I'm guessing 5 stages that aren't tied to a new character. But it's still possible we get Battle Harbor and an Alolan stage with these characters, that would still leave 3 stages unaccounted for and one of them could be Minecraft.
Or Corocoro goofed up, which is also likely.
The way I see it:
- Ken and Incineroar round up the base roster
- Whoever is the SE character is the first DLC character
- These 5 stages are kind of an enigma right now, but I don't think we're getting any more characters whether they're real or not
This seems pretty plausible. Its also possible that MH boss stage is also a playable multiplayer stage, which would leave us with 4. I wouldn't be shcoked to see two more returning stages either.
Maybe Pokefloats and something else.
A rythm Heaven Stage is likely imo as well.
Geno as a pre-launch DLC teaser like Mewtwo was for Smash 4 would make a lot of sense.
He'd bring a lot of hype and sell decently well.
Imagine:
*End of pre launch Smash Direct
Sakurai: "We
Wish for you to all enjoy the game when it launches"
*Screen fades to black, starry skies start appearing.
A lone hill is shown beneath the stars, Mario Luigi, bowser and Bowser Jr. are fighting it out on the airship. Peach is seen held captive.
She crouches down and looks to the stars. A gleam shines through her eyes and we then see Mario and Luigi Struggling. The other Koopalings have arrived!
All seems grim when all of a sudden:
"GENO WHIRL"
starts playing.
"Geno Whirls in!"
The Koopalings and Bowser JR. all take 9999 damage and collapse.
*Cue gameplay.
A boxist I see.
You are one of the enemies!
"Nintendozone Social [Colorlized] September 2018"