51 characters total, reasoning inside.

[Erimir]

That character select screen was quite polished. Why would you think it was something that they just threw together for the demo? Seriously. They are very far along in development. They have to make a final character select screen, and they've probably already basically finished that. I'd be certain that they just altered the final version to show fewer characters, possibly tweaked the shapes of the boxes. Why would they do any more work than that?

But obviously it can change.

But this is the Brawl demo character select screen:

This is the full character select screen:

They are very, very similar. There are definitely no major design changes.

The boxes are slightly altered in proportions from the demo to the final, full version, and accordingly the pictures are slightly adjusted in relation to the box. The demo has 6 columns and 3 rows, while the final version has 8 columns and 3 rows for starters, and 9x4 for the full roster. They do slightly change the shapes of the boxes from the starters to the full roster, adding an extra column in the same space.

So I think it's reasonable to think they might end with a full roster of 4 x 13. That's easily done without making major changes to that character select screen. At 14 or more columns, it will start getting too cramped for the names of characters with longer names... but maybe they could do like they did with Donkey Kong and Captain Falcon...

Maybe they'll go to 5 rows, but then the boxes will start to get quite small.

I still say that 51 or 52 characters is basically the upper limit.

 

[NintenRob]

Thank you for posting that, I really beleive 51 is our roster and Gematsu characters are just newcomers who would be revealed. Maybe they plan on announcing a Mother character and at the same time, strongly suggest the other isn't playable.

 

[hotcrumpets]

it is pointless to base the roster's size on the demo css because the e3 brawl demo css could barely fit 20 characters, and when you unlocked more characters in brawl the icons got smaller.

 

[staindgrey]

As a graphic designer, I have to say that this prediction is impossible simply because whoever's in charge of the aesthetics of the selection screen wouldn't allow it. There's no use of negative space and it seems very cramped. Plus, as was mentioned a few posts down (sorry, I didn't read past the first five or six posts in this thread), we have to factor in the 3DS screen as well, and with its smaller size, it can't be too cramped.

We're currently sitting at 33, and E3 has come and go. I don't estimate we'll go over 40. We'll likely get back Ness and Falcon, which will put us at 35, with a strong possibility for Ganondorf or Ghirahim as well. That leaves us only a few precious spaces for other characters, one of which will likely go to Shulk due to Xenoblade's recent popularity and reveal. I don't think G&W, Ice Climbers or ROB will be back, though I could be wrong. And I think they'll forgo Falco in favor of just giving Fox a bunch of skins. Again, I could be very wrong.

I wouldn't get my hopes up for 51, though. A little over forty max would be my guess.

 

[Zwzchow]

We're currently sitting at 33, and E3 has come and go. I don't estimate we'll go over 40. We'll likely get back Ness and Falcon, which will put us at 35, with a strong possibility for Ganondorf or Ghirahim as well. That leaves us only a few precious spaces for other characters, one of which will likely go to Shulk due to Xenoblade's recent popularity and reveal. I don't think G&W, Ice Climbers or ROB will be back, though I could be wrong. And I think they'll forgo Falco in favor of just giving Fox a bunch of skins. Again, I could be very wrong.

o.o cutting G&W Ice Climbers and especially Falco will definitely cause an uproar to occur
We already have quite a number of important vets waiting to return
Namely
Ganondorf
G&W (teased)
Meta Knight
Falco (Star Fox Wii U?)
Falcon
Ness
Puff
etc etc

It already shoots us past 40. We should definitely be getting 47-50

 

[JaidynReiman]

As a graphic designer, I have to say that this prediction is impossible simply because whoever's in charge of the aesthetics of the selection screen wouldn't allow it. There's no use of negative space and it seems very cramped. Plus, as was mentioned a few posts down (sorry, I didn't read past the first five or six posts in this thread), we have to factor in the 3DS screen as well, and with its smaller size, it can't be too cramped.

We're currently sitting at 33, and E3 has come and go. I don't estimate we'll go over 40. We'll likely get back Ness and Falcon, which will put us at 35, with a strong possibility for Ganondorf or Ghirahim as well. That leaves us only a few precious spaces for other characters, one of which will likely go to Shulk due to Xenoblade's recent popularity and reveal. I don't think G&W, Ice Climbers or ROB will be back, though I could be wrong. And I think they'll forgo Falco in favor of just giving Fox a bunch of skins. Again, I could be very wrong.

I wouldn't get my hopes up for 51, though. A little over forty max would be my guess.

You're very wrong, we'll have at least 45 and DLC is pretty much all-but-confirmed at this point.

