Question of opinion.
Do you guys think that Sakurai really takes certain things into account like we do? We know what his main four criteria are. Series balance, being unique, appeal, and....that one other thing that is currently not coming to me.
We base a lot of our thoughts on things that don't necessarily fit with his criteria. Series importance, etc... While importance to a series is clearly obvious (I mean come on, we have the 4 Mario, 4 Zelda, Decent Pokemon Lineup, etc...) it may not be as important now that the main characters are essentially done. Clearly Ridley would do well in completing Metroid, and K.Rool or Dixie for Donkey Kong.
What I mean is, do you actually think he thinks about it as hard as we do. Clearly a lot of reveals are going off of marketing. That isn't to say that EVERY character is going to be in to advertise something. However I think certain characters may benefit from such things, such as Palutena, Chrom, Mewtwo, etc.
Just by going off of "series balance", I think we'll see a 3rd Fire Emblem character based on how the series has grown, Ridley to give Metroid a 3rd character (ZSS is a pitiful "2nd character") and K.Rool or Dixie for Donkey Kong. (also Mewtwo for Pokemon). Otherwise, I don't know that too many series in Smash need an additional rep. Series like Mario, Yoshi, Kirby, Wario Ware, Zelda, Pikmin, F-Zero, Star Fox, Mother and Kid Icarus do not necessarily need a series newcomer to be balanced out from my standpoint.
3rd parties are clearly 3rd parties. They really shouldn't get anything besides a character, music, trophies, and a stage. No additional characters are needed for a Nintendo first fighting/party game.
What do you guys think?