They have some rights to those characters, but Nintendo did most development on Kirby and Pokemon games. Kinda like the situation of Nintendo owning Donkey Kong but Namco have devlops the games.
Actually now that Rare sold all Donkey Kong characters to Nintendo they also might be in the next SSB game instead of just Donkey Knog.
Actually now that Rare sold all Donkey Kong characters to Nintendo they also might be in the next SSB game instead of just Donkey Knog.