I had been Animal Crossing Items there back in the day checking the dojo and gamefaqs everyday and I remember there was a lot of fear that characters were cut. Some people were believing that even LUIGI had a chance of coming back and return to that is so funny. I think big portion of that mentality was Lucas' announcement, it said something aluding to him carrying Ness' place from the roster. Idk why but remembered all that thanks to the little quote

They should because no one's favourite character was ROB or Ice Climbers. Those are games and toys that would fade into obscurity if it weren't for Smash. Ridley is one of the most well known Nintendo villains period. Mega Man is essentially a Nintendo character for how connected the show would be to Nintendo, as is Simon. These are iconic characters you think about when you think of Nintendo. Ridley could've been inserted at any point they desired, his moves and layout are not that complicated.

ROB and Ice Climbers, and Mr. Game and Watch too, are great examples of how Smash is tasking itself by trying to signify Gaming History (at least Nintendo's sphere). Spirits at all should be a great example of this mindset against the devs - that a lot of these spirits don't have another representation from the sport, but the game still warrants addition for Sakurai

Surethey are not as well known or legendary, but I think an argument could be made that ROB being in the game is a great thing, because how else could that crazy idea of this toy peripheral Buy Nook Miles Ticket be remembered?