So I've been thinking, who could be left they could add to this game? And I'm thinking characters left to speculate over is smaller than ever. This topic is going to be more about unique fighters, but I'll mention echoes as I go
I believe, we've seen every character from a new franchise already. This is because of both the stage select screen and the sound test.
I believe we've seen every stage already. They said all stages will be unlocked from the start when showing the stage select screen, and said a total of 103, even pointing out exactly 100 when not counting the Smash originals. Also we see all the series emblems in the sound test, with the other section for smaller stuff. This to me tells me we're not getting anything new that warrants it's own sound test section. And it definitely seems it's limited to franchises with playable characters, as Pilotwings and Wii Sports seems to be relegated to other. (And I don't believe Sakurai has ever purposely removed something from a menu just to keep a secret. Obviously he's fuzzyd something and used the select icon to hide Zelda in melee, but he didn't actually remove any thing)
The only exception I can see to this, is an old school retro franchise, which are the only franchises with playable characters listed in the other section. Something like R.O.B. who doesn't really need a stage, or perhaps already has a stage. We're getting a new wrecking crew remix so perhaps something from that? We've gotten a NES retro character each game since Melee so it's definitely something we should consider. The other big possibility to me is Diskun, the Famicom mascot who still shows up from time to time. He even had a trophy in Melee.
So aside from those two, I think every other character left comes from existing franchises. This narrows the potential characters down considerably. I hope for the sake of Golden Sun and Rhythm Heaven fans I'm wrong, but I really don't think I am. For now, I'm gonna go through each the current franchises and see who stands
Mario: King Boo, Paper Mario and Geno are really the only remaining ones at this point. King Boo sadly doesn't really have the demand and Square is being stingy still. Paper Mario has a chance, even had his stage. But personally I think Mario already has so much it won't get anything unique this time, and it did get Daisy anyway. What do you think?
DK: Just got K Rool, Dixie and Funky could work as echoes but I'm more interested in unique character in this topic. Dixie could be unique too, but with limited space I have my doubts
Zelda: All eyes are on Skull Kid. His biggest competition are either deconfirmed or echo material (Impa) and people have been begging for more Zelda characters. With his assist trophy missing, leaks to help and many many things that make you go "Could this mean..? " Skull Kid has a pretty good chance
Metroid: We got Ridley and Dark Samus
Yoshi: Aside from maybe Yarn Yoshi echo, I don't expect much from here
Kirby: Bandana Dee is one of the reasons I'm doing this, there doesn't seem much reason to exclude him except maybe priorities elsewhere. So I'm seeing what other priorities there are. Hopefully he gets his prize. He certainly has the popularity for it
StarFox: Krystal was the most popular choice. And she's been deconfirmed. And Andross shows up as an assist trophy again too
Pokemon: I'm thinking we are getting one now. Even without an Alolan stage, we have a lot of other Pokemon stages and Tortimer Island was used for a stand in when revealing Alolan Exeggcutor. Who do I think? Personally Tapu Koko. He has the prominence in the game, anime and promotion that a Pokemon tends to have. Lycanroc or a starter is another real possibility. However I have my doubts on a starter because we already have fair few of them. But that's just me, let me know what you think.
F-Zero: a few characters could work as an echo. But the eternal damnation the series is in leads me to believe we're not getting anyone new
Earthbound: Same as F-Zero, Lots of cool echoes but with the series ending long ago, it's hard to justify another character. Some people like to look at Masked Man and Porky as new villains but I have my doubts.
Fire Emblem: the only non retro franchise from Melee that already has a heck of a lot of characters and also got Chrom as an echo. Fates is also still the most recent brand new Fire Emblem game. So I highly doubt we'll see anything more from here
Wario: Ashley was the character everyone wanted from this franchise, even I have my doubts of anyone but her getting in. But unfortunately she was deconfirmed, so I doubt we're getting anything
Kid Icarus: Kid Icarus does offer a lot of unique characters. But it's most popular character not playable, Viridi has been deconfirmed. Some suggest Medusa as an echo.
Pikmin: Sadly, Pikmin suffers from lack of variety in its cast. Poor Alph couldn't even be more than Alt
Sonic: Shadow could be an Echo. But until I see it, I don't believe we're getting any unique second additions to the third parties. Plus sidekick Tails was seen on Green Hill. Although the role is really minor
Snake: See Sonic, maybe Raiden as an echo??
