
You may remember that, back in 2015, Nintendo asked fans of Super Smash Bros. to vote for characters that they'd like to see appear in-game in a ballot; lasting for six whole months, this gave players the chance to get their personal favourites added as DLC to Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS. As it turns out, recent datamine efforts indicate that the results of these ballots might not have actually been used to choose which characters were selected.
Smash dataminer @Ruben_dal has been sharing some findings on Twitter, revealing that character slots for Cloud and Bayonetta were effectively added via patch 1.0.6 - a patch that launched just two weeks into the ballot on 15th April 2015. Originally, these character slots were copies of Ike and Zero Suit Samus, eventually transforming into Cloud and Bayonetta over time.
It's likely that these copied characters served as a development basis for Cloud and Bayonetta, allowing the developers to have a starting point for characters that would have similar movements and body types. This suggests that the development team may have already had an idea of which characters would be filling those slots, despite the fact that the ballot had another five and a half months to go.
At the time, Smash creator Masahiro Sakurai said that Bayonetta was the number one Fighter Ballot choice in Europe, top five in North America, and worldwide winner, although these results were only for 'realisable' characters, suggesting that others likely had more votes overall. Some arguments online are now theorising that highly voted for third-party characters may have been off the table from the start due to licensing issues, and other first-party characters like the Inklings may have already been chosen as a newcomer for the sequel - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
If you're concerned that your votes may have had no or very little impact, though, don't worry. The Japanese site for the ballot did mention that votes could be used for future games in the series. Even if the votes weren't used for Smash 4, it's possible that they helped form the idea of every character being in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, or may even have an influence on unannounced characters.
As ever, let us know your thoughts on this whole debacle in the comments below.
[source gamefaqs.gamespot.com, via twitter.com]
Comments 86
Meh, from what I read there Nintendo had two place holders, not actually those characters.
Therefore, they knew they were going to have at least two new characters, then waited to the vote and substituted them in.
To be honest Cloud was a great shout, love FF7
Meh, I'm not concerned. Every fighter is in Ultimate, so I think it's a moot point. Plus, I bet they never actually promised to use the ballot results as the final decision for content.
Considering some of the characters voted for, not a bad thing.
that character slots for Cloud and Bayonetta were effectively added via patch 1.0.6 - a patch that launched just two weeks into the ballot on 15th April 2015.
So what youre telling me is they already knew of the number of characters they wanted, prebuilt space in, and then later used the ballot results for the final slot, giving us the voted for Bayonetta?
Given ya know there was only one ballot entrant.
Sensationalism
Considering Shrek and Goku were probably 1 and 2 in the balloting it's no surprise the voting didn't matter.
@rjejr
King K. Rool was likely up there as well, but, as we all know, he couldn't be in because he is simply too big.
@rjejr - and Reggie and Shrek were probably 3 and 4
Wow 2 seconds later and I forgot you already typed Shrek.....well this is gonna be a good day
I voted for Bayonetta, and my suggested moveset was eerily close to the final one. I was so happy when they announced her.
@StarmanSSP Tom Nook is part of Villager’s Final Smash, much like Chrom is a part of Robin’s Final Smash.
Nothing more than a rumor, no stress.
My guy ended up being a new assist trophy...
Was banjo number 1
Not surprised as I am sure the majority of the votes were for impossible things like: Anime (Goku, One-Punch Man), Superheroes (Batman, Spider-Man), Cartoons (He-Man, TMNT), Movies (Shrek, Despicable Me), Microsoft/Sony Owned Characters (Banjo-Kazooie, Master Chief, Sackboy) or just ridiculous (Spongebob, Magikarp, Death Note Guy)
Even if it's true, who cares? We got a great character, and they probably used some of the ballot results to decide on new characters for Ultimate.
Some people are actually harassing Sakurai over this. Just like some people did with Waluigi. Those people deeply disgust me.
Not surprised
@RyanCraddock it's your record today, 2 articles, 1 for hackers and 1 for datamines (which means hackers). You are lowering Nintendo Life standards with these kind of articles. There are so many actual news about Nintendo today. Try writing an article about one of those.
I mean, what if the ballot ended about two weeks? I’m sure they saw a clear winner and chose by that point even if they allowed he website to continue.
Also, I personally voted for Bayonetta and have several friends who did as well. Said friends know several people each who voted for her. Just because you didn’t vote for her didn’t mean other people didn’t.
hope for Isaac and Banjo!
Nintendo is great at listening to request, but has a poor history of fulfilling request.
Quite frankly, I didn't really think the ballot was even real. I think it was just a tool to keep people from pestering Sakurai.
How shocking. ^^
Mole hill indeed.
My chosen vote in that ballot is heavily rumoured to be incoming for SSBU so I’m happy either way.
Don't bring that toxic community in here. I like bayonetta. She's fun and compensates for my lack of skill. Everything is already set in stone why dig up old info?
