Besides Duck Hunt Dog and Sheriff, I have not heard any other ideas for another character in the same vein as Mr. Game & Watch and ROB.
No love for Nester? He was the mascot for Nintendo Power Magazine and even had his own Virtual Boy game. He could even double as a Pilotwings rep, since he appeared in that.
Besides Mother, I think Kirby and Star Fox are basically complete in terms of playable characters. I think Zelda is too, though there are some that think Tingle or Ghirahim should be added.
Yeah, I agree. Pokemon and FE will probably keep refreshing characters, since the main characters change so much. Mother, Starfox and Kirby don't have any more major characters. DK, F-Zero and Wario have at least one more usable major character.
I would be pissed if Travis touchdown got in. No More Heroes is cool and all, but he's a bench player, not an all-star.
Edit: List of "worthy" 3rd party characters off the top of my head:
Mega Man
Pac-Man
Bomberman
Ryu (Street Fighter)
Ryu (Ninja Gaiden)
Simon Belmont
Banjo-Kazooie (sigh)
Slime/Chrono/Old School FF character
maybe Rayman
Yep, totally agree with this list.
Unlike most people, I could see Cloud as a representative of Final Fantasy in general. But I have a bit of a bias, since I remember I used to think of him as a rival to Link, in the same way that Sonic was a rival to Mario. Although I get why he isn't popular.
As for Sherrif's gun problem, he could be rendered in retro (3D?) pixel art, so his 'bullet' would just be a floating pixel. I doubt the censors would have a problem with that. Then again, I think Mr G&W is enough to carry the retro-design gimmick. Otherwise, Sherrif could be a blank slate for Sakurai to design any kind of cowboy character he wants. I think Flint and Dillon are much more well defined though.
While we are on the topic, how would everyone like a character from Pro Wrestling?
Star Man 4 lyfe!
Amazon's pretty cool too