The Wii U version of Smash Bros. shall be the fourth in the series and Sakurai believes that now is the time to take it in a new direction. Whilst Sakurai couldn't state what the change of direction may be, he could gave us a brief glimpse into what we can expect from the character roster.

Speaking recently to Nintendo Power, Sakurai explained that the Wii U version will probably have the same amount of characters as Brawl because the greater the number of fighters, the harder it is to keep a fair balance.

"It isn't a matter of 'if the next game has 50 characters, that'll be enough.' There is a certain charm to games that have huge casts of playable characters, but they tend to have issues with game balance and it becomes very difficult to fine-tune each character and have them all feel distinctive."

With that in mind, expect to see a similar amount of characters to Brawl but with perhaps a lot more variety. Sakurai is hoping to stay away from 'clone characters' which was a recurring complaint in Melee. 

What characters would you like to see in the upcoming Smash Bros. title? Since the announcement of Namco's involvement, would you like to see any of their characters appear? Let us know your thoughts below.