45 or 54. That's how many characters we are getting

[Curmudgeon]

I'm expecting a roster of at least 50 characters including transformations, or else I'll have to talk personally with Sakurai

 

[BADGRAPHICS]

I'm expecting a roster of at least 50 characters including transformations, or else I'll have to talk personally with Sakurai

I will be expecting you to talk to Sakurai.

 

[Curmudgeon]

I will be expecting you to talk to Sakurai.

SAKURAAAAAAI!

 

[memememe]

I think I got a clue of how many characters we are getting.
http://www.smashbros.com/us/characters/wii_fit_trainer.html (worth with any character thoughT)
If we look at the strips of characters on the bottom we see it's already splitted in sets of nine chars (you already see the empty panels). So we evince the final number is a multiple of nine. It can't be 36 because that would be only one character more than the previous episode, and 63 is a too freaking high number to be considered. So we are stuck with those two numbers.
54 is still a huge number but still reasonable, and 45 even more reasonable.

Jesus.
That literally means NOTHING.
It looked good with the website design and fits evenly along the bottom based on the width of the above panel.
It is entirely possible that they won't fill up every slot so it's a multiple of nine.

Regardless, I could see 45 characters but I have a hunch it'll be less than that.

 

[peeup]

Smash 64

8 + 4 = 12

Melee

10 + 2 + 5 + 9 = 26

Brawl

13 + 8 + 12 + 6 = 40

Add 14 characters each time.

Sm4sh will have 54 characters.

End of thread.

Also RSE remakes confirmed along with Half Life 3.

 

[SmashShadow]

48 without min
54 with max

 

[Seraphim.]

42-45 is a good guess.

 

[Shorts]

I think I got a clue of how many characters we are getting.
http://www.smashbros.com/us/characters/wii_fit_trainer.html (worth with any character thoughT)
If we look at the strips of characters on the bottom we see it's already splitted in sets of nine chars (you already see the empty panels). So we evince the final number is a multiple of nine. It can't be 36 because that would be only one character more than the previous episode, and 63 is a too freaking high number to be considered. So we are stuck with those two numbers.
54 is still a huge number but still reasonable, and 45 even more reasonable.

I don't think that the number of characters is.. set yet. I think the character pool is set, but not the number.

42-45 is a good guess.

I think that's a bad guess.

 

[FiDeL]

Add 14 characters each time.

Sm4sh will have 54 characters.

End of thread.

Also RSE remakes confirmed along with Half Life 3.

There is 39 characters in Brawl, not 40. 35 in the select screen + zs Samus + Sheik + count 2 other pokémon for the pokémon trainer ( don't count + 3 cause one is already count in the 35 number. So it's 14 more characters from ssb64 to melee but 13 from melee to Brawl.

I think that maybe some were right when saying 45 is a possibility. select screen is 9 by 3, minus one empty space at the right and one at the left in the bottom line in melee so 9x2=18+7=25 (26 with Sheik). in brawl, the select screen is 9 by 4 so 36. remove the random space in the number so 35 (39 with, Sheik, zs Samus, yvisaur and Charizard, again, don't count squirtle).

So maybe this time It can be a 9 by 5 select screen, with this time the random space in the perfect center, so it's gonna make 44 playable characters sight in the select screen instead of 45, if we don't count Sheik Zero Suit and other alternate characters like that cause we don't know if they gonna return or if a new character with multi playable characters in one gonna be in. So I think 44 in the select screen and a Total playable unknown.

Like this! ( Don't debate for the characters choice it's just an example!

 

[Dark Phazon]

Its hard to say because we know chars will be cut but we dont know how many...

I think we will get 8-10 extra chars

Hmmmm...if anything i think it might go 39 Brawl -4 cuts + 10 new = 45.

It works.

 

[Oracle_Summon]

Its hard to say because we know chars will be cut but we dont know how many...

I think we will get 8-10 extra chars

Hmmmm...if anything i think it might go 39 Brawl -4 cuts + 10 new = 45.

It works.

45 Seems like too much to be made in such a small amount of time, let alone making sure everyone is balanced. I believe the rosters maximum number should be 40 and even then we are pushing it.

32 characters in Brawl, 3 spots taken by confirmed newcomers, which leaves room for 5 potential newcomers. Though, that is only granted if nobody from Brawl is actually cut.

 

[Dark Phazon]

45 Seems like too much to be made in such a small amount of time, let alone making sure everyone is balanced. I believe the rosters maximum number should be 40 and even then we are pushing it.

