Don’t expect a roster expansion with next Super Smash Bros.

Yesterday's white board drawing of potential characters in the next Super Mario Bros. might be a fairly accurate depiction of what's to come when the next installment arrives on Wii U and 3DS. A lot of the characters shown have already been a part of the roster, and game creator Masahiro Sakurai has warned fans not to expect the roster to grow by much, if at all.

Citing "game balance" as the primary issue of a growing roster, Sakurai said it's more of a "change of direction" that's needed for the next Super Smash Bros. Perhaps that change of direction will be with gameplay now that Nintendo can utilize the dual screens of the 3DS and Wii U.

"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," Sakurai explained to Nintendo Power (via Nintendo Everything).

"In terms of quantity, we’ve probably already reached the limit of what’s feasible," he added. "I think a change of direction may be what’s needed.”

Over the weekend Namco Bandai, who is developing the next Super Smash Bros., made live a site that teases a potential announcement for the game which is still "early in development". It didn't spoil any rosters, and it may not be related at all, but it did have a countdown pointing to this Thursday along with the phrase: "All Star Battle".

Who would you like to see added to Nintendo's mascot brawler?