I agree on them forgoing Falco, though. Custom movesets make Falco as a separate character completely irrelevant. G&W is all but confirmed, though its possible Ice Climbers and ROB might be cut, but I doubt that.

 

[mini paincakes]

Again, I could be very wrong.

Yeah, I think you are very wrong, no offense. There's so many characters that are almost guarantee to return and a few newcomers that we haven't seen either. I personally think we'll most likely get over 50 characters, but I don't think there's any chance of the roster being smaller than about 46-47 characters.

I also don't think we'll ever see Ice Climbers, G&W, Ness, Captain Falcon, Falco, Ganondorf, Meta Knight, JIgglypuff, ROB or Wario cut. Also Wolf and Lucas seem likely, but they have a slight chance of leaving.

 

[staindgrey]

o.o cutting G&W Ice Climbers and especially Falco will definitely cause an uproar to occur
We already have quite a number of important vets waiting to return
Namely
Ganondorf
G&W (teased)
Meta Knight
Falco (Star Fox Wii U?)
Falcon
Ness
Puff
etc etc

It already shoots us past 40. We should definitely be getting 47-50

I can't really explain why, because it's all baseless opinion, but I really don't think Jiggs, ROB, Ice Climbers or Metaknight will be in. I also realize that Fox/Falco/Wolf are entirely different characters, but with these new alternate skin ideas they've shown us, I think it's possible they'll go an Injustice: Gods Among Us route and put a few different Star Fox characters, new voice and all, on as pallet swaps for Fox. But that's pure speculation on my part.

All I'm saying is don't expect Sakurai to feel obligated to keep certain characters in just because of a potential "uproar". He's shown in the past that he's going to make his game the way he wants to make it regardless of how the competitive community feels.

 

[JaidynReiman]

Yeah, I think you are very wrong, no offense. There's so many characters that are almost guarantee to return and a few newcomers that we haven't seen either. I personally think we'll most likely get over 50 characters, but I don't think there's any chance of the roster being smaller than about 46-47 characters.

I also don't think we'll ever see Ice Climbers, G&W, Ness, Captain Falcon, Falco, Ganondorf, Meta Knight, JIgglypuff, ROB or Wario cut. Also Wolf and Lucas seem likely, but they have a slight chance of leaving.

I don't get this idea. They're considering cutting Lucas or Ness, yet Falco and Jigglypuff are completely safe? Falco I think is in a worse state right now than Wolf is, and Jigglypuff is basically just a joke character. No one characters for Jiggly anymore. I wouldn't be surprised if Jiggly is cut or put as a lower priority to Mewtwo.

 

[GraveJoker]

I'm liking this roster. I have no problem with this.

 

[NintenRob]

I looked at the 3DS demo roster and mine still fits

3DS

Wii U

 

[mini paincakes]

I looked at the 3DS demo roster and mine still fits

3DS

Wii U

I'd be perfectly content with this roster. Although, I would personally put in mewtwo over bandana dee.

Great Job!

 

[stan423321]

Just to get it out of the way, the last picture in the OP is very unlikely to be what we'll get there. The side slots are too close to edges of the screen. You don't put important stuff there (unless you're on a handheld) because displays vary and they may mess the edges up. So that's either 47 characters or we're gonna see a different menu in the end to some level.

 

[Leafeon523]

I think it would be cool to have a poll on this thread. "Do you believe the roster will have 51 characters?
-Yes
-No

 

[Neo Zero]

I could really see the 3DS version including an arrow to scroll between two roster pages. I mean all the 3DS version has is the boxes with zero artistic tweaks, just boxes. Putting an arrow would help it a lot, especially if we have to account for DLC characters.

 

[Con0rrrr]

I looked at the 3DS demo roster and mine still fits

3DS

Wii U

I agree. Just I feel like if we were rebooting Takamaru as earlier discussion suggested, we'd know by now, especially at E3. So I'd replace Takamaru with Mewtwo

 

[pupNapoleon]

Why is this a thread, seriously? It is a specific persons speculation thread. We have roster size speculation, and even threads on number of spaces already.

That character select screen was quite polished. Why would you think it was something that they just threw together for the demo? Seriously. They are very far along in development. They have to make a final character select screen, and they've probably already basically finished that. I'd be certain that they just altered the final version to show fewer characters, possibly tweaked the shapes of the boxes. Why would they do any more work than that?

But obviously it can change.

But this is the Brawl demo character select screen:

This is the full character select screen:

They are very, very similar. There are definitely no major design changes.

