Gallowglass
Smash Lord
Every character that isn't third party plays an important role for Nintendo and there series. Ness was the first international character for Earthbound. He would have probably added Ninten but saw more potential with Ness. You forget the historic value of them as well.There is no correlation between what characters are important for Nintendo and who is important in Smash. This is why we still have Ness and other characters despite they haven't been around for years.
1)They don't have to use the Skyward Sword designs
2)It isn't that hard to make a design
Because people talk about a lot of characters. Doesn't mean we think they will get in.
Why would they not use the Skyward Sword design? They've used the latest version of Link and Young/Toon Link in each Smash series.
No it isn't that hard to make a new design. It's just about half as hard as designing a new character. How would a Skyward Sword Sheik look?
I think if Square is going to have any rep it's going to be someone from Final Fantasy just like what they did in the Mario Basketball game. I don't care because I don't care for 3rd parties. Same thing with TailsSlime is the series mascot of Dragon Quest. And quite a few people have blown it off due to lack of limbs, actually.
Tails is a legit choice, as he has tons of games and various attacks, as well as two fighting game appearances to work with. As for him actually getting in, he's rather unrealistic since if we even had a chance to get another Sega character, I doubt it would be him at this point. If only because Sega loves to make him unplayable for the other "main" heroes.(Knuckles, Shadow, Blaze, Silver, mainly)
Paper Mario doesn't even playable like Mario outside of jumping on enemies. He has his own personality, a full-use hammer, and tons of various attacks using that alone. Likewise, he reps an entire spin-off RPG series that Impa does not.
Also, let's note Impaz in TP. Also, Impa has been around for ages, and still no love has been shown. She hasn't even gotten a freakin' trophy, which is kind of silly. It's unrealistic because Sakurai doesn't really care about her so far. Likewise, those other choices don't REPLACE anyone. There is no reason to replace a veteran for two games straight for someone who'll barely be different. It's actually a horrible idea to do so, and that's also business-wise. Many people loving playing as Sheik, and she's the sole OOT rep we have. The other ones rep tons of various games, but nobody reps OOT like Sheik does.
I've talked plenty about my dislike for Paper Mario. Mainly because he is still the same Mario character featured in Smash with a different Game style. While we're at it lets bring back Dr. Mario and add NES Mario, Sport Mario, Party Mario, etc...
Impaz is not Impa. Yes she was based off of Impa but she's a totally different character. As for getting no love sheik hasn't gotten any since OOT. I also don't believe having a rep for an individual game is a good arguement. None of the other character in Smash represent a single game in a series with the exceptions to the ones who only have one game (e.g. Ice Climbers).
Also the reason people like Sheik in Smash is her gameplay. If Impa did the same thing then I doubt there will be much fuss over it.