User blog comment:Dan12322/Mario Franchise in Smash 4/@comment-8182065-20150101023514

TBH, there are a lot of Mario reps; however, the game is Super Smash Bros. I'd technically say that the Mario franchise partly owns the series because of the name (Super Smash Bros., Super Mario Bros. Seeing a connection here?). They could've went with Nintendo All-Stars or something like that if you think about it, because that's generally what the game includes. IMO, every current Mario fighter should stay (cept Dr. Mario of course).

With Paper Mario, I can assure you he won't be a clone of any sort unlike Dr. Mario. And no, it would be totally different then the pixel version. IMO, and probably other users will agree that this version is the only acceptable alternate Mario who should be playable (other choices would be Metal Mario, Tanooki Mario, etc. but nobody wants more clones).

If you've played any of the Paper Mario games, you'll notice he bashes enemies with a hammer a lot (+jumping) and I can see that being incorporated into his moveset for Smash attacks, a great D-air spike, throwing it horizontally for a distance attack (based on an ability Hammer Throw from the Paper Mario games).

In addition to his hammer, there's also a variety of badges/items from the games he can use in his moveset as well (some of those badges make for great custom moves as well). Heck, some of his allies from the games can give him a hand for certain special attacks.

Also with Diddy Kong, I'm positive he's more a Donkey Kong character than a Mario one (first appearance being in Donkey Kong Country 64, and only appearing in some of the spin-off Mario games).