Am I the only one that thinks that the 6 blank boxes on the SSB4 site are reserved just for the newcomers? Meaning the rest will be veteran fighters?
9 Newcomers sounds decent if Sakurai says he doesn't want a game full of characters just for the heck of it.
I mean +14 from SSB to Melee, and +13 from Melee to Brawl, +9 (suspecting we get a similar case to Pokemon trainer, where 1 character slot contains 3 characters, or we get two transforming characters such as Bowser Jr, and someone else), /Brawl to SSBWiiU/3DS +12.
14, 13, 12.
I think what we can deduce from the "blank boxes" and the difference between the online site and the mobile site is 5 boxes on the mobile site and 9 on the online site: 9 x 5 = 45, so my assumption is 45 total characters.
Speculation:
However, zero suit samus and sheik will most likely get a blank spot for themselves so 45 - 2 = 43. I'm banking on a 43 character spot roster because of this.
ALSO I believe the roster will be a 9 x 5 box (45 squares) the remaining 2 will be Random and Mii. I am a believer in the pac-man little-mac Mii rumor but I think that "Mii's" will work by simply choosing the square picking a Mii and then selecting a character for the Mii's head to appear on (or mask of the Mii's face) and will be more of a novelty and not an actual character spot.
So this leaves 43 actual characters, I could be way off here the "leak" could be false and the number of spots on the site could end up being completely different but at this time a roster with 43 character spots 45 squares, including Mii and Random makes the most sense to me:
Goes with the rumor and the #of spots on the roster. Heavy cuts; Lucario for Mewtwo(three/newtwo whatever), Toon Link cut because of A Toon Link in the train stage, Ike out because of relevance, Lucas and Wolf were the hardest to cut but I feel like they are next in line and I'm going for heavy cuts because of Sakurai saying characters will be cut and he's keeping the roster small... If we play with the 43 spot roster in order to have a decent amount of newcomers we need to make cuts somewhere.
Sonic and Snake remain because Sonic is a huge draw for smash and nintendo and sega work together often right now, Snake because his creator wants him in smash and I he is popular in tournaments and such, sakurai does notice this kind of stuff.
Going with the leak being true I added Mii, Little-Mac, and Pac-Man.
Diddy becomes diddy/dixie because of her popularity and a way for donkey kong to have "3reps" without filling more "spots", sakurai's original intention was to have diddy/dixie, and because he mentioned difficult on 3ds with iceclimber LIKE characters, implying there was more than just ice climbers.
Waluigi multi reps Mario and Wario and reps mario side games (kart,party,tennis,baseball etc...) on his own PLUS he was an assist trophy already. Isaac along the same Assist trophy lines (also little mac as well) plus golden sun representation for handheld games. Ghirahim because he's very popular in Japan and to keep Zelda reps at the same number dropping Toon Link. Ridley due to popularity and Sakurai rethinking villager means he could rethink ridley. Chrom as the obvious replacement relevant rep for fire emblem and because of the gladiatorial stage fitting him very well. Palutena because Sakurai has single handedly revived Kid Icarus and I feel he will continue to keep the series relevant with multiple representation after working on a new game in the series, plus another female rep. Takamaru as our new "retro" rep, works as a west/east thing with little mac, and takamaru has had some relevance recently in nintendo land and such, plus a samurai is a unique character, in fact all of my choices are to keep the game unique with magic users,sports players, and villians and heros keeping smash balanced and fun in an aesthetic kind of way.
Mii,Dixie,Waluigi,Ghirahim,Isaac,Ridley,Chrom,Little-Mac,Palutena,(Newtwo),Villager,Takamaru,WiiFit Trainer,Pac-Man, Megaman... arguably 15 newcomers packed into a roster that size and I would also predict things like male and female villager,wii fit trainer, and pokemon trainer as well as Dr.Mario as a mario outfit (wario having his two costumes as well). It's ambitious but Fox having a wolf costume and Ness having a Lucas costume are also possibilities that could make a roster of this size work very nicely...
I've mixed this roster around a few times re-adding lucas and wolf or adding mach rider or balloon fighter for retro reps (usually also keeping takamaru) occasionally dropping ridley or making diddy a lone fighter and adding King K Rool, or Saki or dillon or shulk...honestly not even close to certain about any of this and I have several guess rosters but heres a sample of what I think a likely roster looks like at this point.
