So, I'm making a roster based off of LeakerBros and Sal Romano, with the addition of Mewtwo and assuming all veterans (except Squirtle and Ivysaur) return.
I'm leaning on fake side for this one, but it does match the pattern of the # of newcomers, making 21, one extra over the previous pattern of 2 more newcomers per game (not including Mewtwo as a newcomer):
- Villager (Animal Crossing)
- Mega Man (Mega Man)
- Wii Fit Trainer (Wii Fit)
- Rosalina & Luma (Super Mario Bros.)
- Little Mac (Punch-Out!!)
- Greninja (Pokemon)
- Mii (Pilotwings/Find Mii/Wii Sports)
- Pac-Man (Pac-Man)
- Palutena (Kid Icarus)
- Shulk (Xenoblade Chronicles)
- Chrom (Fire Emblem)
- Chorus Men (Rhythm Heaven)
- Donkey Kong Country Newcomer (We all know it's K. Rool)
- The Legend of Zelda Newcomer
- Robin/ My Avatar Unit (Fire Emblem)
- Ridley (Metroid)
- Hades (Kid Icarus)
- Takamaru (The Mysterious Murasame Castle)
- Mike Jones (StarTropics)
- Bandanna Waddle Dee (Kirby's Dream Land)
- Chibi-Robo (Chibi-Robo!)
Now, looking over this, it's highly unlikely. But I do want to point out some interesting trends:
-In each Smash Bros. game, at least two series get more than one newcomer, one always being Pokemon. In SSB64, it was Mario and Pokemon. In Melee, it was Mario, Zelda, Pokemon and Fire Emblem. In Brawl, it was Pokemon and Kirby. In this, it would be Kid Icarus, Fire Emblem and, if a returning veteran counts, Pokemon.
-Bolded characters were in high support pre-E3, using @
Shorts
' SSB4 poll in Early 2012 to Mid 2013, from A Tier to D Tier, which was when it was in development (and still is). These characters cover quite a few, the only huge noticeable newcomers missing are Isaac, Krystal and Toad/Bowser Junior/Waluigi.
-It does cover a lot of Nintendo's recent projects, much like Melee and Brawl added characters or franchises introduced between their game and the previous. Since Brawl, Mario Galaxy became a classic (Rosalina), Nintendo aimed to a more casual audience (WFT, Miis, Chorus Men), Kid Icarus was revived (Palutena & Hades), Fire Emblem grew (Chrom, Robin), etc.
-Expanding current franchises with new and old favorites. Green characters belong to a pre-existing franchise. Looking at this, we can see that Pokemon would get both a Gen I (Mewtwo) back, plus a "shiny" new Gen VI character (Greninja) to play with. Metroid gets it's long awaited villain, as does (likely) Donkey Kong Country. Mario gets a heroine from it's latest adventures, Kirby gets it's P4 and fan favorite, and Zelda gets an unknown character (I kind of assume it would be Tingle or Ghirahim).
-Lots of new franchises, represented by red text. Including Mega Man and Pac-Man, this would introduce 11 new franchises with playable characters, compared to the 10 of 64, 3 of Melee and 5 of Brawl. Didn't Sakurai say he would focus on new franchises, or am I mixing it up?
Either way, while the huge amount of characters and strange decisions by the poster point towards it being fake, it's a good roster and follows rules set by previous Smash games.