I want Birdo and Bellsprout thank you.

.......I made this post to (in spirit) help his stress.....seem like I made it even worse. :/

Marth, Diddy Kong, Olimar, R.O.B. are too awesome to be cut!

Falco, Diddy Kong and especially Marth aren't going anywhere.  Toon Link is rumored to get booted.

Falco wasn't so bad.
Why Marth?  Marth was my favorite.
Diddy Kong was fun.
The rest I don't care as much about.

I say make Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong a duo character. And I allow you to kick the Ice Climbers but you don't have to do it if you don't want to.

Also DO CUT Falco. Lamest character ever.

I guess you can keep Olimar because he's still relevant thanks to Pikmin 3.

But the Fire Emblem series is pretty niche. You certainly don't need 2 characters from that franchise. You can keep one.

I think it's also time for Game & Watch to go. And maybe Jigglypuff.

If they keep one, I would really hope it's Marth.  Fights quite differently than some of the others IMO.

I would replace Ike and Marth with Chrom and Lucina. They're pretty much the same characters with the same fighting style, only more relevant (and at least in one case, significantly better).

I'd definitely cut Lucario (maybe replace with a truly iconic Pokemon - he's a poor stand in for Mewtwo), Wolf, R.O.B., Toon Link ("There can only be one"), and King Dedede.

On the contrary, removing all of the clones would perhaps result in one new original character - clones are far easier to make and balance, so they can include a lot more of them.

Personally, I'd rather see it handled in exactly the opposite manner, and have clone characters actually STANDARD in the game... to the point that every character (or nearly every character) comes with its own clone.

A lot of characters have a natural choice for clone. Obviously, existing clones work for this - Mario/Dr Mario, Link/Toon Link, etc. And some are pretty natural, like Bowser/BowserJr, Peach/Rosalina, and Donkey Kong/DKJr. But with a bit of creativity, you can come up with clever clones for just about all of the characters. For instance, Ice Climbers/Mario+Luigi (as per the Mario & Luigi RPG series), or Mr Game+Watch/Paper Mario, or Ike/Shulk, or Little Mac/Alex Kidd (yeah, I went there). Villager/Farmer (Harvest Moon), Wii Fit Trainer (Female)/Wii Fit Trainer (Male), and Mega Man/Proto Man are obvious options, too. Note that clones aren't just alt costumes - they change traits like speed, weight, power, etc, as well as modifying behaviour of moves (like Fox's vs Falco's blaster).

The only characters I'd drop entirely would be ROB, Wolf, Snake, and perhaps King Dedede. ROB due to, in my opinion, not really fitting in with the rest of the characters, Wolf because he's a forgettable rival character (and we don't need three characters with practically identical movesets all from the same game), Snake because Konami have failed to bring Metal Gear to Wii or Wii U, and King Dedede because... well, I just don't "feel" it with that character (but that one's entirely personal preference).

Maybe have Lucina be a skin for Marth.  
Marth's fighting style is a lot more fluid and light than Ike or Roy's.