Just checking does Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 still have the record for biggest character roster?
I think one of the later Naruto games may have it beat, counting certain versions of characters as separate, they approach the neighborhood of 60 to 64 characters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naruto:Clash_of_Ninja(series)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naruto:Ultimate_Ninja(series)
Edit- Looks like King of Fighters 2002 UM has about 60 characters as well.
Didn’t the DBZ Budokai games get into the 100s by counting different forms or something?
Nope. The fighting game with the biggest character roster is Tobal 2. It has 200 (!!!) playable characters, according to this Wikipedia article:
King of FIghters Unlimited 2002 definitely has the most out of all of the conventional fighters. (60s)
Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 has omg over 100 fighters. so i guess it wins the anime department
Tobal 2 is only in Japan T_T they never brought it over 
I corrupt too many games.
Fire Pro Wrestling Returns if you count that as a fighter. Something like 360 fighters to choose from based off of non WWE wrestlers.
I will now blur the differentiation between a character and a “character.”
Street Fighter II The World Warrior has 8 playable characters.
Street Fighter II’ Champion Edition has 12 playable characters.
Super Street Fighter II has 16 playable characters.
Super Street Fighter II Turbo technically has 33 different playable characters. One is tournament-banned.
The Dreamcast port has 35 characters, but only 33 of them can be playable at any given time.
We believe that Hyper Street Fighter II Anniversary Edition has somewhere between 65 and 97 characters, but we’re actually not even completely sure about that. Many of them happen to look alike. Oh well.
Arcade Street Fighter III: New Generation has 30 characters but makes it look like 33.
Console Street Fighter III: New Generation 31 characters but makes it look like 34
Arcade Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact has 42 characters.
Console Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact has 45.
Arcade Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike has 57 characters.
Console Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike has 58.
Arcade Street Fighter IV offers 17 playable characters.
Console Street Fighter IV offers 25.
Regular console Super Street Fighter IV has 70 total character choices.
Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition has 78.
I think arcade Tekken Tag Tournament gives you 33 different characters but it looks like there are 38.
I think console Tekken Tag Tournament gives you 34 different charactersbut it looks like there are 39.
Tekken 6 Bloodline Rebellion (arcade) and Tekken 6 console give you 37 characters even though it looks like you get 39.
Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code gives 90 characters to pick from, if I’m not mistaken.
Arcana Heart 3 has 529 possible combinations of underage girl + spirit god. I don’t think you can pick the boss but I’m not positive about that.
Capcom vs. SNK 2 has 636480 selectable unique teams, thanks to its six grooves and the free ratio system.
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 has 4490640 selectable unique teams. This number specifically excludes having duplicate characters on a team. Switch-glitch reconfigurations were not considered to be separate teams.
Please feel free to ask if you’d like details on any of these. 
The answer then is TRULY OUTRAGEOUS!
44,448,195,634,704 with the currently revealed roster (minus Cody and Guy).
10,761,680,250,000 if you don’t include DLC.
formula
Spoiler
((# of gems ^ # of gem slots) * revealed characters) ^ # of character slots
What about that version of Alpha 3 with all the different grooves?
Damn, that’s alot of options.
Zero1
Zero2
Zero2A
Zero2A Classical (I don’t think all characters have this)
Zero2’ (Cammy Only)
Zero 3 Saikyo
Zero 3 Classical
Zero 3 Mazi
Zero 3 Shadaloo-C
Zero 3 Shadaloo-B
Zero 3 Shadaloo-D
Zero 3 Shadaloo-A
Then we have to consider Arcade Balrog and Shin Akuma.
Why was Tekken Tag tournament not included in the “team” creations?
Also, does CvS2 count that you can have only 1 or 2 characters per team if you want, and change the variables for those?
Likewise, CvS1 had a lot if you count every 1 person, then every 2, every 3, every 4… but because of the set-in-stone ratios, that might be hard to calculate.
I can’t recall (and am too lazy to stick the Hybrid disc in the PS3), but did the second character affect how the first character played in TTT? I mean, for the Marvel games, you had assists. For CvS, your team shared meter meaning how one character used it affected those coming after them.
If you consider team combinations, then yes it does, if you consider individual characters then no, there are other games with a bigger roster which I believe have already been mentioned
Team attacks, no?
You know, Deadfrog, in Melty Blood the different moons sometimes turn the character into a completely different one.(Not Ryu-Ken different but Ryu-Vega different, if you catch my drift)
It’s not consistent across the cast but you do great injustice to it by comparing it to SF3 super arts and SF4 ultra choices.
Do different assist types correspond to a different team in tag team games?
They should. MSS with Rocket Punch vs. MSS with Drones play completely differently. Put Psylocke on anything but AAA for MSP, and it’s a pointless team. Storm on variety is good for Cable, but sucks for Sentinel.
In tag, only certain characters were different. Unless you mean crossover switch, or tag combos.
Kazuya/Devil = switched differently
And specifically on the PS2 version, with Jin and Hiehachi, there was an “Evil Jin” where you had to do something, then Jin would have Heihachi’s pose, and electricity around him. Dont remember the effects of it.