Explain the following then:
Duck Hunt Dog: No new games since the NES.
Little Mac: Last game came out 2009.
Mr. Game and Watch : Should be cut right? I mean, he's not had a game in over 30 years!
Mega Man: Not a Nintendo character.
Pac-Man: Not a Nintendo character.
Dr Mario: Has not had a new game since the 90s.
Shiek: Has not appeared in a Zelda game since Ocarina of Time (1998)
Link, Zelda and Ganondorf using their Twilight Princess looks.
Olimar: He wasn't the main character for Pikmin 3....so now he's old news right?
Kremlings in Smash Run.
Relevance is not an issue my friend, there's also nothing wrong with showing some new games some love too.
I see you're using shotgun argumentation.
Duck Hunt Dog... he is the NES-era character of SSB4... just like how Ice Climbers were for Melee and R.O.B. was for Brawl... no relevancy/recency needed, just needs to be unique
Little Mac... yeah, he had a new game in 2009... which was in the middle of the Wii era (the previous generation)
Mr. Game & Watch... when he was added in Melee, he had recent games for the Game Boy... Game & Watch Gallery 1-3... and he's a veteran now (he didn't get cut because he had no issues like the Ice Climbers do)
Mega Man and Pac-Man... they still had history with Nintendo regardless
Dr. Mario... no new games since the 90s? You're really ignorant of Dr. Mario 64 (2001), Dr. Mario Online Rx (2008), and Dr. Luigi (2013)... they are still part of the Dr. Mario series.
Sheik... she's a veteran... and she was in Ocarina of Time 3D (2011) unless you are one of those people who say remakes don't count... oh, and she's also in Hyrule Warriors (2014) which Nintendo is heavily promoting
Olimar... he was in Pikmin 3... he's a playable character via DLC... and he's a veteran with no issues like the Ice Climbers.