Eh... its fine. I'm an American. I'm quite used to popular votes not really counting towards anything.
@Desrever
Lol! Amen to that.
My vote will get a chance... another day...
At least they listened about the smash bros characters. I hope they listen to the fans whowant SD card backup on the Switch.
It's not like they needed a poll to know everyone wanted Cloud in Smash, anyway.
I voted for Wolf and Young Link if I remember correctly (along with others), so the fact that EVERY character is back, you could say the ballot got some use because in the ballot I'm pretty enough vets got voted and online you can see people wanting vets to returned, so Sakurai did this because he thought it would be the best.
.....NOW TOO HOPE FOR SKULLKID AND MARX.
1. It could be the first two weeks of voting set the first round of winners (Cloud and Bayonetta).
2. Splatoon came out after the voting started which likely hurt the Inklings chances. That said their appearance in Smash Ultimate is based on the first game, not it's sequel.
3. If third party characters were off the table for the vote explain how Cloud got in.
So it was more of a survey than a vote, who cares?
I like how some people are only noticing now that the whole ballot thing was a smokescreen. As if that little "among the realisable characters" note during the reveal wasn't telling enough.
2 weeks after the ballot, seems like more than enough time for them to look at the ballots flooding in and decide that Bayonetta was getting a lot of support and would be the ballot fighter that they eventually would add.
Anyone who knows how to read statistics knows, that after a first period they can make pretty clear ideas about the list.
Look how just when elections close they hafe the first calculations mere minutes after. Why? Because when you have a certain pool of data you can make a good calculation.
Anyway I am pretty sure that 80% of all paricipans in the ballot did this in the first 2 or 3 weeks.
I think all this "reveal" of the dataminer here sucks. The ballot was a good idea and if they used the data or not is outside of the development team only speculation.
LITERALLY SHAKING!!!!!!!! Waluigi was ROBBED!!!!!!! The RIGGED vote was HACKED by the RUSSIANS!!!!!!!!!! #Resist #NotMyFighter #ImWithHim #Impeach63
Good. I'm glad they didn't add Goku.
I was voting for a playable Ridley just hoping Sakurai would turn that cameo into a playable character, so glad he finally did it for Ultimate now.
I still want K.Rool, he needs to make a return.
Not a surprise since they only said that your vote might make it in a future game and Bayonetta didn’t add up outside of European polls.
@Desrever This is America.
@Euler As long as Bayonetta doesn’t try to start trade wars with our allies I’m fine.
The lack of King K. Rool, Cranky Kong, and/or Dixie Kong is sad. :’(
Birdo shooting eggs also seems like an easy assist trophy idea.
@Cosats @RyanCraddock They really should detail how to download the entire collection of Nintendo games and how to install them onto your switch.
I mean, assuming this is true, what did you expect? If they actually used the ballot results we would finally have Shrek as a playable character.
Yes Shantae will be in smash ultimate!
I hope that smash ultimate has some unannounced characters. I would be really surprised if there wasn’t atleast dlc for it like for smash 4.
I'm not quite sure what the story is here? 🤔
@Bunkerneath I think the other thing to keep in mind is that they also had access to 2 weeks of poll data. That may have been enough, on its own, to figure out who to put in. The ones leading, after removing illogical choices, were probably well in the lead.
@Donutman it's worth noting that Sakurai said we shouldn't expect "too many" new challengers. Which, unless this is a translation quirk, implies that there are at least "a few" new challengers.
Also, they have embraced the concept of echo fighters, so we might get some clone characters to help pad out the roster. I don't see why he'd make a big deal about it otherwise.
All of that being said, we should keep expectations in check and not obsess until character announcements start rolling in.
Why does no-one, ever, ask for Paper Mario?
My boi Bomberman did make it in I guess...as an Assist Trophy...at least Waluigi knows how he feels. ;_; Better than my second choice, Knuckles, fared at least...
Eh. What's done is done, and they're both great additions.
@Warbeard Paper Mario would be such a great character. I don’t care if the Mario franchise is “over represented”, there’s still a lot of untapped potential.
@EmmatheBest Knuckles is an Assist Trophy in case you didn’t know!
I wanted Bayonetta and Bomber-man. I'm well happy both are in the game now. I suppose bomber man makes more sense as an assist trophy.
I remember voting for Wart and Mouser (from Super Mario Bros. 2) as well as Banjo and Kazooie... 😔
I think I voted for Rayman
@MH4 I think I vaguely remember him being one now that you mention it. As Knuckles would say....
"Close enough!"
Oh well, my votes had no chance of winning anyways.
@Darknyht And even if they ever ended considering them, the fact is all of these suffer from one big "flaw": Being third party characters whose rights might have been hard to negotiate in the first place.
