Mah Boi:
Chance: 50% - I don't expect him for Fighter 5, but I think he could come in Round 2 of the DLC. Minecraft is very popular, having kept its popularity and the fun many people have with it for a little over a decade now, and Steve himself has garnered a sizable fanbase for Smash (not to mention all the Minecraft fan art and builds and whatever people have made for Steve and Alex or made including Steve and Alex; back to Smash, there's even an animated moveset video for Steve with over 150k likes and under 2.3k dislikes (and Minecraft was not in the title); also, please ignore the Grotesque Steve trolls, they're not actually fans and they even harass actual Steve fans on Twitter). Some Mojang members would also like to see him in Smash, and he and Alex are basically the stars of the main game/the franchise as a whole (despite the side-games getting different main characters) alongside the Creeper (even on the official website, they have been mentioned in posts; like them joking in a recent news post saying the bees are the new stars of the game while also "telling" Steve and Alex to talk their agent; they're also used a whole lot on Minecraft's official instagram, including numerous pixel art images with whoever is running the account describing what's going on and mentioning them by name). He has toys, plushes, figures, costumes, and other merchandise, and him and Alex have appeared in official videos as well; Steve has even crossed over with other games, like Super Meat Boy and a few others (Minecraft stuff itself has crossed over with more).
Nintendo also seems to love Minecraft; Minecraft was one of the sources of inspiration for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Nintendo has a Creeper 3DS as well as the Super Mario Mash-Up Pack on the Switch and Wii U (maybe the New 3DS version as well? I don't know, I don't have it nor the New 3DS). I think someone at Nintendo even said "why didn't we make this first?" or something like that (may have been Miyamoto, but I'm not sure, so don't quote me on that). Sakurai also loves it, but I know that doesn't mean it's gonna get in since that's not how he picks chartacters and stuff.
Despite all this, I think he's 50/50; I don't think us already having a Microsoft duo stops him from getting in, but it could be a factor if Nintendo and Sakurai want to work with different people, though I think they may just focus on the characters and so we could very well get him...but still, they could decide on other characters before him...
Want: 100% - Steve is my #1 most wanted and was tied with Banjo & Kazooie until they got in. They're in now, and have made me very happy, and Steve would give me that same amount of extreme joy. I've played Minecraft since 2011, when I was 11 years old, and while I did usually use my own skin, I've always seen Steve as the face of the game (since he actually is the face of the game contrary to what some in this community try to say, like I've explained before, even in the Minecon 2011 trailer; and he still is with Alex and the Creeper) and I have become attached to him like my other favorite characters; I've always seen him, and Alex as well when she was added, as the main characters.
I don't really have much else to say on this; I'm a huge Minecraft fan. I love the game, I love Steve, I love all the other characters and mobs (though I don't really care much for Story Mode, but the monstrous Wither is kinda cool even if I prefer the actual, smaller Wither); please put him in Smash (and maybe the Creeper someday because I really want to play as a Creeper by some official means).
And no, a game that's been very popular for a decade is NOT a fad and it's rather silly to say it is; if anything, it's now up there with other videogame giants like Zelda, Pokémon and Mario, just not quite that big, but it's still a cultural giant despite its small number of games. And I also think it’s very silly and ignorant to say it’s undeserving of its success because of Youtube; Youtube isn’t why it has had such a huge fanbase and was getting popular even at the start of this past decade, dear readers. Did Youtube help it some at its start? Sure, since it let more people know about it, many of which stayed not because of Youtube, but people kept to it because they genuinely love it, and so I find it funny y’all pretend people were going to let it die like other YT-promoted games such as Goat Simulator, as if that’s the kind of game Minecraft is (btw I actually like Goat Simulator but it gets boring after a bit). If the game wasn’t deserving because of Youtube, it would already be dead, or not nearly as popular and big. Microsoft saw its potential, too.
Face it, information is easy to pass around now, and people like making videos of these games. YouTube is NOT a good way to tell if a game is deserving of its success or not - as if this should even matter, because it’s a videogame and if it’s popular yet you’re one who doesn’t like it, just say that.
Nominations:
Waluigi x5
, we swear