I love you all to death (Just so I can smash bros with you) (SSBWiiU/3DS)

[Ark Kuvis]

So /that's/ what happened to Toadkarter and co!

[Vitesse]

I assume that video Ton posted changes up a lot of people's ideas about how they'll handle the Zelda series.

[Baegal]

I haven't watched the video (yet) and I don't know much about the Zelda series but I would be perfectly okay with Tingle

no actually I'd love to have Tingle
that would be fantastic

[recme]

no actually I'd love to have Tingle
that would be fantastic

he would be the best joke character. too bad it probably wont happen

[Koopaul]

It's funny. I'm on the Smash Boards and I often look at the rosters people made and I always criticize them in my head. Then when it comes time to make a roster myself... I find myself doing some of the things that I criticized others about. Making a "good" roster is harder than it looks.

[Chaoxys]

I love how people have these rules to apply to how the roster would be made, and yet in the end, I imagine Sakurai is like "Hey, this random guy would be fun to play as, and I think I can whip up a moveset!"

[TomGuycott]

There's literally no real rules other than whether its a character they could legally use. Then it all just depends on limitations of time and expense to make everything happen and make it an enjoyable experience.

[Kriven]

The rules have been pretty commercial so far. It's been a celebration of the previous generation of Nintendo with a little bit of general history mixed in as well as current gen.

First game: Every character either made their debut on the SNES or had a significant presence on the system, with the exception of the Pokemon who were really big at the time and represented Nintendo's hand held market. A number of these characters also had a powerful presence on the Nintendo 64 or were going to appear in a Nintendo 64 soon to be released.

Mario - Super Mario World + Super Mario 64
Luigi - Super Mario World + General History
Donkey Kong - Donkey Kong Country Trilogy + Upcoming Donkey Kong 64
Yoshi - Yoshi's Island + Yoshi's Story
Samus - Super Metroid
Ness - Earthbound
Captain Falcon - F-Zero + F-Zero X
Fox - Star Fox + Star Fox 64
Link - A Link to the Past + Ocarina of Time
Pikachu - Pokemon franchise as a whole
Jigglypuff - Was a recurring character on the Pokemon television show
Kirby - Like, five SNES games + Kirby 64 + like five Game Boy games + Sakurai

Melee had the same pattern, mainly representing Nintendo 64 games with a little bit of current and past mixed in:

Princess Peach - General History + Super Mario 64 (her first notable role as "Peach" internationally)
Bowser - Same as Peach
Dr. Mario - Dr. Mario 64
Zelda/Sheik - Ocarina of Time
Ganondorf - Ocarina of Time
Falco - Star Fox 64 and its legacy
Pichu - Pokemon Gold and Silver
Mewtwo - First Movie
Mr. Game & Watch - Definitely a history piece, but it can't be ignored that the Game & Watch Gallery series was enjoying some success at this time
Marth - General history
Roy - Advertisement for future GBA game
Ice Climbers - General History
Young Link - Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask

Brawl:

Dr. Mario is removed because his only significant presence on the GameCube was Melee.
Mario is updated to reflect upon Super Mario Sunshine... his GameCube release.
All of the Zelda characters are updated to reflect their GameCube incarnations. Tetra intended to further rep Wind Waker.
Pichu is removed due to cloning and irrelevence. Was going to be replaced by Plusle and Minun to represent Ruby and Sapphire (also note that Plusle and Minun are red and blue indicated). Mewtwo's return was intended.
Ike is included to represent both of the Radiance titles. Roy's return was intended, and this can be seen in the fact that Lyn's voice is much more mature than it should be (to reflect the fact that Lyn would have to be an adult by the time Roy is a Lord).
Diddy Kong is a generation late, but the DK franchise was seeing some activity at the time with Barrel Blast, Konga, King of Swing, and Jungle Beat. Diddy had also begun appearing as DK's partner in Mario games.
Pit's appearance wasn't a coincidence: a new Kid Icarus has been in the works since prior to Brawl. He's a commercial.
Star Fox received three games between Melee and Brawl. So they added Wolf, who'd been heavily developed in two of those games.
Zero Suit Samus because of the Zero Mission release.
Olimar - Pikmin debuted on GCN
Lucario - Diamond and Pearl
Pokemon Trainer - FireRed and LeafGreen
ROB - General History (introduced to modern audiences in Mario Kart DS)
Sonic - The GameCube era marked the beginning of the closeness of Nintendo and Sega, with Sonic having a large presence on te platform.
Snake - Gift for a friend.
Dedede and Metaknight - Kirby had been enjoying a very active presence on the GBA and DS units, not to mention Right Back at Ya!
Wario - Wario had a pretty big role during the GCN era. He appeared in Wario Land games for the GBA and DS, Wario World on the Cube, and started a third franchise with a new costume in WarioWare.


