I don't understand how people are okay with throwing away a unique moveset because they don't think Snake meets some imaginary "Nintendo enough!" requirement (he already did when he was the first and, at the time, only 3rd party announced) or because his aesthetic "doesn't mesh" (there's already so much variety in the types of fighters represented).These arguments would make sense if we were talking about a newcomer, but we're talking about someone who was already in Smash. Sakurai already decided that yes, Snake is Nintendo enough and yes, he does fit in - or doesn't, much like Samus with bunny ears or Pikachu with a rifle scope doesn't make sense. Smash is an inherently nonsensical and humorous game, and a close-up of Snake's butt clad in a skin-tight leopard suit fits in just fine.
I can only imagine that Snake didn't make it in this time around because of some legal snafu. Why else would Sakurai purposefully remove a non-clone character? And why hasn't he mentioned Snake at all? The only confirmed reasons we have for veterans not making it back in is time reasons (Mewtwo and the forbidden whatever) and technical reasons + low priority (Ice Climbers, plus Sakurai's insistence the 3DS/Wii U have same roster). I don't see why he'd throw away a character he already spent time making and that would take less time than a newcomer. Remember, Sakurai has no problem with padding out the roster to make it as big as possible, so why would he lose an easy opportunity to increase the character count by one? The only reason that makes sense is a legal issue, possibly combined with lower priority (although the 3DS was the fatal blow for the IC, he explicitly states they were a low priority, implying that that played some role in their absence). And threads like this are intended to show him that Snake shouldn't be low priority.
I feel like a lot of anti-Snake arguments come down to "well I don't like how he looks in Smash." I mean, I don't like having four Fire Emblem characters or the Mario/Pokemon domination, but I'm not going to campaign for Sakurai removing any of those characters because it doesn't personally please my sense of roster balance or aesthetics. I didn't care for Wolf at all and I didn't feel his absence one bit, but I want Wolf to get back in because I know he'd make a lot of people happy and he wouldn't be a straight up clone. I felt the same way about Roy, and hey, he's back and I'm glad for it. It wouldn't even necessarily "take a newcomer's place!1!" because Snake's files are newer than Roy's and Mewtwo's and he would be made significantly quicker (how long did it take for Lucas to be made?).
