Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot

Not to be confused with Super Smash Bros. Poll.

Ballot website logo

The Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot was an official market research survey conducted as part of the Super Smash Bros. 4 Official Site in 2015. With the announcement of an extended DLC schedule for Super Smash Bros. 4, the Ballot was created to survey what characters fans wanted to see as playable fighters in the franchise; its Japanese page specified that results would be taken into consideration for both DLC and potential future games. The Ballot was open between 1st April 2015 and 3rd October 2015.

The ballot significantly influenced the character selection of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which was conceptualized during the late stages of DLC development for Smash 4. Sora was confirmed as its overall most-requested fighter worldwide in Ultimate's final video presentation. For Smash 4 itself, the ballot was a factor in the selection of Bayonetta; she ranked highest among "negotiable and realizable" fighters for that game, placing top 5 in North America and #1 in Europe. It is also implied to have been a factor in selecting Cloud, who received the most fan requests of any individual Final Fantasy character.

The Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot dominated discussions throughout the Smash community during the period in which it was active, being covered by numerous news outlets and big-name YouTubers.

Overview

The ballot as it appeared on the North American version of the website.

The Ballot was announced during the April 2015 Nintendo Direct, directly after Lucas was revealed to be the second DLC fighter for SSB4. The Ballot was a write-in form in which users first identify their gender—male or female—then the character, their game of origin, and a brief explanation as to why the character should be included. The final section had a 500 character limit. The Japanese, European and Oceanian versions of the website also had voters specify their nickname and age in addition to filling out the aforementioned four fields. The voter would then confirm their submission and send it to a database. During the Ballot's run, there was considerable debate between fans regarding whether the Ballot was a contest that would result in only the winner being added to the game, or if it was more akin to a suggestion box meant to give the developers a clearer idea of what characters fans desired to be included.

There was no limit to the amount of times a single person could vote, and some users attempted to "stuff" the Ballot by using proxies to add multiple entries, although only a single vote per person would be considered valid for the ballot. Around 1.8 million valid votes were tallied upon the Ballot's closure on October 3, 2015.

Although the official results in their entirety have never been published, many fan websites conducted unofficial exit polls, or collected responses from other websites in order to monitor which characters were frequently requested across various online Smash communities. Exit polls of voters on such websites as SmashBoards, and anecdotal evidence from Twitter and 2ch, suggest that among their userbases, there were many requests for characters such as Waddle Dee, Geno, and Dixie Kong in Japan, while overseas there were many requests for characters such as Isaac and Shantae, reflecting the popularity of those respective series in their respective regions. Characters such as Sora, Banjo & Kazooie, and King K. Rool, along with all the veterans cut from SSB4, were reported to be among the most requested characters globally. A Tumblr poll conducted by Super Smash Bros. Central bore distinct resemblance to eventual known results of the ballot, with Chrom, Daisy, and K. Rool ranking as the top 3 Nintendo requests, and Banjo, Sora, and Bayonetta as the top 3 third-party requests. The strictly unofficial, frequently self-selected and non-random method of recording these results stresses that they would represent only a fraction of the ballot's nearly-2 million verified responses from the general public. However, these unofficial polls provide a sense of what characters were frequently discussed vocally by various Smash subcommunities during the time the ballot was active.

Impact and results

The Ballot was explicitly cited as a factor behind several fighter inclusions in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, such as Ridley, King K. Rool, Simon, Richter, and implicitly for Chrom and Dark Samus. As well, Snake and other veterans were highly requested.

On October 5, 2021, Sora was announced as the final addition to Ultimate's roster. Sakurai revealed during the presentation that Sora was the most requested new fighter in the Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot. Shortly afterward, he would confirm Banjo & Kazooie to have been the runner-up,, particularly from overseas. However, he noted that business negotiations for both characters were more difficult than any other fighter, with talks for Sora having been particularly lengthy and extensive; discussions with Disney were unable to take place until a chance encounter with a company staff member in 2019, so he was not approved until the final round of Ultimate's DLC development.

Prior to this, Bayonetta was identified during Smash 4's Final Video Presentation in December 2015 as having received significant requests in the ballot. She received the most votes of any fighter in Europe and placed in the top 5 in North America, and was described as the #1 character among "negotiable and realizable characters" for that game. She was released as Smash 4's final DLC fighter in February 2016. The same presentation noted that Cloud had received the most fan requests of any individual Final Fantasy character, but Sakurai never specifically referenced the ballot regarding him.

Datamine controversy

The wording around Bayonetta's inclusion has been a source of contention among fans. Particular controversy was raised regarding datamined placeholder character slots added on April 15, 2015, which were later discovered to be filled by Cloud and Bayonetta. only two weeks into the ballot. The slots were copies of Ike and Zero Suit Samus's data, which would gradually be modified to create both characters. A third placeholder slot was added on June 14, 2015, which was another copy of Ike's data which was gradually modified to create Corrin, rather than Bayonetta as previously believed. These discoveries resulted in accusations that Bayonetta's selection for 4 was illegitimate, and that she was planned for inclusion regardless of the ballot. Masahiro Sakurai would later state upon Sora's confirmation that he and Satoru Iwata had elected not to disclose specific results of the ballot, to prevent fans from harassing the companies who owned highly requested characters that were not added.

Sakurai would later explain that while there were other characters, including unspecified third-party characters and veterans such as Snake, that received more votes than her, they could not be successfully negotiated for at the time. However, negotiations for Bayonetta were very easy due to Nintendo's pre-existing relationship with both Sega and the Bayonetta series. His emphasis on her "negotiable and realizable" status, combined with the high hurdles faced by Sora and Banjo & Kazooie and the short amount of development time between the ballot's opening and the end of DLC support for Smash 4, indicates it was unlikely that they could have been developed for the game compared to her.

Overall, the datamine suggests that while it is likely that Bayonetta was being planned and discussed for the game as a potential fighter separately of its results, she happened to independently receive significant support in the ballot regardless, hence the citation of her demand upon inclusion. Characters such as Chrom and K. Rool, who were confirmed to have been popular ballot choices, did receive downloadable Mii Costumes during Smash 4, which is often speculated to be a possible acknowledgement of their demand prior to their proper inclusion in Ultimate, where the ballot was able to be logistically responded to more fully.

Trivia

• The Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot draws multiple parallels with the Super Smash Bros. Poll from 1999, where players voted on the characters they wish were in Super Smash Bros.; most characters even mentioned in that poll have seen appearances in Smash in some capacity, ranging from spirits to fully playable characters. A poll was also held in 2006 for the Japanese website for Brawl, which was cited as a factor behind the late inclusion of Sonic, and the continued development of the nearly-cut Wolf.