Agreed.
Hmm. But what would people say if each 3rd party company eventually got their own slot? Not just the Nintendo's closest japanese studios Sega, Square, Tecmo, Capcom but also western studios like EA, Activision, Valve... even Microsoft and Sony. Managing the deals would be difficult I imagine but no doubt it would be quite a big popularity increaser to have the likes of Gordon Freeman, Big Daddy from Bioshock and Rayman duke it out with Mario, Samus, Link and the gang.
That rep could change from game to game. An open letter to all 3rd party companies saying we have reserved 1 slot for a character from your game house. The companies may bite or not.
Though I would put Sonic, Megaman, possibly Bomberman and Hayabusa under special protection of having a solid rep seat because they are so central parts in Nintendo's history.
That reminds me. Where is Contra? The favorite game of millions of NES players. Bill and Lance could be an interesting duo team, some items or stage could be taken from it (First stage ftw) or atleast an AT or something else. Snake might not be so central for early Nintendo but Konami has something else that is.