[gwtyler1985]

Speaking as a gamer, a game master, and a programmer, there are some things that have occurred to me that make some things... unlikely.

Fist and most obvious: manaketes from Fire Emblem and Ridley from the Metroid series.
The reasoning behind this is quite simple. They're too big. Manaketes might be good for characters in their human form, but every form of attack has them transforming. And Ridley is, and always will be, a boss monster big enough to take up a stage. The only time anyone's ever been able to play something like that is with a smash ball for either the Fox/Falco/Wolf trio or Bowser, the latter of which would probably be more comparable to what people would be playing (though in this case, they'd be playing it all the time). Another good reason these probably won't show up is the attacks. Most FE representatives so far have essentially been regular fighting game characters with exceptional fighting game moves revolving mostly around their weapons. For Manaketes, that weapon is the ability to turn into a dragon, which when you think about it would just end up giving you Charizard without Ivysaur or Squirtle with no Smash Ball attack. Ridley, on the other hand, has an abundance of move potential, but coupled with his size, any speed faster than Ganondorf would quickly make the character a moving version of the Homerun Bat. It would be like making the Master Hand a playable character.

King K. Rool just isn't his own character. Yes, big villains like Bowser, Ganondorf, and even Dedede have worked out, but that's because they all have staying power, a built in moveset from their games, and an established personality that sets them apart from all of the other enemies in their games. Bowser is the mean-spirited conqueror who's constantly trying to take Princess Peach and the Mushroom Kingdom. Ganondorf is the evil mastermind behind the coup against the Kingdom of Hyrule in Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess. Dedede is the bumbling and conceited ruler who's usually just trying to get a better hold on his rule. K. Rool.... Doesn't have that. His identity never stays constant or develops much. There may be one game where he's rather memorable, but there's not much to work with. Any work with K. Rool would be a pretty big jump and a pretty big risk.

Isaac would be a pretty good fit for the game, but unless there's plans to release another game after Dark Dawn, the game that brought Golden Sun's breakout popularity crashing harder than the Sega CD. Without another release or a port to the Wii U or 3DS, Golden Sun is as far removed from Nintendo as Final Fantasy: great memories, but ultimately not there anymore. A pity because I personally liked Golden Sun and believe it would be easy to build a moveset for Isaac

Shulk, Chrom, and Ghirahim are much more probable. Xenogear isn't quite as well known, but the game, story, and characters are solid enough to promote. Chrom is a viable replacement for Marth (even in-universe apparently), and Ghirahim is a memorable and popular villain, much like Ganondorf but with his own identity.

Giovanni isn't likely, though a Pokemon Gym stage would be pretty awesome. Mewtwo returning would be welcome, but I would anticipate losing Lucario and getting someone else entirely. Again. I'd go for Zoroark, but there's always the next generation this fall that could give us something.

Bomberman would be pretty nice. In a decision between him and Sonic, though, I'm for Sonic.

Killshot, no offense so far, but most of it's just not gonna happen. Maybe they'll get rid of Ice Climbers and Olimar, maybe they'll change Ganondorf and Wolf, maybe they'll add a support for Andy and add Trix as a character (yes, there's a shot for Trixie), and God willing they'll get the licensing to add the blue bomber. Most of it's unlikely, but those are the parts I'd like to see as well.

Characters from TWEWY suffer just as much as Megaman and Isaac from licensing red tape. Not that Nintendo hasn't pulled this off before with Solid Snake (very nice of Kojima for old times' sake), but TWEWY in particular recently was picked up for third party characters by Square Enix for Kingdom Hearts. I don't know whether they'll keep them, but it makes things complicated.

Slayer is right. Nobody likes Raiden.

Omni, a Phoenix Wright trophy wouldn't be too far fetched. The character himself would be.

Majora's Mask Link... would be a decent idea if Link himself wasn't already as versatile without transformations.

I won't dignify other suggestions by mentioning them, but finally we have Rayman. ... I don't think that Rayman will show up. I don't have a problem with him. I think he has a clearly defined character that could fit. I don't think Nintendo will have trouble getting rights to use him. I could come up with a moveset for Rayman right now. Sure it would be based on Rayman 2 for the PS2, but it would work. The problem with Rayman is that I just don't think he's popular enough. Sure he has the games, but he has no audience. He's not like Mario, Sonic, Yoshi, Link, Kirby, and Donkey, who have audiences for their legacy games. He's not like Snake, Marth, and Ike, who have their own target audiences. He's been passed around about as much as non-DK Rareware properties and hasn't really drawn as much of a crowd. In that respect, he's kind of like Olimar and ROB, only Nintendo doesn't own him and they don't make that much money by promoting him. I absolutely love the character, but I just don't think that he's going to show.

And there you have my opinion on everything we've got so far. Yes, KS will probably be mad about my diametrically opposite position on Meta Knight, Yoshi, Falco, and especially Sonic (I admit the last one is because I'm a fanboy and love odd movesets like his, but I like to point out that that's the point of having other characters in SSB). All in all, most of what people said they wanted was pretty cool (apart from Optimus Prime and Sora (please kill the people who suggested those (for their own good))), but some just have their basic problems.

EDIT: With the announcement that Nintendo will be co-producing this game with Project Sora from Kid Icarus: Uprising fame and NAMCO BANDAI, I'd like to say that whatever does happen with characters, it's really going to be the new aspects of the game that blow you all away. I anticipate great and fantastic change coming to E3 2013.