That would give us an over abundance of Third Party characters though. This game is about Nintendo's All Stars new and old, first and fore most. 3rd party characters are guests and as such, the more guests you invite to a Private High Ranking Club, the less significance each of them have.
When comparing character's like Shulk to Mario, of course Mario is going to outshine him. That is because Mario has been around longer and had a longer time to turn his name into a household gaming icon. Shulk does not have that opportunity because he is so new to the Nintendo Family.
This game should be mainly about Nintendo's Family, old and new. And it should also show that Nintendo's family does not mainly derive of Mario, Link, Donkey Kong, Samus, Kirby, Pikachu, Fox and the others. This game is the chance for Nintendo's next generation of characters to shine alongside their bigger and older siblings.
I do not agree with people who say that Smash Brothers should get rid of old characters, because that defeats the purpose of having a Nintendo All Star Fighting Game in the first place. To celebrate Nintendo's history, nay, Nintendo's Family.
I'm very happy with how Smash Bros. has united my favourite gaming icons over the last fifteen years. I grew up with Mario, Link, and Pikachu, so I'm thrilled that they're all a part of my favourite fighting game series. I also have fond memories of Punch Out, Fire Emblem, and Pikmin, so I'm happy that Smash Bros. shines its spotlight on the legendary and the obscure. But, I haven't just played first party Nintendo games. I grew up with Final Fantasy, Halo, and Sonic as well. Why shouldn't more third party characters, beyond Sonic and a small handful of others, make it into Smash Bros.?
In the case of Master Chief, I understand that he's tonally unfitting and most importantly a proprietary icon for a competing company. He rightfully doesn't belong in Smash Bros. However, Square Enix and Nintendo are on good terms, so its a shame Final Fantasy's storied history is ignored in order to abide by an intro screen slogan - I don't see why Smash Bros. should just be "Nintendo's all-stars."
If the crux of my quarrel should rest on what Smash Bros. ought to fundamentally be, I should rightfully be mindful about the series fundamental roots. Before Smash Bros. was even titled, before it had a cross-over theme, it was essentially an inventive fighting game with generic characters. Sakurai petitioned Iwata for permission to glaze his project over with venerated Nintendo characters in hopes of garnering wider exposure, thinking that a (totally awesome and) unique ring out mechanic wouldn't be enough to push sales. Flash forward to the Game Cube's release, and the second installment of this cross over fighter was now Nintendo's best hope to sell their new console. If Sakurai's relationship with Iwata was a romantic one, he had just climbed on top. Smash Bros., the highest selling Game Cube title of all time, became the greatest cross-over in all of gaming!
Beneath the sheen of Mario fighting Link on Brinstar, however, was Sakurai's amazing fighting engine. Melee's mechanical integrity is evinced by it's still thriving competitive scene. I maintain that Smash Bros. could be a phenomenal game without various intellectual properties bolstering its style. At the heart of Smash Bros'. success is Sakurai's own creativity. I take it this means that Nintendo's all-star's, if massively important to the series, aren't necessarily it's life.
Now that we're awaiting the fourth Smash Bros. game, and since few cuts have been made along the way (i.e. reintroducing Mewtwo would be pretty hype by now), riveting Nintendo newcomers are increasingly harder to come by. Yes, time has passed between now and Brawl, but Nintendo has regrettably neglected to make many new IPs. Wii Fit Trainer's inclusion embodies this conundrum. She's a funny choice, and well designed like all of Sakurai's adaptations, but she's mainly an avatar in a fitness game. To me, she's as much of a Nintendo all-star as the Smash Bros. announcer himself. Nintendo's great IP drought stretches a long way back. I remember Sakurai stressing how difficult it was selecting new IPs for Brawl. Olimar was thus the only 21st century creation to be playable in Brawl. There is no shortage of interesting candidates if you look beyond Nintendo's gold seal of approval, though.
At E3 2006, Sakurai expressed a willingness to break tradition when he unveiled Snake as Smash Bros'. first third party newcomer. If ostensibly just a favour for a friend - Kojima and Sakurai probably have the most interesting conversations - Snake's inclusion nevertheless actively paved the way for Sonic, and seven years later, for Mega Man and Pac Man. These characters have since generated tons of hype. If you want a laugh, go watch some reaction videos on Youtube. Mega Man's Smash 4 trailer reactions are my personal favourites.
If we recognize that the pulse of Smash Bros. isn't in its characters' backgrounds, we should be content if the next installment has fantastic game play even without Mario fronting the roster. However, if we also acknowledge that gaming's icons add a ton of excitement to Smash Bros., we should want its character roster to be filled with the greatest selection of fighters possible. In the grand scheme of fandom, Cloud Strife (or Terra, or Cecil) is more popular than Chrom, and would probably make for a more exciting addition. Hopefully, Nintendo will catch the appeal of this attitude and knock on more company doors by Smash 5.
At the risk of sounding like a paranoid consumer, I want to add to this wall of text a caution that Nintendo readily tries to milk its customers: Pokemon games, and now Smash games, come in multiple versions; Roy was a flaming advertisement; Nintendo characters only show up on their proprietary devices; the virtual console to an extent; and so on. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that Nintendo's characters live in a happy little house together.
To close off this post, I'll add another unpopular opinion. I think non-gaming characters should make it into Smash Bros.. If cultural appeal is a virtue in this series, I don't see why popular characters like Goku or Mickey Mouse don't belong. Mario, gaming's front man, vs Mickey, animation's God-cell, would be entirely coherent within the context of Smash Bros.
