I’ll continue to be a champion for POC characters that I genuinely think would be great additions to the series, such as Marina and Mr. Sandman. Their race is only one of a dozen other reasons that I think they would be strong choices. I generally agree with the point that Smash’s lack of diversity was the fault of Nintendo and the gaming industry’s own abject failure of major / notable POC characters… but I also feel that over time this has been less and less of a problem.
I'm sorry, but I will never get this take. It's Nintendo's fault that the game industry's most popular characters that alot of people want in Smash Bros. consist of non-POC characters? There's a huge difference between Smash Bros. and other Fighting games like Tekken, Street Fighter, Guilty Gear, etc.
- Tekken, Street Fighter and whatnot are all original titles focused around an original world, with it's own original backgrounds, following original characters, with gameplay based around fighting each other that is constantly expanding by making a bit of changes to older characters and adding brand new characters for new gameplay.
- The other is a massive crossover all focused around popular video game icons like Mario, Sonic, Link, Cloud and Sora being able to fight each other and whatnot.
Of course there is a huge difference in priorities. Tekken, Street Fighter, Guilty Gear, etc, aren't crossover-focused games. They can have crossovers, but they are focused around their own world building and whatnot, meaning that new characters can be anything they want them to be, but add to the worldbuilding and gameplay of those games. Meanwhile, Smash Bros. is a crossover focused game. It's about popular Nintendo and 3rd Party characters that people want to see fight against each other and whatnot. One side is focused on bringing new stuff to the table while the other side is focused on bringing the popular stuff that people want to see. Smash Bros' problem is not "Which characters are the most unique looking?" or "Which characters are the most original looking?", but it's biggest problem is "Which characters are wanted and which ones are higher priority?"
The issue of little to no notable POC characters is not Smash Bros' fault, but a fault of the gaming industry and the media industry as a whole. Especially early video game years where many characters were either based off of an existing person or trope, they were inspired by another video game character or they just looked cool to the developers. Even early POC characters like Barret and Balrog/M.Bison were inspired or based around existing people like Mr. T and Mike Tyson. It wasn't until later when developers started to move away from stereotypes and tropes(although they are still there in smaller doses) to make characters more their own characters from the ground up and started trying to expand away from the same-looking characters.
And when looking at some of the other Japanese companies, Nintendo has been much better at putting in POC characters into it's games, between Zelda, Fire Emblem, Splatoon, Xenoblade and Pokemon starting to have them on a daily-game basis. Heck, Punch Out has been putting them in since the 1980s, so they were putting them in their games earlier than many other VG companies were at the time. And there have been Nintendo POC characters that have hit favourably with audiences, like Doc Louis, Marina(who wasn't made/released by the time Smash Ultimate decided their roster), Urbosa, Riju(who wasn't expanded upon until Tears of the Kingdom, which was long after Ultimate), Claude(who has the same issue as Marina) and a good number of Pokemon characters. But the big issue now comes that they are now competing with other popular characters like Waluigi, Dante, Bandana Dee, Dixie Kong, Chun-Li, Shadow the Hedgehog, and whatnot who are just as popular if not more popular. And for a game with a limited amount of newcomer spots, the priority is of course mainly going to go to the characters who are most popular because those are the characters who have the most people wanting them.
Especially with 3rd Parties in the mix where many of the most popular or most notable are prioritised. 1st Parties are thankfully more lenient, but it still has factors, the biggest one being timing, which really hurts characters like Urbosa, Riju and Claude because of not just having the issue of competing with other Zelda/Fire Emblem characters for a spot, but having the issue of being part of a rotating cast of characters. The Pokemon Trainers have the issue of not being chosen at all aside from Red and Leaf. And Doc Louis has the issue of being part of Little Mac's pack, between the taunts and his victory animations.
So probably the 1st Party PoC character with the most possibility of happening is Marina, between her popularity and becoming a recurring character, her having a Splatoon-weapon not represented by the Inklings(the Splat Brella) allowing her to bring something new to the table and her only competitions being the Octolings(which she's one of too), the other Idols(although Pearl might get paired with her) and Octavio, with the Octolings being her biggest hurdle.
But that aside, Smash Bros. is a game that focuses on bringing popular characters together compared to making new characters like Tekken, Street Fighter, etc. And it having little to no POC characters shouldn't be blamed on Smash Bros. when the point of Smash Bros. is to bring together fan favourite characters who alot of people are asking for. That issue should be aimed towards the gaming industry as a whole, and it still has been having that issue. And while Nintendo is part of it, they have been much better about adding in POC characters compared to some other companies, especially with most of their popular series having POC characters on a common basis. With how open Nintendo has been, that matter of "When will Smash Bros. have more POC characters?" is only getting shorter and shorter as more POC characters get made by them.
(and Mario 64 I guess, its DS remake is also ancient history at this point)