There will be 48 total character slots-I'm saying individual characters slots here. Not counting things like Sheik. Those people who want to make a stink about the number can go fly a kite. If anyone is pessimistic about this, note that this is 11-13 new characters and Brawl added that amount with ZZS and three characters for Pokemon Trainer.
Mewtwo and Roy will come back-Saying this because I doubt they had much intention of removing them (especially Mewtwo) and people really want them back. Likely.
No Nintendo character (the 33 in the game) will be cut-People will go crazy over this one. "But how?" they might say. Seeing as they planned to have everyone including Dr. Mario back, I doubt they'll take a big chopping block to Brawl's roster. Melee had a lot of characters there to fill up the roster. The clones. It was easier to cut out characters like Dr. Mario who was there more to boost the number of characters. In the same vein, he was planned to come back. So when given a roster made more from the ground up, they will likely not cut anyone. People are too cut happy anyway. But how will they work all of this?
Sonic and Snake will be cut and no new third party character will take their place-I'm sure people will go with this one, but others will be surprised.
There are two reasons I'm saying this. First, Sakurai has stated that they are guest quite a bit on the DOJO. This may not seem like much, but note what he is saying. He is saying these characters are not staples and are there temporarily (which is what a guest is). The other is Sonic. Sakurai stated Sonic was added in 2007 where the rest of the cast was at least a year earlier. But this is the most popular character and one who people wanted before they added third party characters. If Sakurai waited so long to add him, why would he add anyone else. Megaman has never come close to how much people wanted Sonic. My thinking is that Sakurai added Snake as that one cool thing, but Sonic made it in because he was so wanted. Also, the conventional wisdom was that there would be three third party characters. Yet there were only two in the end. I could go on and on, and maybe one day I will make on big post going into more detail, but for now, I'm saying no.
Part 2 below
Now on to what you have been waiting for. The roster.
Toad-I'm putting Toad here because of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but there is a bit more too it than that. Toad has always been a predominate character in the Mario games and is perhaps the only Mario character not added yet. He was popular back before Melee and is always requested at least once. He has also appeared in a lot of game including Super Mario Bros 2 and all of the Mario Kart games. I say New Super Mario Bros Wii because I think this is what put him back into view in a big way (and how well the game did. It was like the best selling console game in Japan in the last 15 years). Interestingly enough, Toad was the only new character added to Mario Sports Mix (from the Mario Hoops game). People may ask about Peach's attack, but I'm sure they can find a way to make it work. There is more than one toad.
Palutena-I'm sure people are scratching their head over this one. Many are banking on Medusa. But why Palutena? If you've noticed throughout Kid Icarus Uprising and even Brawl, Palutena is emphasized more. She is the stronger player in that series (second to Pit of course). I put her here because she stands out. Before people ask “Well, what can she do?” Remember Zelda.
Medusa-Now I went and added two Kid Icarus characters. Kid Icarus is being revived with Uprising. Now, a series that went take for over 20 years has had an explosion of content, including characters. So it should not be surprising to add two characters from this series. Medusa has been revamped much like Pit and Palutena and is still a major player in the game.
Little Mac-Not much to say here. There is demand for him, even before Brawl. A new Punch-Out game has been released. Sakurai likes the games. He'll get in.
Dixie-More people are saying K. Rool (see below), but Dixie is extremely predominate in the series. She is the second character to Diddy and appeared in DKC 2 and 3 (where she was the main character). She is also featured in the Mario sports games now. Not to mention she was planned for Brawl in some way. So she would not be a surprise.
King K. Rool-And now I add a second DK character. I'm adding K. Rool because he is the more popular of the two, but both are very important and prominent in the series and they are popular. So it makes sense to add both. He has appeared in a lot of games and was the boss of all three DKC games. People may not like the fact that there are two DK characters and two Kid icarus characters as well. Do note that both Melee (with Fire Emblem, Mario, Pokemon and Star Fox) and Brawl (with Kirby and Pokemon) has series that added two characters. Doing this will be just as aligned with Brawl.
Shulk-It may not be clear to us folks in the US, but Xenoblade is very popular overseas and is definably popular with Japanese players (no surprise). Let's also not forget all the publicity around Project Rainfail which caused NoE to push up the launch date for the game in Europe. Plus, it's a new 1st party series. Probably getting in.
Takamaru-Again, this will be weird to us Western folk because his game, Mysterious Murasame Castle , never released here in the west. However, it is on the same level as Metroid, Kid Icarus and The Legend of Zelda over there. This is because they were all part of what was known as the Famicom Disk System. So, in a lot of ways, they are like brothers. Sakurai has actually mentioned interest before in adding him back in Melee, but was waiting for a new game to come out.(Source) However, I think he''ll be proactive like with Pit.
Zourark-I'm not 100% on this guy and I'll explain at the end, but I'm banking on a 5th gen pokemon and I'll place my bet with Zourark. It's mainly that he is the one everyone is talking about and also the one that is getting promoted (I know there is quite a bit in the US with the movie and what not). The Japanese are talking about him among any other Pokemon. Plus, illusion makes him interesting. The reason I'm not keen on him is that we are using Lucario as a judge for him. We say, “Lucario made it, so so will he.” But that's more of the conventional wisdom and I think Lucario got in because he was very popular. Think that maybe starters from the game or N somehow (another trainer?), but Zourark is a little more practical.
Ridley-No brainer really. I'm sure someone will mention his size, but many before me have gotten the point across.
Samurai Gohor-I don't here a lot of talk about him, and it's strange. I actually think he's a shoe-in. There is huge demand for another F-Zero character, and he is probably the next most recognizable due to his relation with Captain Falcon, but also that he was one of the original 4. Seeing as there is a lot of demand for another F-Zero character, Gohor will likely get in.
Sherrif-Ok, so this is my crazy prediction. What I'm going for here is the retro character that seems like a norm. We got Mr. Game and Watch in Melee and ROB in Brawl. So who would be next? I'm thinking Sherrif because that was Nintendo's first game. How retro is that? I will say that even I'm on the fence about this one. I'm not even sure how he will work. It's a long shot, but I doubt we can easily guess the whole roster and there will be a characters or two that throws us for a loop. I'm guessing it will be Sheriff.
Now, I am one character short. I will probably add it before Oct 31st. Just waiting for the conference. I'll also add other predictions to this.
So, there we are. Whew, nice to finally finish this. It was an idea for a while. Feel free to tear it down.
