NeonZ said:
But he wasn't even a trophy in SSBM... though there wasn't any trophy of a generic trainer, and he is playable in Brawl. Anyway, I see Diddy appearing with Dixie before Diddy appearing by himself. He probably would have something closer to a tag team feature, so he wouldn't really be stealing the Ice Climbers gimmick.
He's appeared prominently in 6 DK games, one even a spin-off as a titular character. He's pretty much the Luigi to DK's Mario in the DK universe. I don't see why it's such a stretch. Name me another Nintendo character with 6 prominent, playable game appearances that's not yet in Smash, by all means.
I honestly see Mewtwo and Jigglypuff returning. I'm not sure who else from the Pokemon games they would bring in, other than other Pokemon trainers? I never saw how Lucario was such a sure thing for some people (maybe as an assist trophy).
Ah, but popularity is sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more recent Pokemon are less known because they're not given anything more than bit parts in anything aside from their respective games. If they were given more spotlight in such things, they'd easily be more popular. Hell, Pikachu was pretty much a two-bit Pokemon in the first game, he gained his notoriety entirely through larger exposure elsewhere, which then spilled over into the games.
And look at Marth, few people here have played the games he originated in, but thanks to his Melee appearance, US players now recognize him and he has a lot of fans. Same will happen with Ike, before Smash hardly known, after Smash he'll be much more recognized.
Same concept goes for Pokemon. Put Treecko in there, and all of a sudden Treecko will be one of the more popular Pokemon among fans.