Will other guest characters join Mega Man?

Smash Bros. and Mega Man fans alike are probably still buzzing over the Blue Bomber's inclusion in the latest Smash Bros., but series director Masahiro Sakurai has made it clear that including such third-party characters is something of a rarity. Players will remember that Super Smash Bros. Brawl was the first game in the series to see non-Nintendo fighters, with Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog and Konami's Solid Snake.

In an interview with Kotaku, Sakurai had this to say about the inclusion of third-party characters in the upcoming Smash Bros. games:

But I think I can say generally that there won't be a trend of adding a lot of third-party characters. You can sort of think of Mega Man as being the special case.

Also interesting was what Sakurai shared about the development process; specifically, the dynamics of creating Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U at the same time:

The reality of the situation unfortunately is that there are certain limitations on the 3DS. The 3DS and Wii U versions of the next Smash Bros will have the same library of characters. So we're forced into the situation where we may need to reduce some characters to a certain degree. but we're really working hard in order to include as many characters as possible.

Some may take this to mean that characters from previous iterations of Smash Bros. may get the boot, but it could also mean that certain characters may need to have their abilities "reduced" to work on the 3DS. Some context may be necessary to determine whether or not Sakurai is considering roster cuts or extremely limited roster expansion to make the game possible on both platforms.

What do you think about Mega Man's foray into the Smash Bros. universe? Are there any other third-party characters you feel deserve a shot to duke it out with Nintendo's finest?

[source kotaku.com]