And if we look at Smash U?

Villager - Animal Crossing has enjoyed success since its inception, and City Folk and New Leaf have both been huge successes.
Pit has been updated to reflect upon the new Kid Icarus title.
Rosalina - Super Mario Galaxy is the first 3D Mario game franchise to receive a direct sequel. Both the original and sequel are critically acclaimed.
Wii Fit Trainer - The Wii Fit series has been a big selling point for the Nintendo Wii, and the trainer accruately reflects upon the casual games.
Mega Man - I could make an argument for Mega Man 9 and 10, but it's pretty clear he's a legacy character. Possibly utilizing the "Retro" slot for this roster.

There's a really obvious system to choosing the characters for Smash. There's a few characters each game that might catch a person off their guard (Snake, ROB), but generally speaking, it isn't difficult to narrow things into some pretty clear choices.

Also to consider - Each Smash Bros. game increases the roster by an approximation of 12. Sakurai has been quietly preparing us for a smaller bump with this new title, or possibly no bump at all with the new characters purely replacing older ones. Either way, this trend informs us that there are only about eight newcomers left to be revealed, and we are not yet aware of how they will handle axed Melee characters returning (will they be newcomers or veterans or have a unique class?).

I'm predicting a forty to forty-eight character roster. Any even number between those is expected. We can probably expect a chage in the Pokemon lineup, and an additional Mario character (either Bowser Jr. or Toad), or an additional Mario Spin-Off chracter (perhaps even two). I don't think we'll be seeing any new characters for:

Earthbound
Star Fox (although they may rep StarFox 3D)
Pikmin (although we may see Pikmin 3 represented in some form)
F-Zero

We may see:

Donkey Kong (more likely than not)
Zelda (Don't really think so, but there's a possibility)
Kid Icarus (Could go either way)
Metroid (Probably not though)
Fire Emblem (Could go either way)
Wario (Don't really think so)
Yoshi (I don't really think so, but he has two games coming out)
Sonic (I don't really think so, but Sega and Nintendo have pretty much merged at this point)

As far as new IPs, we can probably put some stock into an eShop representative (Dillon or the Pushmo guy). Wii's new IPs are already repped with the Trainer, we'll probably see the Mii in some form as well.







Edit: Today's post mentions that Rosalina is a light character... which is the opposite of what I thought she'd be. I was hoping she'd be heavy like she was in Mario Kart Wii.

[Kitsu]

Kirby - Like, five SNES games + Kirby 64 + like five Game Boy games + Sakurai

As a note, Kirby 64 came out about a year after SSB. Though they may have been working on both at the same time for a bit.

[TomGuycott]

Is that a Rainbow Road stage I see today?? O:

I've always wanted Rainbow Road as a stage.

[DioShiba]

I hope that they use ether the SNES or Wii rainbow road music tracks for the stage.

It's probably just me but I feel like the Mario Kart 7 Rainbow road theme just feels bland. actually, never mind.

[Kriven]

I really want the neon character faces from Mario Kart 64 to show up somehow... those were always my favorite part...

[Darky's Reincarnation]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuX5_OWObA0

it just want this song

[DioShiba]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuX5_OWObA0

it just want this song

When the day that the 3ds can get hombrew, I swear I'm gonna make a mod for smash bros just to put this song in there.

[NICKtendo DS]

I hope for the F-Zero X remix of Rainbow Road.