It's not coming this year, and it's likely the character roster also won't be finalised this year.
So whoever you think is likely/popular NOW matters little compared to who will be popular in a year or two's time.
For the Mario series, I bet Rosalina's chances are zero simply because she's only ever been in the Galaxy series. Meanwhile, we'll have had three or four new Mario games released by the end of the year, all of which probably won't have Rosalina in them (New Super Mario Bros 2, Luigi's Mansion 2, Paper Mario and Super Mario 4/Wii U). Out of all possible Mario reps, I'm gonna put money on it being either Bowser Jr, the Koopalings or Professor E Gadd, or Waluigi if they're after a spinoff only character, since those ones will have actual roles in the newest Mario games...
For the Zelda series, it means Skyward Sword representation isn't a sure fire thing. Who's to say they're not working on the Wii U's Zelda game right about now and may have something to show by the time Sakurai and co go to think up the Smash Bros 4 character roster? All it takes is one big Zelda game without the likes of Ghirahim/Demise/Grouse/Impa, and their chances are just about stone dead.
Pokemon could be interesting, and I have this distinct feeling Smash Bros 4 is going to generally coincide with the announcement/release of generation 6. Of course, since Smash Bros 4 is in development before generation 6, it could easily be outdated upon release, at least Pokemon wise...
As for the others, just keep in mind what I said, they'll likely have some sort of new game out by the time serious progress is being made on Smash Bros, and it's likely any one shot popular characters are going to lose their appeal long before then...
So whoever you think is likely/popular NOW matters little compared to who will be popular in a year or two's time.
For the Mario series, I bet Rosalina's chances are zero simply because she's only ever been in the Galaxy series. Meanwhile, we'll have had three or four new Mario games released by the end of the year, all of which probably won't have Rosalina in them (New Super Mario Bros 2, Luigi's Mansion 2, Paper Mario and Super Mario 4/Wii U). Out of all possible Mario reps, I'm gonna put money on it being either Bowser Jr, the Koopalings or Professor E Gadd, or Waluigi if they're after a spinoff only character, since those ones will have actual roles in the newest Mario games...
For the Zelda series, it means Skyward Sword representation isn't a sure fire thing. Who's to say they're not working on the Wii U's Zelda game right about now and may have something to show by the time Sakurai and co go to think up the Smash Bros 4 character roster? All it takes is one big Zelda game without the likes of Ghirahim/Demise/Grouse/Impa, and their chances are just about stone dead.
Pokemon could be interesting, and I have this distinct feeling Smash Bros 4 is going to generally coincide with the announcement/release of generation 6. Of course, since Smash Bros 4 is in development before generation 6, it could easily be outdated upon release, at least Pokemon wise...
As for the others, just keep in mind what I said, they'll likely have some sort of new game out by the time serious progress is being made on Smash Bros, and it's likely any one shot popular characters are going to lose their appeal long before then...
