Here is my opinion regarding Advance Wars receiving a playable character in Smash Bros.:
Famicom Wars, or Advance Wars as it known in the West, was the first game Intelligent Systems ever made (yes, they made Famicom Wars before the first Fire Emblem). The series has had 12 installments to date, which is more than both the Fire Emblem (11 games) and Metroid (10 games) series. Truly, the Advance Wars series is perhaps the most poorly represented active Nintendo series within Smash Bros., especially considering it only received a sprite-based Assist Trophy, a trophy of said Assist Trophy, and a few stickers. For this alone, I feel the Advance Wars series is very deserving for a playable character.
However, there lies a problem. The series has basically lost a lot of its popularity in Japan, since Advance Wars 1 & 2 were not released until late 2004 in Japan, and Dual Strike sold poorly in Japan (it sold less than 40K copies in Japan), and Days of Ruin does not even have a release date there, despite the Japanese translation already being built into the North American cartridge. Adding an Advance Wars character (it would most likely be a CO since they are basically the “lords” of Advance Wars) would basically be something for the Western Smash fanbase, something the Sakurai usually overlooks for most of his roster decisions. The most likely character from Advance Wars to be made playable would either Andy (since he was the main CO of two games in the series) or the most recent CO (it remains to be seen whether they will go back to Days of Ruin’s gritty world for the next game in the series and whether Will will also be the game’s main protagonist). Since most of Advance Wars’s popularity lies outside Japan, and since there is probably no character that would make sense to place in from the eyes of Sakurai, most likely in a Sakurai directed Smash Bros. 4, Advance Wars will not receive a playable character.
The only way I can see Advance Wars getting a playable character in Smash Bros. 4 would be if an Advance Wars character were to become one of the Top 3 most requested characters for Smash Bros. 4 among the Western Smash Bros. fanbase, or if the series regains its popularity in Japan. If none of these two occur, it is most likely that Advance Wars will never receive a playable character within the Smash Bros. series, and the most it could hope for would be a stage based off its universe and perhaps some trophies of COs from the series.
So what are your thoughts in regards to Advance Wars ever receiving a playable character in Smash Bros.?