You know people, one upside of being pessimistic about the number of characters is if we do get >50 characters, you'll just be very pleasantly surprised!
As it is, a lot of people in this thread are going to be disappointed given their high expectations (not just about this particular rating).
Re: andimidna's nominating Bomberman. I think Bomberman wouldn't be as dramatic as people are saying. We didn't have the crazy disagreement about his likelihood that we did about Bandana Dee... and if anything, Bomberman's want is more likely to increase than decrease.
But there's really not a lot of reason to re-rate him as far as getting any relevant info.
Yea, I don't always set myself up to be pleasantly surprised. And I may end up disappointed, but at this point, there's so many characters left that I think have a great shot that haven't been shown yet, and I don't believe in excessive cuts, so I would be surprised by less than 50 characters. And if it does happen, which it may, that's why I didn't put a 100%, then I will be both surprised and disappointed.
I think that all Brawl veterans are returning except for Squirtle, Ivysaur, and
maybe Snake... and I guess there's that small chance that Chrom replaces Ike... but if we count in returns from Melee too, which I think will be just Mewtwo, that adds up to around 36-38 veterans. And we already have 6 newcomers confirmed, putting the characters at around 42-44. And as for other newcomers?
1. I can't see Palutena not being playable, I just can't see it after all of these hints.
2. I will be shocked if Namco doesn't get a character, and I will be shocked if it isn't Pac-Man. There's even the possibility of another 3rd Party character after him.
3. I have no clue why Sakurai wouldn't add at least 1 DK newcomer, there's multiple good picks and the series is definitely underrepresented compared to the rest of the roster. I think there's a better chance we'll get BOTH K Rool and Dixie than the chance of getting neither and having only 2 DK characters again, having the series surpassed by Starfox, Fire Emblem, Kirby, and tied with Earthbound and Kid Icarus.
4. I don't know why Sakurai would completely skip out on a Fire Emblem newcomer when there are so many great characters to choose from, and Awakening justifies 3 characters now better than when it was planned for Brawl, this is another series where I think the likelihood of getting 4 characters surpasses staying at 2, because, if for some reason Sakurai just doesn't like any of the characters in Awakening and doesn't want to add any of them, then I think he'll just add a Luigi-fied Roy to appease the fans. Which would bring the count to 3 also.
5. I'd also be just... confused if there were 0 retro newcomers. That makes no sense to me at all. There are so many to pick from, and there's always been 2 added, 1 popular and 1 historical (well, not when things were just getting started in SSB64, but that's not really a reason against it). Even if that's just a pattern of 2, I can't see it being broken, it seems like more retro characters are being requested than they have for past Smash games, both popular and historical picks. And I think that Sakurai said something about a retro focus? That may not be true, and may not have been directed at playable characters, but to not only not have 2 new retro characters, but not even 1, would be a big shock to me.
6. I'd also be surprised if no other new series get represented. Most of the big Nintendo series have all of their main characters, which is noticeable because of the fact that our only existing-series newcomers so far are Rosalina and Greninja, and while they're popular, and will most likely become important over time, they aren't yet. Little Mac was the most obvious option, and he made it.
Even though Shulk and Isaac aren't competing, it's easy to group them together, and I'd be surprised if neither made it, they're both popular requests and have the uniqueness going for them. Shulk's game was fairly recent with a new one coming, and Isaac has his prominent pre-Brawl popularity that carried over to now, and from what I've heard, his VC game is doing very well. They both seem like very good fits. And there are other options too: Wonder Red, Andy, Chorus Men, Mii, Captain Rainbow, Ray, Chibi Robo, Jill, Tempo, Barbara, Mallo, and so many more. If I added up the chance scores I'd give to these 13 characters it would add up to 340%... I think we've got at least 3 more coming from this category, with the possibility of a 4th. But I guess I wouldn't be completely surprised to not see 3. Having less than 2 of these would though. I don't think that we have only old-series characters left except for 1.
And at that point, the roster has reached either 50 or above. So that's why I expect it, there are more than 6 characters left that I think are probably in. The newcomers left that I currently score higher than 50% chance are Palutena, Pac-Man, Chrom, Shulk, Dixie Kong, King K Rool, Isaac, Ridley, Ghirahim, Bowser Jr, and Mach Rider. (I'd also give the concept of a historical newcomer above 50%) With Takamaru, Robin, Krystal (don't hate me but I think Sakurai might add her or at least consider her), and Chorus men closely following just below 50%.
This is basically what I was trying to explain in my rating post, but it turned out to be more of a list.
I can't see so many of these choices getting skipped out on. It's just my view of the remaining characters.
Oh, and I already changed my Bomberman nomination to Isa Jo, so we don't have to worry about that anymore.