Animal Crossing: I consider Isabelle the most likely character as of right now. What I'm unsure if she'd be echo or unique. I'm leaning towards echo now as it'd just be easier and there isn't as much to draw from for her. It's certainly could go either way with her prominence.
Mega Man: pretty much all the popular choices are gone, even as echoes. I think I heard Roll was a clone in an MvC so maybe an echo?
Wii Fit: For obvious reasons, not happening
Punch-Out: There is just no demand for it. No one really stands out either aside from Doc Louis
Pac-Man: Maybe Ms Pac-Man but obviously nothing unique
Xenoblade: Oh dear. Elma and Rex are really popular choices but I'm starting to doubt both. Again I believe we've gotten every stage already. I believe if either of those 2 got in, they would have gotten a stage. Especially Elma since X is really nothing like the original. And Rex I'm feeling is too new regardless. This is the hardest part to predict though. As for characters from the original game, most of the popular characters are in Shulks Final Smash. I have the least amount of confidence in this but I believe that if we got one, we would've gotten a stage too.
Street Fighter: Ken echo definitely, worth noting the huge increase in Street Fighter songs
Final Fantasy: with only two songs, I doubt we're getting anything new here.
Bayonetta: While Jeanne is an obvious Echo choice, Bayonetta still has her colour based on Jeanne. So doubtful. And I can't see them doing Rosa instead.
Splatoon: Octolings could be an Echo but that's it
Castlevania: I think we already know most of what's coming from this franchise.
So looking at every franchise? What characters does that leave us?
Based on all this I believe our unique character lineup is.
Skull Kid
Tapu Koko
Bandana Dee
Diskun
I opted for Diskun because the real stars of Wrecking Crew is really just the Mario Bros, you could go foreman spike but he was essentially replaced by Wario and Waluigi. Diskun also has more history with Nintendo and generally makes more sense not to have a stage. The only other character I could see at this point is Bubbles or Much Rider. But Diskun just has more history with Nintendo.
As for echoes, I reckon Impa, Isabelle, Dixie, Shadow and Ken. Maybe more but it's hard to say how many echoes they can add.
Feel free to leave your own take on this, I'd love to see what others say. Looking at each franchise, who do you think is left they could add? Or do you believe I'm wrong about no more stages and franchises? Post your own theory on what characters are still possible.
I believe, we've seen every character from a new franchise already. This is because of both the stage select screen and the sound test.
I believe we've seen every stage already. They said all stages will be unlocked from the start when showing the stage select screen, and said a total of 103, even pointing out exactly 100 when not counting the Smash originals. Also we see all the series emblems in the sound test, with the other section for smaller stuff. This to me tells me we're not getting anything new that warrants it's own sound test section. And it definitely seems it's limited to franchises with playable characters, as Pilotwings and Wii Sports seems to be relegated to other. (And I don't believe Sakurai has ever purposely removed something from a menu just to keep a secret. Obviously he's fuzzyd something and used the select icon to hide Zelda in melee, but he didn't actually remove any thing)
The only exception I can see to this, is an old school retro franchise, which are the only franchises with playable characters listed in the other section. Something like R.O.B. who doesn't really need a stage, or perhaps already has a stage. We're getting a new wrecking crew remix so perhaps something from that? We've gotten a NES retro character each game since Melee so it's definitely something we should consider. The other big possibility to me is Diskun, the Famicom mascot who still shows up from time to time. He even had a trophy in Melee.
So aside from those two, I think every other character left comes from existing franchises. This narrows the potential characters down considerably. I hope for the sake of Golden Sun and Rhythm Heaven fans I'm wrong, but I really don't think I am. For now, I'm gonna go through each the current franchises and see who stands
Mario: King Boo, Paper Mario and Geno are really the only remaining ones at this point. King Boo sadly doesn't really have the demand and Square is being stingy still. Paper Mario has a chance, even had his stage. But personally I think Mario already has so much it won't get anything unique this time, and it did get Daisy anyway. What do you think?