32 characters in Brawl, 3 spots taken by confirmed newcomers, which leaves room for 5 potential newcomers. Though, that is only granted if nobody from Brawl is actually cut.

They will be cuts sakurai said he doesnt want to cut anyone but he has too well either that or no newcomers....

40 chars WTF? How is that possible?

+3 Villager/WFT/MM...what? You dont make any sense...how is that possible....

Truth be told This game doesnt need as many newcomers than Melee and Brawl had majority of People would be happy with lets say.

1. Baby Bowser
2.Ridley
3. K.Rool
4. Mewtwo
5. Shulk
6. Palutena
7. Little Mac
8. Takamaru

Maybe replace Shulk and or Takamaru with someone else.

Point is ALOT of PeePz will be happy with that i know i would...the thing is its not all about popularity/the fans.

I only really see no more 4 of the chars i mentioned get in.

 

[Oracle_Summon]

They will be cuts sakurai said he doesnt want to cut anyone but he has too well either that or no newcomers....

40 chars WTF? How is that possible?

+3 Villager/WFT/MM...what? You dont make any sense...how is that possible....

Truth be told This game doesnt need as many newcomers than Melee and Brawl had majority of People would be happy with lets say.

1. Baby Bowser
2.Ridley
3. K.Rool
4. Mewtwo
5. Shulk
6. Palutena
7. Little Mac
8. Takamaru

Maybe replace Shulk and or Takamaru with someone else.

Point is ALOT of PeePz will be happy with that i know i would...the thing is its not all about popularity/the fans.

I only really see no more 4 of the chars i mentioned get in.

I said 40 characters will be the limit, because that increases the amount of time needed to balance each and every character. And even the number 40 is pushing the limit.

The +3 represents spots already taken by the new characters, leaving 5 spots left open incase no characters are cut.

 

[Hong]

I agree with Oracle_Summon. 40 is a very realistic number. If you focus on gameplay first, fan service second (IE don't include characters unless they have a distinct play style), we are not going to get as many characters as people think if you still want a fun game.

 

[Oracle_Summon]

I agree with Oracle_Summon. 40 is a very realistic number. If you focus on gameplay first, fan service second (IE don't include characters unless they have a distinct play style), we are not going to get as many characters as people think if you still want a fun game.

Exactly. I would rather have a game that is more balanced then getting the characters that I want in, no matter how much I want them.

 

[Mind Ranger]

We could have a balanced game with 42+.
Why the sudden cut with 40? I know the more characters you have the harder it is to balance but its shouldn't be too hard to add at least 2-3 then you guys are estimating.
Also, the roster is going nowhere near 50+.

 

[soviet prince]

40 characters we be an utter disappointment

 

[Sarki Soliloquy]

Quantity doesn't necessarily equal quality; each time a character is added, it brings more for the designers to balance. 45 would be a fair expansion to Brawl without going to extremes.

 

[Hong]

40 characters we be an utter disappointment

How can you just state a number and say it would be a disappointment? No matter what they do, they will never hope to make every character everyone wants ever. Quite frankly Brawl had many characters that had lacklustre design. They couldn't even properly design the number they had. While we have a better design staff this time, people are setting themselves up for a disappointment with the numbers they are throwing around.

Clearly Brawl's cast suffered from time-constraints, and while every game will have bugs or imbalances, it is rather... discouraging to see something as imbalanced as Meta Knight or as messed up as Koopa Hopping could have made it into a delayed AAA product. Even if we take the possibility of patches into account, we are going to end up with a lot of washed and uninteresting characters if they try to fulfill an arbitrary number, and a very bad initial experience.

It doesn't sound at all like the character creation process that Sakurai has outlined.

 

[dezeray112]

My guess would be around 45-50/

 

[ErictheLone]

40 characters we be an utter disappointment

I agree. With Namco-Bandai and their Tekken guys helping out, balancing the game should be easier than ever before. A roster that small compared to the previous game won't go over well outside of smash forums, A lot of people are already upset about Sakurai saying no more story mode and cutscenes.

 

[Hong]

I agree. With Namco-Bandai and their Tekken guys helping out, balancing the game should be easier than ever before. A roster that small compared to the previous game won't go over well outside of smash forums, A lot of people are already upset about Sakurai saying no more story mode and cutscenes.

