Super Smash Bros. Ultimate already has two Marios, but the time might have come to introduce a third. That's right, folks - Paper Mario should be added to the game as a DLC charꩲacter.
The Super Smash Bros. series has drawn the ire of fans for including multiple variants of the same character, starting with the similarities between Mario and Luigi in the original game. This continued on with subsequent entries, like Mario and Dr. Mario in Melee, or Marth and Lucina in the 3DS/Wii U entries. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Sakurai embraced this concept by naming them Echo Fighters and defining them as being close to other fighters, but ღdifferent enough to justify them not being a costume.
Paper Mario is different enough from the regular version of Mario to justify a character slot in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. There are five more DLC slots remaining and a new Paper Mario game has just been released, so the time might have come for the titular 2D hero to make his way into Smash Bros.
In terms of playstyle, Paper Mario would be differentiated from regular Mario by the fact that he's dependent on items. Paper Mario is known for using a hammer in co♈mbat, as well as equipping specific boots to strike enemies. Shells already appear as i🐎tems in the game, but Paper Mario could have some baked into his moveset, which will bounce off enemies and can be kicked back.
This could be incorporated into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate by giving him different items that the player needs to manually change, in a similar manner to Min Min's Arms or Shulk's Monado Arts. His Final Smash can bring in all of his partners from the previous Paper Mario games for one massive attack, as he has had a number of party members in the past, including some who have only had a single appearance in the Mario series. The most important aspect of Paper Mario's moveset should be timing, as hitting the button at the correct time is a key part of all of the Mario RPGs and it should be present in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
There are rumors that a Nintendo Direct will be happening in a few days, and that the next Super Smash Bros. character will be revealed there. It might not be wise to announce Paper Mario just yet, as we just had a first-party rep with Min Min, and it's time to reveal an exciting third-party character to hype up the fans. Paper Mario is definitely worthy of one of the later slots. If Link can have three different versions in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, then the same should be true of Mario.