The boxes are slightly altered in proportions from the demo to the final, full version, and accordingly the pictures are slightly adjusted in relation to the box. The demo has 6 columns and 3 rows, while the final version has 8 columns and 3 rows for starters, and 9x4 for the full roster. They do slightly change the shapes of the boxes from the starters to the full roster, adding an extra column in the same space.

So I think it's reasonable to think they might end with a full roster of 4 x 13. That's easily done without making major changes to that character select screen. At 14 or more columns, it will start getting too cramped for the names of characters with longer names... but maybe they could do like they did with Donkey Kong and Captain Falcon...

Maybe they'll go to 5 rows, but then the boxes will start to get quite small.

I still say that 51 or 52 characters is basically the upper limit.

What? I'm not saying they are going to create an entirely new select screen, I'm saying predicting how many spaces there will be based on what we were given here is absolutely crazy. Make each character's rectangle just a fraction smaller and we could fit another character in every space. Is that absurd? no. That is just one possibility.

Of course the screen will look like this, but to try to gauge the dimensions of how many blocks we want to fit visually into here is ridiculous and based on nothing. The aesthetic is all we are given.

 

[Game Boy Blue]

Mii Gunner, Brawler, and Sword Fighter are likely separate slots, to better accommodate the move customizations in the format used in every other fighter. It only makes sense to assume so.

 

[GamerGuy09]

Mii Gunner, Brawler, and Sword Fighter are likely separate slots, to better accommodate the move customizations in the format used in every other fighter. It only makes sense to assume so.

I would agree with you, but since the Smash Bros website has them in a single slot, I have to think that they would share a slot on the CSS. It is just logical that way.

 

[8-peacock-8]

However, It doesn't make sense to have them as separate slots.

 

[RhymesWithEmpty]

First Gematsu leak was Wii Fit Trainer, Mega Man, Animal Crossing guy, Little Mac, Mii, Pac-Man.

Second Gematsu leak from right before the Direct was Mii, Pac-Man (those two from before, of course), Pokemon from X & Y, Shulk, Chrom and Chorus Men (Rhythm Heaven).

Third Gematsu leak, from just before the E3 presentation, was that Ness or Lucas will probably be cut, probably Lucas AND it called out Mii Fighter specifically as the name of the Mii character.

I'm aware of all of the Gematsu leaks, I was talking about a different leak that, given the latest Gematsu leak, could line up with it quite well. It said 48 characters with 4 cuts. If we replace the random slot on the 12 column version of this roster, and Lucas, Snake, Squirtle and Ivysaur are gone, bam, 48 characters, 4 cuts.

 

[GamerGuy09]

I'm aware of all of the Gematsu leaks, I was talking about a different leak that, given the latest Gematsu leak, could line up with it quite well. It said 48 characters with 4 cuts. If we replace the random slot on the 12 column version of this roster, and Lucas, Snake, Squirtle and Ivysaur are gone, bam, 48 characters, 4 cuts.

That theory is broken though because it is impossible to have 48 character slots as we saw the Random icon in the demo. Why would they take it away? There is only 4 options for the roster size. 46, 47, 50, and 51. The reason why I add the 46 and 50 is because there may be a second unused character slot that is reserved for DLC characters.

So I think the RosalinaX leak has been busted anyway as it is almost impossible to have 48 slots.

 

[RhymesWithEmpty]

Again, I can only say that limiting the roster size by what fits in a perfect 12x4 or 13x4 block of characters is completely backwards. We don't know how Sakurai is going to lay out the final screen. We don't know that every row will have the same number of icons. The roster will be the size that it is and they will design it around that. Maybe that means getting rid of the random icon, maybe it doesn't. We're not the dev team, we just don't know. It might just have happened to come up to 47 characters and fit perfectly, but to say that 48 is absolutely impossible because of something like this is a little crazy XD

 

[pupNapoleon]

I second the fact that Mii characters will almost definitely not have their own icon space, but a random side off shoot wherein you choose it and then are asked to select a chosen mii or to create one.
We have in truth 32 characters so far. Miis are a 'create a character' option

 

[GamerGuy09]

I second the fact that Mii characters will almost definitely not have their own icon space, but a random side off shoot wherein you choose it and then are asked to select a chosen mii or to create one.
We have in truth 32 characters so far. Miis are a 'create a character' option

I think that they will have an icon that opens a mini menu like in MK8.

 

[NintenRob]

The problem with the Mii thoery is that where on the screen can they go? The 3DS screen especially doesn't have space for that.

 

[8-peacock-8]

The problem with the Mii thoery is that where on the screen can they go? The 3DS screen especially doesn't have space for that.

