Just today, Yoshi was announced on the Smash Brothers Dojo Website.
About damn time too, Yoshi is one of my favourite characters.
Anyhow, with Yoshi's introduction, this confirmed a starting roster of at least 14 characters, featuring:
Mario
Link
Pikachu
Kirby
Donkey Kong
Yoshi
Samus
Fox
Zelda
Bowser
Pit
Metaknight
Zero Suit Samus
Wario
And maybe Captain Falcon too, since Samurai Goroh's update featured the Captain Falcon icon.
What does this mean though? Well you may remember that Super Smash Brothers Melee featured 14 starting characters itself, and Super Smash Brothers just had 8, just how many more characters can we expect to be announced for the starting roster now?
Myself, I'm hoping that 3 or 4 are announced, this would make for a solid 18 which would be pretty nice.
Oh btw, Snake is not part of the starting roster, Sakurai stated that all 3rd party characters will have to be unlocked.
Apparently, you people can't read entire articles.
ParachuteFish
Perhaps you should mention that Zero Suit Samus is not really a seperate character from Samus, but rather a transformation. Also, Snake isn't on your list. Por Que?
In regards to Yoshi, I'm real happy about that. The roster is coming along nicely, and he's certainly a long-awaited addition
RupeeClock
Zero Suit Samus is regarded as a new comer on the official website, so I'm classifying her as a separate character.
http://www.smashbros.com/en_uk/ch aracters/index.html
And in regards to your query about Snake, read the whole post: He's 3rd party, therefore not part of the starting roster!