Results from Mega Smash Poll (Switch Edition)

We included Geno here because he is technically Mario (and thus he won’t appear in the Square-enix results) but we can see many Mario characters are being considered here, in fact, three were in the top 20. All five of these are often very much requested and well liked so it is no surprise that they came out on top. For the record 6th and 7th place belonged to other major Mario characters Daisy and Toad respectively.

We included Wario and Yoshi in these results as neither series really had enough votes to be on their own, unlike Donkey Kong.

There is quite the large jump between Dixie and Funky Kong which is probably because the first two choices are so much more iconic. Funky, Pauline (who is technically a DK character) and Cranky Kong are all really relevant right now thanks to Odyssey and Tropical Freeze which is almost certainly why they are ranking so high. Funky and Pauline have been around for decades but are only seeing such push now after major titles increased their role.

The Zelda series characters are very interesting. There were 44 characters in total and unsurprisingly, quite a lot of Breath of the Wild characters including all 4 champions. However, there is no outstanding candidate. Impa scrapped into the top 20 and is followed by two series favourites and then two versions of main series villain Ganon. In fact, the very fact that a revamped version of the veteran Ganondorf beat out over 38 other new characters shows how indecisive fans really are when it comes to this series. They want a new Zelda character but who exactly is quite decisive.

Metroid is almost the exact opposite of Zelda. Metroid has very few characters people actually want in Smash, as evident by the fact that 4th and 5th place only have one vote and one of these is a generic Space Pirate. Ridley absolutely destroys anyone else with Sylux and Dark Samus closing in thanks to their importance in the Prime series and potential future in Prime 4.

Shout-outs to the one person who voted for the Baby Metroid. You and the person who voted for Whispy Woods from Kirby have our support.

Kid Icarus

Punch-Out!

We wanted to include these two together as they both surprised us in similar ways. Neither are particularly major Nintendo series and many think Kid Icarus already has too many characters in Smash so we were surprised to see quite a few characters got voted for here, in particular, Punch-Out! which had more characters voted for it than Metroid. Now, the votes are not exactly high for either and the top contenders are quite obvious in both but the fact there are many people who want a new character from both series is interesting.

Considering Fire Emblem has gotten more popular in recent years and often the most recent protagonist gets added in, the results here are surprising. Not only were no votes given to the unknown hero but Celica and Alm didn’t even make 1st or 2nd, those went to series veterans and popular heroes Lyn and Hector. Chrom also came in 5th which really shows some people are willing to cling to hope! Sakurai changed his mind with Villager so maybe…

Kirby is in a similar place with Metroid in that there is one character who stands out above the rest but the other choices are rather surprising. Marx and Gooey have begun to get more notice thanks to their debut as Dream Allies in Star Allies. Then Magolor, who was quite popular before, has now dropped down below Marx. Meanwhile, Galacta Knight seems like an odd choice due to how similar he is to Meta Knight but maybe that is why he got high in the Kirby ranks because he is easy to add. Poor Susie dropped like a stone which really shows how important relevance is.

Star Fox

F-Zero

There isn’t much to discuss with these two. They didn’t get many characters requested and the order they are in is pretty much what to expect. Krystal and Black Shadow take the lead and then other major characters associated with the hero or villain make up the rest.

Pokemon surprised us because of how much Decidueye destroyed any other candidate from the Pokemon series, especially considering how many Pokemon were in the running. Often talks about Pokemon settle between Decidueye, Mimikyu, Lycanroc and Tapu Koko so to not even see the last two in the top 5 and Incineroar being here instead was a surprise. Sceptile and a New Pokemon Trainer in the top 5 is also quite surprising. People really want a grass starter.

Earthbound

Xenoblade

Nintendo’s two RPG series have been pushed together because we were surprised at how many votes both got. Xenoblade had Rex & Pyra take the lead and Elma got a decent number of votes as well. However, we also saw every partner from Xenoblade 2 and some from 1 like Riki and Dunban get voted in which wasn’t expect. Earthbound as well is sticking around and Ninten taking the top spot over Masked Man and Porky was surprising, especially seeing how similar Ninten and Ness are. It seems some people want a character for each game in the series.

For this poll, we combined all the series with playable characters already in Smash but those that got too few for their own section. Animal Crossing did get five candidates but that was it and nothing too outstanding. Isabelle leading this pack shows her importance but she still got a low amount of votes in the grand scheme of things which shows many don’t expect a new character from these series. The Squid Sister being over the obvious Octoling clone was a surprise. Alph beating Louie and other Pikmin characters is not a surprise though.

Retro

Modern

We split this into retro and modern with retro being anything before the year 2000 and modern anything since then. For retro, Takamaru is the biggest anomaly and is voted so high probably because Sakurai has mentioned him twice before. The other four though are retro characters solely because they debut back in Nintendo’s early gaming days as their series all continued into the modern day. So they are more like Little Mac than Pit.

For modern though we have a combination of legacy characters like Isaac and Chibi-Robo as well as really relevant entries like an ARMS and a Labo character.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Sega

Now for the third parties and Sega was split in two because so many Sonic characters just lead the pack. This is no surprise as Sonic has sold over 10x more than any other Sega series and the top five are no surprise.

The Sega series here are all pretty expected as they are all Sega’s biggest franchises. Persona 5 is huge and the Shin Megami Tensei series is a classic so having two from there is not a surprise. Bayonetta getting more characters is unlikely but she has a close connection to Nintendo which is likely why they are here. Then Puyo Puyo is one of the biggest puzzle series ever made, and with a big push by our video lead NantenJex, she has become more relevant to many of our readers.

Capcom already has two reps in Smash and unlike Sega which had a big Sonic focus, Capcom is more spread across its big series. Yes, there is another Mega Man and Street Fighter character here but the other series represented are very popular with Nintendo fans. No Resident Evil character though, despite how big the series is.

Namco Bandai is practically confirmed as the developers of this new title so a potential new Namco Bandai character could happen. Most of these picks aren’t a surprise but Solaire from Dark Souls being so high was. I think it was the amiibo and remaster that caused this but the Souls series is deserving.

Square-Enix is infamously not that easy to work with when it comes to its IP but if Cloud got in anything is possible. The biggest surprise is that a Dragon Quest character missed out on the top 5. Considering how big the Dragon Quest series is, this can probably be chalked up to the voters not knowing who from the series would make sense.

With Konami there has been a lot of recent rumblings about characters and this may have influenced the presence of Simon Belmont. Bomberman though is a huge request so him being so high is no surprise. The other candidates are all fairly low and that is to be expected.

Western

Japan

As was stated when talking about the top 20 before, it is no surprise that some western series got more votes than their Japanese counterparts but it is a surprise to see such a dramatic drop in votes from Rayman to Spyro.

Over in Japan the top two are not that surprising, neither is fifth place, as while they aren’t major icons Nintendo fans and Nintendo do have a strong connection with the characters. Reimu and Cooking Mama are more surprising. I almost wonder if Cooking Mama is more of a joke pick or not but either way she would a surprising character.

We decided to have indie as its own section as many fans are calling for an indie character. The top picks are not surprising although seeing Gunvolt make it over Meat Boy and Commander Video was unexpected. Inti Creates has clearly been increasing its renown amongst Nintendo fans.

Lastly, a number of non-gaming characters made the cut. Goku got an obscene amount of votes whereas Mickey got surprisingly view. Heck, Wreck-it Ralph got more votes than Mickey, although this is probably because he is meant to be a video game character. James Bond is still hanging on here, most likely because Sakurai actually considered him for Melee and so fans are latching onto that.