Fans will what, have a knee-jerk reaction? Like they had with Wii Fit Trainer, until she suddenly rose in cool factor? Like with anything new or different?

People are inherently terrified of change. No matter who is added, who is removed, who shows up, who doesn't, people will be upset. Let's say Lucas is removed, but the best of his character are converged into Ness. Some people are going to be upset like "WHY DIDNT YOU JUST FIX HIM", but then a few weeks after release when a Mother character is still actually valid for use (unlike Melee and Brawl), they won't even look back. Let's say Ridley is added. In all the cheers and uproar, there are going to be people like "I CANT BELIEVE THEY ADDED RIDLEY HE LOOKS SO STUPID WHEN THEY SHRINK HIM THEY JUST GAVE INTO THE CRYBABIES". Basically no matter what happens, people will be upset. Hell, there is a small group of people upset that they changed Bowser. Honestly, the removal of SSE has gone discussed, but garnered a shrug from the general populace.

If we get characters without completely bogus moves that no one ends up using (see: a fair share of the Brawl newcomer's forward B attacks), and 30/40 characters are all strong competitors that people use frequently, people will be much happier after the dust settles. 40 characters isn't even a small roster. Smash Bros is not a game like Street Fighter where you can have five shotos and expect the fans to be okay with it; enough people are upset with clones as it is. Games like SFxT and UMvC3, for example, are just a bloated mess.

Not like I am saying the game MUST STICK TO THE SMALLEST ROSTER POSSIBLE, but the last two games suffered from time-constraints, Brawl much more so than Melee. Sakurai has learned his lesson, and will not bite more than he can chew.

 

[ErictheLone]

It looks like Smash Bros. Wii U is running on nothing more than a modified version of brawl's engine. It's not the total overhaul it was coming from Melee, or from 64 to Melee. For that reason alone I think the roster can increase a fair bit over brawl. If there's no SSE or just a very scaled-down Adventure/Story Mode, then that's even more time they can devote to characters and balancing. That's probably the 'real' reason cutscenes are gone, not because of youtube videos. >_>

 

[BADGRAPHICS]

It looks like Smash Bros. Wii U is running on nothing more than a modified version of brawl's engine.

What information could you possibly have used to come to this conclusion?

 

[Phan7om]

I'd rather have 40 (even 20-30) well developed characters than 50+ characters with 10-30 of them being completely OP or Clones.

 

[Hong]

It looks like Smash Bros. Wii U is running on nothing more than a modified version of brawl's engine. It's not the total overhaul it was coming from Melee, or from 64 to Melee. For that reason alone I think the roster can increase a fair bit over brawl. If there's no SSE or just a very scaled-down Adventure/Story Mode, then that's even more time they can devote to characters and balancing.

We don't even have an inkling for the new features that we will have. What I mean to say is, we don't know the full scope of what is being removed versus what is being added. Every game has something completely new, like the collectables in Melee or the stage builder in Brawl. What you said would make sense if they basically took out features and made an experience entirely dedicated to vanilla multiplayer matches (just to throw this out there I wouldn't mind that all), but there is going to be cool new stuff we have never heard of before. We don't know how much time it will all take to implement properly.

What you also left out is the fact they are working on two versions of the game. While the characters and general mechanics between the two versions are the same, it will still require considerable development effort to make sure both products offer quality and polish. In fact last we heard no less than a month ago, they still don't even know what they are doing with the 3DS version yet. On the programming end, the 3DS version will result in tedious, TEDIOUS amounts of work. Sure Nintendo basically gave Sakurai a blank cheque and free rein to bring in whatever development staff he needs, but there is only so much he can direct.

Besides, while people don't want to hear this, Bowser is basically a new character for you. Every character that gets a near total rework is, mechanically, a new character. Which I realize is a bit of a sore because that is less fanservice, but in the grand scheme of things, I rather them make sure all the returning characters actually work before we just leave them in a ditch with designs that will never progress as players improve no matter how much they tweak variables. New blood is very important to make the product feel fresh and not just a Brawl 2, but I rather them give other characters the Bowser-treatment and make sure they work before they start piling on Meta Knights and Sonics.

That's probably the 'real' reason cutscenes are gone, not because of youtube videos. >_>

Honestly it is money better spent, from a business standpoint. While I personally loved the movies in Brawl, they are instead looking at a return. While anything Smash Bros garners insane hype, they can get everyone talking and interested by investing the same production into the product before release instead of after. It builds hype for Smash Bros (a series that doesn't need much), but more importantly for Nintendo is that they can build hype and curiosity over their other products. A great move considering the Wii U has abysmal sales.