DK: Just got K Rool, Dixie and Funky could work as echoes but I'm more interested in unique character in this topic. Dixie could be unique too, but with limited space I have my doubts
Zelda: All eyes are on Skull Kid. His biggest competition are either deconfirmed or echo material (Impa) and people have been begging for more Zelda characters. With his assist trophy missing, leaks to help and many many things that make you go "Could this mean..? " Skull Kid has a pretty good chance
Metroid: We got Ridley and Dark Samus
Yoshi: Aside from maybe Yarn Yoshi echo, I don't expect much from here
Kirby: Bandana Dee is one of the reasons I'm doing this, there doesn't seem much reason to exclude him except maybe priorities elsewhere. So I'm seeing what other priorities there are. Hopefully he gets his prize. He certainly has the popularity for it
StarFox: Krystal was the most popular choice. And she's been deconfirmed. And Andross shows up as an assist trophy again too
Pokemon: I'm thinking we are getting one now. Even without an Alolan stage, we have a lot of other Pokemon stages and Tortimer Island was used for a stand in when revealing Alolan Exeggcutor. Who do I think? Personally Tapu Koko. He has the prominence in the game, anime and promotion that a Pokemon tends to have. Lycanroc or a starter is another real possibility. However I have my doubts on a starter because we already have fair few of them. But that's just me, let me know what you think.
F-Zero: a few characters could work as an echo. But the eternal damnation the series is in leads me to believe we're not getting anyone new
Earthbound: Same as F-Zero, Lots of cool echoes but with the series ending long ago, it's hard to justify another character. Some people like to look at Masked Man and Porky as new villains but I have my doubts.
Fire Emblem: the only non retro franchise from Melee that already has a heck of a lot of characters and also got Chrom as an echo. Fates is also still the most recent brand new Fire Emblem game. So I highly doubt we'll see anything more from here
Wario: Ashley was the character everyone wanted from this franchise, even I have my doubts of anyone but her getting in. But unfortunately she was deconfirmed, so I doubt we're getting anything
Kid Icarus: Kid Icarus does offer a lot of unique characters. But it's most popular character not playable, Viridi has been deconfirmed. Some suggest Medusa as an echo.
Pikmin: Sadly, Pikmin suffers from lack of variety in its cast. Poor Alph couldn't even be more than Alt
Sonic: Shadow could be an Echo. But until I see it, I don't believe we're getting any unique second additions to the third parties. Plus sidekick Tails was seen on Green Hill. Although the role is really minor
Snake: See Sonic, maybe Raiden as an echo??
Animal Crossing: I consider Isabelle the most likely character as of right now. What I'm unsure if she'd be echo or unique. I'm leaning towards echo now as it'd just be easier and there isn't as much to draw from for her. It's certainly could go either way with her prominence.
Mega Man: pretty much all the popular choices are gone, even as echoes. I think I heard Roll was a clone in an MvC so maybe an echo?
Wii Fit: For obvious reasons, not happening
Punch-Out: There is just no demand for it. No one really stands out either aside from Doc Louis
Pac-Man: Maybe Ms Pac-Man but obviously nothing unique
Xenoblade: Oh dear. Elma and Rex are really popular choices but I'm starting to doubt both. Again I believe we've gotten every stage already. I believe if either of those 2 got in, they would have gotten a stage. Especially Elma since X is really nothing like the original. And Rex I'm feeling is too new regardless. This is the hardest part to predict though. As for characters from the original game, most of the popular characters are in Shulks Final Smash. I have the least amount of confidence in this but I believe that if we got one, we would've gotten a stage too.
Street Fighter: Ken echo definitely, worth noting the huge increase in Street Fighter songs
Final Fantasy: with only two songs, I doubt we're getting anything new here.
Bayonetta: While Jeanne is an obvious Echo choice, Bayonetta still has her colour based on Jeanne. So doubtful. And I can't see them doing Rosa instead.
Splatoon: Octolings could be an Echo but that's it
Castlevania: I think we already know most of what's coming from this franchise.
So looking at every franchise? What characters does that leave us?
Based on all this I believe our unique character lineup is.
Skull Kid
Tapu Koko
Bandana Dee
Diskun
I opted for Diskun because the real stars of Wrecking Crew is really just the Mario Bros, you could go foreman spike but he was essentially replaced by Wario and Waluigi. Diskun also has more history with Nintendo and generally makes more sense not to have a stage. The only other character I could see at this point is Bubbles or Much Rider. But Diskun just has more history with Nintendo.
As for echoes, I reckon Impa, Isabelle, Dixie, Shadow and Ken. Maybe more but it's hard to say how many echoes they can add.
Feel free to leave your own take on this, I'd love to see what others say. Looking at each franchise, who do you think is left they could add? Or do you believe I'm wrong about no more stages and franchises? Post your own theory on what characters are still possible.