On the topic of "meme picks"...

[Wario Wario Wario]

Short rant incoming...

There's this stigma surrounding certain characters that has loomed over the Smash speculation community since the 3DS/Wii U days - the thought of certain characters as "memes". I don't mean it in the GameFAQs sense of "this character is popular and I don't like them so MEME", nor in the Goku/SpongeBob way, but more in the way that often holds as a widespread burden to characters such as Sans, Freddy Fazbear, Jonesy, and Steve, characters who are perfectly legitimate video game characters, but aren't taken seriously due to having a large, mostly young fanbase. I honestly think having a young fanbase is a good reason to include a character, just as the 20 year olds get Banjo or Terry to bring back memories, the 12 year olds would get their favourite killer animatronic or witty skeleton and make a new memory to cherish from that reveal. While you could make the argument these characters are flash in the pan... I mean, Pokemon was in Smash 64, nobody had a clue how big pocket monsters would become, nor the longevity they'd have, and I'm pretty sure the characters I mentioned above have had more time in the spotlight than Pikachu did by 99, and that turned out fine. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this rant, but basically: stop discrediting characters as "memes", if you have another reason not to want Fortnite or Minecraft or whatever in Smash that's fine, but "kids like it" is not a valid reason, and if anything is just a reason to INclude a character.

 

[MarioDDR755]

I think there's a lot of truth to what you're saying. Twenty years from now, the characters you mentioned and the games will likely be fondly remembered by many people as being classic games that are better than whatever will be popular in 2040. It's just how it always seems to go.

With how much people freaked over Sans being added as a Mii costume, I honestly think he would have worked pretty well as an actual fighter in terms of generating hype. I think people respect Undertale more now than they did in 2015, in general. And then Steve, I feel like he really deserves it based on the sheer importance of Minecraft to the history of video games. I'm fairly sure MC was seen as a popular fad back when it came out but people are slowly starting to respect it more already. Then there's an extreme like Fortnite, which is still in the stage of disrespect, but I do expect that it'll outgrow that eventually.

I'm sure there was no shortage of people who viewed Pokemon back in 1998 as an annoying kids' fad, but obviously nowadays the Red/Blue days are seen as absolutely classic.