Board Thread:Site Discussions/@comment-5711801-20131006095325/@comment-2054358-20140502005525

Well, Snake can still appear. Sakurai hasn't denied him yet. In fact other characters whose chances didn't look good had been confirmed. Toon Link was shown as a stage character, yet he was revealed playable before Sonic. Lucario seemed unlikely because Sakurai hinted at Mewtwo returning and people considered Lucario a clone of Mewtwo, they didn't want Lucario and his reveal discouraged people from Mewtwo's return. But if you take a closer comparison between the two Pokémon, they have completely different movesets. And because Sakurai confirmed tripping wouldn't return, that lowered Diddy's return or at least his banana peel. But Diddy did return and he's still laying banana peels for people to trip on. Even Sonic was a miracle to return. Sumo Digital considered including Mario in Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing but Sega decided to leave the Mario and Sonic crossovers at the Olympics, despite Sonic being in Brawl. That decision made me doubt Sonic to return, but I still wanted him. Now that Sonic's confirmed, Sega will need to add Mario to the next Sonic and All-Stars game because they clearly broke there promise of leaving the crossovers at the Olympics.