Of course I would have still liked both and I don't really agree with Sakurai's logic behind them forgoing an animated storyline.

 

[ErictheLone]

My main issue is these roster numbers being put forth. 40 and under is reasonable, 45 is too much, 50 is impossible, ect ect ect. I mean, who says? Nothing more than forum group-think.

 

[Snakeyes]

My main issue is these roster numbers being put forth. 40 and under is reasonable, 45 is too much, 50 is impossible, ect ect ect. I mean, who says? Nothing more than forum group-think.

Armchair developers.

 

[IsmaR]

I don't even take a roster of 35-39 characters for granted. My wide-eyed idealism for the Brawl roster was a major turning point for me becoming a pessimist.

 

[ImaClubYou]

I'm gonna say 1000 not including every Pikmin.

 

[memememe]

My guess is 41.

 

[Hong]

My main issue is these roster numbers being put forth. 40 and under is reasonable, 45 is too much, 50 is impossible, ect ect ect. I mean, who says? Nothing more than forum group-think.

That is basically the entire point I was trying to get off, that people shouldn't be targeting any ideal number. All we were trying to say is the numbers people project have no consideration for the resources it will require to make the characters work, and it's better to assume a low medium than a high.

 

[SmashShadow]

The thing is, what differentiates one Smash game from the other is mainly the characters. They each have the same style gameplay which is knocking your opponent off stage. Physics and balancing can be as different as day and night but when it boils down to it, the vast majority buy the games for the new characters. Brawl outsold Melee and it certainly wasn't because it was better balanced. The simple truth is, most people don't know jack-**** about balance in Smash Bros. I don't know how many times I've seen people say Ike or Ganon need to be nerfed just because they're powerful or that Meta Knight is just an average character. You could balance the game to death and not a single person would be able to tell at this point. Not you, me, any casual or competitive player would be able to tell until after the game is released. Even if they do try to put more emphasis on balancing, that certainly doesn't mean that there won't be overlooked aspects to characters that even they didn't know about.

Of the things that we can tell, characters is one of them. It's more apparent in this game because the characters are taken from outside games and franchises that we're already familiar with. Smash is going to sell well regardless of if they add a bunch of new characters or not just because it's Smash. But hype is an important factor for any game and the hype for smash comes directly from the characters.

Lastly, they added 3 new characters in the first trailer. Add onto that with the fact that Sakurai says he hasn't cut anybody yet. That already puts us at 42 characters after the first trailer. Even if there does end up being a few cuts, do you honestly think he'd reveal all the new characters in the first trailer? He didn't do it in Melee and he didn't do it in brawl. I can guarantee you he won't now. In no way are we going to end up with 40 characters.

 

[Smashoperatingbuddy123]

40 or 43 or 45

40 because he can barely increase room and a few newcomers can replace a few

43 adds one row from brawl and that's the most likely

45 that's what I want but pretty accurate guess could do the invisible random buttons again like in Melee for the missing 2 slots

 

[Curmudgeon]

lol at the people thinking there will be only >5 more characters than Brawl

 

[Dark Phazon]

lol at the people thinking there will be only >5 more characters than Brawl

Well the 3 newcomers we already have plus dont count newcomers that replace veterans and +5 new extra on top i think its possible/likely like that.

 

[Curmudgeon]

I don't get why people think there will be many cuts, is it because of the Melee cuts? Melee had DR. MARIO, PICHU and ROY; 3 unnecessary clones, and YOUNG LINK who wasn't really cut. Then we have Mewtwo, the oddball. Now think about Brawl, the only real clone in that game was Toon Link. 4 of the 5 characters cut from Melee were 99% clones. Counting the 3rd parties, which are a special case, we should only have to worry about 3 potential cuts.

 

[Sane.]

I'm not expecting the number to change much from Brawl, but hopefully there will less clones.

Especially with Sakurai's mention of adding move customization, there's going to be tons of factors to set apart playstyles.

 

[Ryan.]

I think 45 or 54 would be good, but they might just not fill the entire row. :/

 

[Dark Phazon]

I'm not expecting the number to change much from Brawl, but hopefully there will less clones.

Especially with Sakurai's mention of adding move customization, there's going to be tons of factors to set apart playstyles.

Ugh...all this speculation in general is making me sick again...we need gameplay. Or atleast some proper concrete news.