Wait, I’m allowed to submit Mecha Sonic? I don’t understand it but I will certainly take advantage of this chance!
Third-party Echo: Mecha Sonic
A robot copy of Sonic the Hedgehog, Mecha Sonic was seemingly created in an effort to make a stronger, sturdier, somewhat slower version of Metal Sonic. He acted as the final boss of Sonic and Knuckles’ Sky Sanctuary Zone, for both characters. He’s quite the unique character, being more militaristic in his design than many other Eggman robots from the Classic era, looking more like something that might come out of the mid-2000’s Sonic games. He is also unique because he can go Super just by standing on the Master Emerald. He has never reappeared since Sonic 3 and Knuckles, only making cameos and appearing in the few rereleases of the game.
HOWEVER, Mecha Sonic got a boost, both in popularity and badassness, when Super Mario Bros Z-a sprite fanimation starring characters from the Super Mario and Sonic series, with narrative and action influence from DBZ-was created and uploaded to the internet by Mark Haynes. Mecha Sonic was re-imagined as a fusion between Metal Sonic, Silver Sonic 2.0, and a fan made metal I forget the name and creator of. He was characterized as a ruthless, brutal, emotionless conquerer of worlds who wiped out Sonic’s home planet in a day, leaving only Sonic and Shadow. This series proves that even a clunky looking character like Mecha can look beautiful in an action packed environment. The series has amassed millions of views, and given inspiration to hundreds, if not thousands of young artists. It may be strange to make such a large point about a (really, really good) fanfiction in a serious echo submission, but to be honest, more people probably know Mecha Sonic from that awesome sprite animation that they watched as a kid, not as the final boss to a Genesis game that hardly gets re-released. He got transformed from a one-off boss in a 90's Sonic game to a cultural icon for Generation Z. (Ok, maybe not THAT big, but still, he's very popular among said Gen Z due to the animation.)
As for how he would play, Mecha Sonic would be an echo of Sonic with very little differences between them-however, Mecha’s animations would be somewhat more brutal to coincide with his more militaristic design. Nothing in his moveset or appearance would be directly based on the aforementioned animation to avoid Smash gray area.
Some may argue that Mecha Sonic's frame doesn't really fit Sonic's but to that I say we haven't really seen this character in the third dimension yet, so he could be reimagined a la Pit in Brawl-made somewhat skinnier to fit better with Sonic's acrobatic animations, but still retaining that intimidating aura from his initial design.
Should he get in? Proabably not. But I mean...just look at this dude and tell me with a straight face you don't want to play as him in a Smash game.
He's so freaking cool!!