Especially characters from the likes of Animes/etc where a lot of IP holders are absurdly protective of their IPs sometimes to the point of borderline hitting copyright-trolls grade.
@GrailUK To be honest, Bayonetta being from the sort of action game where she have movesets already comparable to fighting games helps.
And Bomberman's tricks are a bit more.... one-sided. So hard to apply as a fighter but probably perfect assist trophy material as you've said yourself.
@Kriven The fun thing is that the reveal of "Echo Fighters" through Daisy might be the sneakiest announcement they've made I feel.
Because, by officialising the concept of clone fighters with such a formal name it now means they've literally created an entirely new category of fighters in the first place that begs for just more characters to be added.
I get the feeling that while there might be few surprises left in term of full characters, we might end up very pleasantly surprised in the coming months until December by what "Echo Fighters" might end up being revealed over time... let alone held off as a surprise for the game's full release.
But what about my boy Waluigi?
And no, not bandwagoning on this. Waluigi has been my main since Mario Party 3 in terms of games he's in.
Out of all of the characters in the series, she may be the only character I generally do not like. I don’t even think she fits well.
I honestly voted for Banjo and K. Rool myself, as unlikely as they are.
It's essentially what I expected. Kinda shady, but eh, people were choosing some dumb ones, too
@Ludovsky I was actually going for absurd ones in the first place. I probably should have gone with suggestions of My Little Pony, Captain Planet, Space Ghost, She-Ra and Rodimus Prime be more explicit in my not being serious.
Was hoping Shadow the hedgehog would finally make his way in Smash as a PLAYER. They have Sonic, why can't they add Shadow?
I love Bayonetta, and I love salt.
This couldn't have turned out any better
I believe the main thing here is that those placeholder spots used to be copies of Zero Suit Samus and Ike.
In other words, two very similar characters to the ones that eventually got released.
This implies they already planned to have Bayonetta long before the ballot. And that they used Zero Suit Samus as a base/placeholder during development.
Does this mean the "Shovel Knight is destined for Smash" rumors aren't gonna die? Cuz I'm ready for them to die.
Octolings, DJ Octavio, King Boo, James Bond...
@FlimFlam I believe the same thing, I voted for King K. Rool!
It doesn't bother me that Sakurai already had his mind made up for the Wii U/3DS DLC, he knows what he's doing.
I think Sakurai said in an interview that the planning for Ultimate started while he was making the DLC for Wii U/3DS. The Fighter Ballot could've secretly been for Ultimate all along, and it would make sense based on who we've seen so far.
Inklings were a popular choice for DLC based on polls from other websites around the same time as the ballot. (Although I think they were to be expected either way...)
(On the other hand) Fans have been asking about Ridley for a long time, but Sakurai would insist that he's too big. If Sakurai saw Ridley was a popular ballot choice though, it might've finally changed his mind about making Ridley playable.
But the only way to confirm this theory is to have Shrek and Goku in the game.
@GameOtaku
I support the proposal, as I said, she deserves to be in Smash, she is a video game character, all her games were in Nintendo consoles, and WayFoward even supported the idea of #Shantae4Smash; what else is needed?
However, if she were to be, it is likely that she will be an assistant trophy, because Bomberman, a character who has years (+35 years) in video games, an icon, that many, many of his games have been in Nintendo consoles, he will really appear as an assistant trophy, well, minimum, he will really appear.
I would actually love to know how many votes Waluigi got. Judging from the outcry of him being excluded again, I bet it was actually top of the poll
"Well, the votes went to Goku anyway" is not a valid argument. Y'all know Sakurai would never use him. It's pretty dumb that this whole ballot went to pretty much nothing (and for a character I personally didn't want).
https://mynintendonews.com/2018/04/03/super-smash-bros-fighter-ballot-data-to-be-used-for-reference-for-future-smash-games/
Really?! Falling of the chair, rolling around like Neymar (sarcasm, sarcasm)...
I voted for Bomberman
Just add King K. Rool and I'll be happy!
It’s funny, I voted for Ryu.
Anything that can be added, can be changed. This doesn't mean much.
The one character I wanted to be playable didn't make it into the roster for Smash 4, and in Ultimate, she is merely an Assist Trophy. I am talking about Krystal from Star Fox. Hopefully Smash 6 will finally make her playable. I would totally main her, as she is my favorite video game character.
i don't care how bay got in there, as long as she's in there.
i don't care how bay got in there, as long as she's in there.
@Gerbwmu "Wow 2 seconds later and I forgot you already typed Shrek"
10 days later and I'm finally getting around going through my inbox. I need an automatic "NintnedoLife/PushSquare replies" folder. I think it would still have about 500 unread messages dating back years. I've been neglecting names I don't recognize, usually hate mail.
@FlimFlam "King K. Rool was likely up there as well... he is simply too big."
That was a very well written deadpan, you had me cracking up at the end.
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