Off to the side on a box that says "Mii". It's not hard to place them somewhere.

 

[Starbound]

Treehouse confirmed that Miis are just one slot on the character select screen.

Will grab the video I saw this in later when I find it.

 

[The21stSmasher]

51 Characters??? Um, are you sure about that, considering the fact that Nintendo has only 3 months and a few weeks to finish off the 3DS version?

 

[Con0rrrr]

Made this roster for the 51 character idea that seems to be very likely + Gematsu. Rhythm Heaven girl is Chorus Men and Purple Represents DLC characters. I made a post in the Roster display thread to further explain myself

 

[andimidna]

I just made a roster of what I'm currently expecting and it just happened to be 51 characters. Interesting.

I still don't get how the theory here holds any weight, but I'm betting on:

No Ridley reveal made me lose hope in him
No K Rool reveal made me lean towards Dixie, the DK newcomer choice I'd find more likely to become a secret character (although they're basically 50/50... it could be either, but now I don't think it will be both)
Although I'm glad to see some aren't losing hope in K Rool.
Removed Ghirahim and Anna because they're basically just pipe-dreams of mine.
Removed Isaac sadly.
Removed Snake because no E3 reveal and emphasis on Mario + 3 third parties.
It was tough to do this. These were amongst my most wanted.

And it left me at 51 characters I am now expecting. So this theory now interests me. But I don't like it. This roster is kind of "meh" to me. Still better than a roster with Bandana freaking Dee. But I just don't like these leaks... ugh.

I agree. Just I feel like if we were rebooting Takamaru as earlier discussion suggested, we'd know by now, especially at E3. So I'd replace Takamaru with Mewtwo

A retro newcomer at E3 seems like an unlikely claim. What I mean is, it was unlikely that he'd appear compared to the many that depended on E3. He's not really a hype character. I think Takamaru is very likely, and so is Mewtwo.
Bandana Dee is the odd one out on that roster to me.

I looked at the 3DS demo roster and mine still fits

3DS

Wii U

Mewtwo>Bandana Dee
In both likelihood and overall appeal/want-- common opinion that I agree with.
I can't argue K Rool vs Dixie simply because I have no idea who is winning anymore. I just want one or the other. So the first thing is the only problem I have with this roster.

 

[Smashoperatingbuddy123]

Ok im going to make one

But 1 problem right now the add icons thing is not finding the new ssb4 icon pac-man for some reason.

 

[Raetah]

The problem i see with those rosters is that Mii Fighter is most likely going to use 3 spaces in the selection screen.

 

[Smashoperatingbuddy123]

The problem i see with those rosters is that Mii Fighter is most likely going to use 3 spaces in the selection screen.

Actually in my opinion I'm 80% sure you select them like how you choose which Pokemon to start with pokemon trainer

(1 box highlights the chosen type of mii character.)

 

[Raetah]

Actually in my opinion I'm 80% sure you select them like how you choose which Pokemon to start with pokemon trainer

(1 box highlights the chosen type of mii character.)

I was not intended at all to say selection screen. But i think that each Mii Fighter is counted as a different newcomer. So currently we have 11 newcomers, if the gematsu leak is true we can asume that Chrom, Shulk and Chorus Men are newcomers. 14 newcomers.

Consider that SSB4 is not intended to have more newcomers than Brawl 16.

Because of this, rosters that include more than 1 newcomer that is not part of the leak are not valid.
And said that, Sakurai stated that he wanted a character from an old series to revive it after SSB4, wich leads in to a Retro character.

 

[8-peacock-8]

51 Characters??? Um, are you sure about that, considering the fact that Nintendo has only 3 months and a few weeks to finish off the 3DS version?

You act like they don't have the characters ready by now. Sakurai already stated that all they need to do is debug the game.

So it's possible we might have 51 or less.

 

[The21stSmasher]

You act like they don't have the characters ready by now.

No, that's not the case. I'm just a bit worried despite how much time they got left, that's all.

 

[8-peacock-8]

No, that's not the case. I'm just a bit worried despite how much time they got left, that's all.

Even though it's like i said. They only have to debug the game.

 

[The21stSmasher]

Even though it's like i said. They only have to debug the game.

And it's like I said, I'm just worried. But hopefully you'll be right about 51 characters making it in. I would like to see that.

 

[8-peacock-8]

And it's like I said, I'm just worried. But hopefully you'll be right about 51 characters making it in. I would like to see that.

I meant to say that you're worrying over nothing. it'd be great to have 50 to 51 characters but we'll just have to wait and see.