Don't forget, Sakurai had said he and his team were taking all the characters from Melee and restarting them from scratch. Now that does mean there were guidelines so they knew where they were to end up and didn't have to plan that much, but the programming and balancing of each individual character vs eac individual character would take some time.
14 more characters would seem reasonable, but I'm expecting just a wee bit less than that. Maybe 10 or 11? 12 at best? Also, you need to take into account that they're avoiding the idea of clones so each new character will have to be started from scratch. The 6 clones that were put in the game were made relatively quickly and squeezed in at the end to please everyone and save memory at the same time. If Sakurai hadn't made clones then our roster Melee roster would be relatively smaller.
14 is nice, but don't get your (and my) hopes up.
But here's the deal, redoing movests is easier. You just gotta do tier balance, and remake them. The character models redo them. Newer characters take much longer. Characters like the Pokémon characters, Kirby, and a few others take less time to program, since they aren't as graphically upgradable as let's say Link or Mario are. Also, G&W is 2D, easy to make, and would take like 1/100th the time=only create easy to make moves, and the tier balance is the most hastle.
Put into terms, you people are expecting TOO LOW with anything below 35. Seriously, that number would be pitiful, and Nintendo should be ashamed if that happened, since it's their biggest title, on their newest system, and they have their best people at work. It would prove they worked too much on story mode, and lost focus of wat really matters. TONS OF FIGHTERS, styles, and worlds colliding into high-paced gameplay, that players of all skill levels can enjoy. The big favorites need to be there, and there need to be some cool classics as well.
In otherwords, if story mode, ATs, final smashes, items, etc. get in the way of having a 35+ character roster, Brawl obviously had much time wasted into production. It's all about the multiplayer, straight down to it. The characters and the stages are the main focus, and I've reached the conclusion they're already done with most of it, and are adding clones.
Simply put if Nintendo can't make their roster AT LEAST 10 characters bigger on a 3 times of big disc, and system with actual hardware, and real gameplay would be pitiful. Seriously, ALL of HAL is working on it, the secret developer is working on it, APE is working on it, Game Freak is working on it, Miyamoto is working on it, Kojima is working on it, and Cero is probably working on it. Heck, with MP3 out of the way, SM Galaxy and Brawl are the main focuses. And if they can't deliver with their biggest hit, they will fail this gen with the dedicated gamers, badly.
We might enjoy SM Sunshine, MP3, Super Paper Mario, but when it comes down to it, nothing beats multiplayer. In a age where gaming has a big focus on mutliplayer, and Nintendo SHOULD REALIZE that. If Reggie is too blind to force Sakurai to push for a incomplete game, and Nintendo is too, then Halo 3 will eat them alive, vs. being close in sales. This is make or break, and options are wat the series is all about. If it fails to blow the copmetition out of the water, the good dozen or so games coming out this year and early next will eat Brawl alive, and the Wii will begin to fall. Obviously the game is near done, because if it wasn't Sakurai wouldn't be satified, as he's stated he is.
And Sakurai's stated he's wanted many new fighters, so if we don't get many new characters, it will be obvious we got it Reggie's way, not Sakurais. And no one wants that. [insert Miyamoto's famous quote here]. That my friends, is why I expect 40+. Any less than 35 is a disappointment. And if Nintendo can't put in over 35 characters in the game, they rushed the game, and failed IMO, because it could have been so much more. A good game takes time, Sakurai and Nintendo realizes that. And if they sped up this game for not much of a improvement in roster size, why not just call it SSB Melee 2.0=???
They gotta be dedicated to the game, not just think of it like another new game they're making it. And we can already feel the love put in the game, so I expect nothing from the best. If they're multiplayer fails [and online if it has it], then the Wii loses this gen. amongst the real gamers. Not the new older non-gaming generation Nintendo's aimed at, the people who actually play games. I don't want a rushed game, and I'm not getting one. It's obviously not rushed, so expecting under 35 characters...well prepare to be AMAZED! Sakurai's mindgames skills will dazzle, enlighten, and amaze you! XD
