Things that effect a character's chance at entering SSBB.

[parrothead]

NOTE: IF THERE IS ALREADY A THREAD THAT TELLS THE SAME THING, THEN LOCK THIS. ALSO, IF THIS IS THE WRONG BOARD, THEN MOVE IT IN THE CORRECT BOARD.

These effect a characters chance at entering SSBB. Correct me with some things I'm incorrect about.

POPULARITY - Depends on how popular the character is. It might be the most important thing, because of what David Spade said in the movie, "Joe Dirt": "It's not what you want, it's what the customer wants." However, sometimes other things are more important than POPULARITY. Also, Sakurai said he doesn't JUST want popular characters alone. He also wants some lesser-known (but unique) characters with popular characters.

SUITABILITY - Yes or No? If so, then he/she/it has a chance to enter SSBB. If not, then no chance at all.

POTENTIAL - How many different moves they used in the games they appeared in? If players haven't seen them use many moves, then they would use moves made up by Sakurai and his crew, just like what they did to Marth. It would also take more time to develop SSB-exclusive moves than to develop moves that were already made, which would also increase Sakurai's chance at adding clones (and perhaps more semi-clones like Luigi).

UNIQUENESS - The character has to fight like no other. If not unique, it could become a clone (or semi-clone like Luigi).

RETRO VALUE - If the character is retro, then how much is his/her/its RETRO VALUE?

PERSONALITY / STYLE / LOOK - The better it is, the better it gets. Tamagon and the game he appeared in were associated with satanic content (e.g. demons, Satan, Hades, etc.). Also, if too girly, too childish, too Japanese, too etc., then they might not enter as a playable, but perhaps as a trophy or something else. Some characters would look too odd in fighting.

SIZE - Sometimes size does matter. Even though, the sizes of many things in SSB64 and SSBM were different compared to the original ones (e.g. Peach's Castle, Kirby, etc.). Wouldn't fans want to see even the microorganisms from Electroplankton, Doshin and Jashin (Doshin the Giant - 64DD and GCN versions), the Moon (Zelda: Majora's Mask), and other gigantic or microscopic characters?

And for the games they appeared in:

ORIGINATED FROM A VIDEO GAME? - If so, then he/she/it has a chance to enter SSBB. If not, then he/she/it is not allowed.

NUMBER OF APPEARANCES - The larger the number of appearances, the greater the character's chance at entering SSBB gets. However, cameo appearances don't effect as much as regular appearances.

SUCCESSFUL? - How successful did the titles the character appeared in sale? If most or all of them sold poorly, then that character's chance firmly decreases.

AND

HOW MANY REGIONS - The larger the number of regions the character's appearance(s) were released in, the greater the character's chance at entering SSBB gets. However, there are some characters that have appeared in one region more than other regions.

This is probably all I could think of, but did I forget one or more things? Then post them in this thread.

 

[Fawriel]

We could have a FUN discussion about the order of importance!

What exactly do you mean by suitability? Something about the rating of the game the character appeared in ( Leisure Suit Larry ) or whether they could possibly be some sort of fighter ( human Pokemon characters )?

Also, I'm not sure whether I understand your point "personality", and I don't agree with that point...
I think personality is a MAJOR point in how suitable a character is. Many SSB characters have never seen fighting games before, but the creators managed to give them movesets because the characters had personality.
Luigi is a good example of this. He's a semi-clone, as you called him. He's just the "other Mario brother", right?
But that is exactly one thing that defines him. He started out as just a palette edit and was always less important. Consequently, he turned out shy and humble, hence his "taunt". He has some qualities Mario doesn't have, but they tend to go unnoticed. He's cursed to do whatever Mario does.
In SSB, he seems to TRY to do everything Mario does, but doesn't succeed. At the same time, this failure sometimes makes him even BETTER than Mario, which is beautifully illustrated by his up+b and maybe the down+b.
Or Fox. Fox is a master pilot and thus a master of the sky. Consequently, he has an easy time star-KOing others with his powerful upwards attacks and is hard to star-KO himself.

 

[Numa Dude]

You forgot importance in the series.