina). That conforms to Sakurai's, "I kind of hope you're not expecting too many new challengers." 5 fewer uniques, 12 more echoes, which seems like a reasonable trade-off in development time. Keep in mind that Sakurai referred to Smash 3DS and Wii U as Smash 4 and Smash 5, because he considered the work near equal to two separate games. There's also other time-savers such as the portability of assets from Wii U to Ultimate and, as far as we know, no custom moves.

 

[Gentletime]

DLC

Geno, Bandana Dee, Mach Rider, Incineroar, Captain Toad, Spring Man, Banjo-Kazooie, Rex & Pyra, Wonder-Red
ε:

Impa, Celica, Ken, Captain Todette (included with Toad)

I imagine Geno would be teased as the first DLC character, just like Mewtwo for Smash 4. Who knows the correct order, but here I organized the unique characters by overdue old-timers, relative newcomers, and then second and third party. Not counting echoes, this would be 3 more from-scratch additions, compared to Wii U's DLC. With the Switch being much more successful than its predecessor, I think they may feel that an increased investment is justified.

 

[Sean Wheeler]

1 - Mario
2 - Donkey Kong
3 - Link
4 - Samus
5 - Yoshi
6 - Kirby
7 - Fox
8 - Pikachu
9 - Luigi
10 - Ness
11 - Captain Falcon
12 - Jigglypuff
13 - Peach
14 - Bowser
15 - Ice Climbers
16 - Sheik
17 - Zelda
18 - Dr. Mario
19 - Pichu
20 - Falco
21 - Marth
22 - Young Link
23 - Ganondorf
24 - Mewtwo
25 - Roy
26 - Mr. Game & Watch
27 - Meta Knight
28 - Pit
29 - Zero Suit Samus
30 - Wario
31 - Snake
32 - Ike
33 - Squirtle
34 - Ivysaur
35 - Charizard
36 - Diddy Kong
37 - Lucas
38 - Sonic
39 - King Dedede
40 - Olimar
41 - Lucario
42 - R.O.B.
43 - Toon Link
44 - Wolf
45 - Villager
46 - Mega Man
47 - Wii Fit Trainer
48 - Rosalina & Luma
49 - Little Mac
50 - Greninja
51 - Mii Brawler
52 - Mii Swordfighter
53 - Mii Gunner
54 - Palutena
55/28E - Dark Pit
56/55 - Pac-Man
57/21E - Lucina
58/56 - Robin
59/57 - Shulk
60/58 - Bowser Jr.
61/59 - Duck Hunt
62/60 - Ryu
63/61 - Cloud
64/62 - Corrin
65/63 - Bayonetta
66/64 - Inkling
67/13E - Daisy
68/65 - Ridley
69/66 - Simon
70/66E - Richter
71/25E - Chrom
72/4E - Dark Samus
73/67 - King K. Rool
74/68 - Geno
75/36E - Dixie Kong
76/38E - Tails
77/69 - Chun-Li
78/60E - Ken
79/45E - Isabelle
80/70 - Bandana Dee
81/71 - Spring Man
82/71E - Ribbon Girl
83/72 - Crash
84/73 - Spyro
85/74- Goku
86/75 - Sora
87/56E - Celica
88/27E - Galacta Knight
89/49E - Glass Joe
90/76 - Paper Mario
91/14E - Dry Bowser
92/77 - Dillon
93/55E - Ms. Pac-Man
94/78 - Rex & Pyra
95/46E - Roll
96/79 - Isaac
97/10E - Ninten
98/16E - Impa
99/11E - Black Shadow
100/80 - Banjo-Kazooie

The ones from 81/71 to 100/80 are DLC.

 

[Some Beedrill]

We could get up to 80 charactera in the base if you count echos and characters with multiple movesets in one (I.E Pokemon Trainer), and Sakuri and his team developed 7 characters in the span of 1.5 years for 2 games. With echos taken into consideration as dlc fighters, we could easily reach 100 fighters.

 

[Gentletime]

I decided that a wider character select layout may be more likely. A Celica echo may finally be too much Fire Emblem, and she was messing up this grid, so I replaced her with Shantae. That's replacing an echo with a unique, making the split 82/19ε. That seems like a weird ratio to me, and the only row that can fit an extra echo to replace Shantae is the last row, so maybe Jeanne instead. If Miis go after Little Mac, replace Shantae with Ribbon Girl.

---------------
I don't think they'd go this wide, but, just for completeness sake, here's the next widest possible while keeping series grouped by row. I needed to bump Inkling down to the same row as Octaling, so Shantae is out, and an extra character needed to be added to row-3. This is the first grid that's had space for Medusa, but it could also be Jody Summer, Celica, Alph/Brittany/Charlie, Mr Dream, or a Shulk echo. I suppose if Paper Mario, Geno, Captain Toad, and Captain Toadette were all categorized outside of the Mario franchise, you could move Metroid up to the first row. Then you would need an extra character between Masked Man and Marth, which I think would be Jody Summer. If Miis go after Little Mac, it doesn't change anything with this one. I really doubt they would go this wide, though.

 

[Gentletime]

I was being too stubborn putting 3rd-parties and Miis last, so I've redone it using the exact order on the official website. Also, just out of personal preference, I had been trying to put the villains at the end of each series, but that already doesn't work with Dark Samus being an echo, plus, some character's villainy is debatable. For the stacked-echoes version here, I couldn't fit both Bandana Dee and Incineroar into their series' shared row. It was hard to cut either, because Bandana Dee is missing from Dedede's final smash, and a Gen-7 pokemon is highly rumored, so I replaced Incineroar with Zeraora echoing Lucario. I needed Viridi for evenness on this one - could also work with a non-echo Tails.

 

[Gentletime]

101 is an arbitrary limit. Here's 14 more plausible echoes. The Wonder-Red reference doesn't apply, so I replaced him with Shantae. I also replaced Viridi with non-echo Black Shadow.

115:

Stacks to: