u/MLDKF

Well, this was certainly a close one for third place. Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man were pretty much locks, but in a very close one, Dig Dug's Taizo Hori made the third spot just ahead of Gilgamesh from Tower of Druaga. My prediction was right on this one, but let's see how well that holds up for this next one. Also I'm wondering how many people in the subreddits I repost this to will ask "Wait, why is Dig Dug allowed!? I thought it was only Pac-Man characters!"

Well, while I wait for that inevitability, let's focus on the next series: Xenoblade (with the new game announced, I can't call it Xenoblade Chronicles). Three games (technically four) in this young series that originally wasn't even supposed to leave Japan until Operation Rainfall happened, and yet it's now become as much of a staple of Nintendo's lineup as things like Fire Emblem and Donkey Kong. Let's see who from this RPG series is really feeling it.

As a reminder, the rules:

1. Only characters that originate from the games of the franchise for the day (in this case, Xenoblade. No, Xenogears and Xenosaga won't be included, those are different series that were made by MonolithSoft), but the characters don't have to have been playable in an official Smash Bros. game
2. No downvoting
3. You can choose either a team of three or an individual character, but only one submission per person on each day. If you wish to change your choice, you can either delete your old post and make a new one or reply to the original comment with your changes you're making.
4. All votes to a team will count as the three characters in that team getting a vote
5. The three characters with the most upvotes will make the team for their franchise

And ding-ding-ding, that's the bell to end Round 21! Sorry, couldn't help but make a boxing reference. Anyway yeah, Mac will be joined by Doc Louis and King Hippo. A little surprised by this, but not all that much. I kinda figured that it would be a four person race with Glass Joe coming in somewhere. Also, before I go any further, I want to give art credit where it's due. In this case, the model of SNES Little Mac comes from JoeAdock over on DeviantArt, and you can find the render of the art here: https://www.deviantart.com/joeadok/art/That-you-Mac-379676096

Now that I've done my due diligence, it's time we move on to Pac-Man. However, since Pac-Man clearly doesn't just represent himself in Smash, I am going to make a judgement call and open up the voting to any-and-all Namco arcade reps...except for Tekken. Tekken gets its own spot later on. Every other Namco Arcade game is fair game. This one should be a fun one to see who gets nominated, let alone who wins this one. Let's see what you guys can do.

As a reminder, the rules:

1. Only characters that originate from the games of the franchise for the day (in this case, Pac-Man and Namco arcade games), but the characters don't have to have been playable in an official Smash Bros. game
2. No downvoting
3. You can choose either a team of three or an individual character, but only one submission per person on each day
4. All votes to a team will count as the three characters in that team getting a vote
5. The three characters with the most upvotes will make the team for their franchise

Well, I anticipated Wii Fit Trainer and Matt...I didn't expect the Ring Fit Trainee to crash the party, that was a surprise. Also quite a varied list of nominees for this very weird category. That's certainly a way to cross the halfway point of this little experiment. I'm excited to see what the back half will bring us.

And we'll start with the second half with Punch-Out!!, a series that I would really like to see Nintendo bring back one of these days, especially with the way the Joy-Cons are designed. I'm excited to see who will be included in this one, however. Show me what you've got.

As a reminder, the rules:

1. Only characters that originate from the games of the franchise for the day (in this case, Punch-Out!!, which means that no, you absolutely cannot submit real life boxer Mike Tyson as a member of the team), but the characters don't have to have been playable in an official Smash Bros. game
2. No downvoting
3. You can choose either a team of three or an individual character, but only one submission per person on each day
4. All votes to a team will count as the three characters in that team getting a vote
5. The three characters with the most upvotes will make the team for their franchise

Welp, looks like quite a few people have Mahvel on the brain considering the team of three we got is really the three we should've had to represent the series in MvC3 in the first place! So yeah, Mega Man, Zero, and Tron Bonne won the ballot and make up the team for Mega Man. And you guys made quite a varied selection of teams too regardless. Part of me wanted to make it classic series only, but I like what we got by opening it up like this, and it was only fair to do so given some of the upcoming series on this list.

Speaking of opening up representation, we now turn to what's next. Since Wii Fit is technically a game where the Miis are more the stars of this one, I decided to lump it in with the Mii lineup. So here's the deal with this one: Any game that has the "Wii" or "Mii" label for it (Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Wii Party, or even Wii Music if you dare as examples) or any game where the Miis are the main characters (Miitopia, any of the Street Pass minigames, etc.) will count. For the Miis, I will allow either specific NPC's from the games or a Mii Fighter archetype like how Smash does this (though I'll allow original Mii archetypes not in Smash) to be entered. This one should be a wild series of votes, but I know you'll all make it interesting, so have fun.

As a reminder, the rules:

1. Only characters that originate from the games of the franchise for the day (in this case, Wii/Mii), but the characters don't have to have been playable in an official Smash Bros. game
2. No downvoting
3. You can choose either a team of three or an individual character, but only one submission per person on each day
4. All votes to a team will count as the three characters in that team getting a vote
5. The three characters with the most upvotes will make the team for their franchise

Well...I expected Villager, I expected Isabelle, but I honestly thought you'd all pick someone like K. K. Slider as the other Animal Crossing rep...not only did you not, instead going with Tom Nook, and not only did Villager not even come close to the top spot, but this is the lowest number of nominees a series has had since we did Star Fox...that's a massive surprise to me. Well, I guess I can't say I'm disappointed, because this was interesting.

And now we move on to one of my favorite franchises to be rep'd in Smash: Mega Man. And yes, I will allow characters to be nominated from throughout the Mega Man franchise, not just classic series (even though classic is what I prefer). I'm very excited to see who gets in for the Blue Bomber's franchise. Have fun with this one guys.

As a reminder, the rules:

1. Only characters that originate from the games of the franchise for the day (in this case, Mega Man), but the characters don't have to have been playable in an official Smash Bros. game
2. No downvoting
3. You can choose either a team of three or an individual character, but only one submission per person on each day
4. All votes to a team will count as the three characters in that team getting a vote
5. The three characters with the most upvotes will make the team for their franchise

Wow...I uh...wow. I expected this to be a lot closer than what it was. Well, congrats to the winning team of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles for not only having the most nominations by any group of three (there were like 8 different people that suggested this), but also the most combined votes of any team to make it. Also Knuckles holds the record now for largest differential between third place and fourth place, and it's not even close, my goodness. Also congrats to almost everyone for keeping the comments in the conversation tame...mostly (I won't say who messed up, but they know what they did)

Anyway, we're almost halfway through this, so now we move on to the first of the franchises introduced in Smash for 3DS/Wii U: Animal Crossing. I have a feeling I know who the two front runners will be, but third place is up in the air. I've got an idea of who it might be, but I'm not as confident as I am with 1st and 2nd. Anyway, have fun folks.

As a reminder, the rules:

1. Only characters that originate from the games of the franchise for the day (in this case, Animal Crossing), but the characters don't have to have been playable in an official Smash Bros. game
2. No downvoting
3. You can choose either a team of three or an individual character, but only one submission per person on each day
4. All votes to a team will count as the three characters in that team getting a vote
5. The three characters with the most upvotes will make the team for their franchise

Okay, I guess I was not aware of how much people actually like Pikmin 4, because I did not anticipate Oatchi, much less that he would get more votes than Louie. So congrats to Pikmin 4's pupper for getting on here along with Olimar and Louie (I guess we can forgive him for trying to kill the others in Pikmin 3?)

Now, with that being said, we move on to...oh no, it's Sonic. I'm going to once again point out Rule 1 of this subreddit itself: Keep it calm and civil...I know Sonic is contentious, even nowadays, but...please be good about this one.

As a reminder, the rules:

1. Only characters that originate from the games of the franchise for the day (in this case, Sonic. Yes, that means I have to give a thumbs down to the characters from the shows like Sticks and Cosmo, the SatAM/Archie characters like Sally, and the IDW characters like the Diamond Cutters, even if Whisper and Tangle are in Sonic Racing Crossworlds), but the characters don't have to have been playable in an official Smash Bros. game
2. No downvoting
3. You can choose either a team of three or an individual character, but only one submission per person on each day
4. All votes to a team will count as the three characters in that team getting a vote
5. The three characters with the most upvotes will make the team for their franchise

As expected, Solid Snake and Raiden get the Top 2 spots for Metal Gear and are pretty much auto-qualifiers for the team. #3, however, was a complete blindside. Of all the characters I would've expected the community to choose, I did not anticipate one of Delta Squad, much less The Pain. But hey, I'll take it. If this were a real thing, I imagine he'd have one of the most unique and fun movesets yet, commanding a swarm of bees.

Speaking of characters that command other characters, we must now move onward to Pikmin. This one could be fun, but I have a really good feeling I know what way you guys are gonna go...but then again, you've surprised me with quite a few choices, and some of these teams I didn't expect, so let's see what you have in store for Pikmin.

As a reminder, the rules:

1. Only characters that originate from the games of the franchise for the day (Pikmin), but the characters don't have to have been playable in an official Smash Bros. game
2. No downvoting
3. You can choose either a team of three or an individual character, but only one submission per person on each day
4. All votes to a team will count as the three characters in that team getting a vote
5. The three characters with the most upvotes will make the team for their franchise

Also, I am going to add a little change to rule 3. If - for some reason - you want to change your submission for the day, I would actually recommend putting it as a reply to the original. This question was asked by u/Warlock_Guy25, and I had figured editing it would be fine if you kept the original and said who the new submissions were, but I feel like some people might take advantage of that, so I'm going to instead base it off of what u/BrennandizAlt did and have it that you submit the new submission as a reply. Although I would highly recommend not doing changes if you can help it just because it can mess with voting. If you like another person's idea better after you've posted, it's probably best to just give them your upvote and move on. Anyway, that's all. Happy voting.

Well, I thought for sure that Waluigi was going to get enough votes to make it in. To his credit, there were quite a few people pushing for him. But he was sadly stopped by the force of u/darkshadow237 suggested with having Wario be joined by Ashley to represent the WarioWare series and Captain Syrup to represent Wario Land, and people looking at that and thinking "Heck yeah, love it!" So...sorry Waluigi, but the people have spoken. If you listen closely, you can hear a sad "waaaaaa" followed by allegations of cheating from the man in purple.

Now onto a series where I have a good idea who will get first and second place, but third place is completely up in the air: Metal Gear. This should be incredibly fun to see play out.

As a reminder, the rules:

1. Only characters that originate from the games of the franchise for the day (Metal Gear), but the characters don't have to have been playable in an official Smash Bros. game
2. No downvoting
3. You can choose either a team of three or an individual character, but only one submission per person on each day
4. All votes to a team will count as the three characters in that team getting a vote
5. The three characters with the most upvotes will make the team for their franchise

I don't know what I find more surprising here: The fact that not only did Phosphora, Phosphora, manage to get enough votes to end up on the team with Pit and Palutena as opposed to the one I figured would be most likely (Virid), but that she actually had the second most votes...and yet not a single vote for anyone like Medusa or Hades. That's...very interesting.

Well, either way, time for us to move on to Wario. Like with DK and Yoshi, I will allow any Mario characters that are closely associated with Wario to count for his team. However, I will also say that I will allow both Wario Land and WarioWare characters, despite the fact that I'm pretty sure Smash only considers WarioWare. This oughtta be good

As a reminder, the rules:

1. Only characters that originate from the games of the franchise for the day (in this case, WarioWare/Wario Land, or any Mario characters closely associated with Wario), but the characters don't have to have been playable in an official Smash Bros. game
2. No downvoting
3. You can choose either a team of three or an individual character, but only one submission per person on each day
4. All votes to a team will count as the three characters in that team getting a vote
5. The three characters with the most upvotes will make the team for their franchise

This was quite a close vote, but in a tight vote, the winners ended up being Marth, Robin, and Byleth. Sorry people voting for the House leaders, but unfortunately they weren't quite able to sure up to it...namely because it seems there was some problems with voting. So, from here on out, I'll be regularly keeping track of the votes in the comments (not at routine), and keeping track on if they change. If they go down, that won't mean the character(s) will get one less vote. I figure this would be fair, and it's a suggestion the admins of this subreddit made themselves. Some of you don't know how not to read that one rule is "No Downvotes" (and that includes on the subreddits this is crossposted to)

Now then, time for Sakurai's other favorite series: Kid Icarus. This one should be fun seeing who's going to get in.

As a reminder, the rules:

1. Only characters that originate from the games of the franchise for the day (in this case, Kid Icarus), but the characters don't have to have been playable in an official Smash Bros. game
2. No downvoting. And since I apparently need to emphasize it: NO DOWNVOTING!
3. You can choose either a team of three or an individual character, but only one submission per person on each day
4. All votes to a team will count as the three characters in that team getting a vote
5. The three characters with the most upvotes will make the team for their franchise

Had to repost this because I put the title in incorrectly and didn't know how to fix it.

Well this one didn't surprise me at all. I had a feeling it would be Mr. Game & Watch, R.O.B., and Duck Hunt getting to represent this team and that Ice Climbers would be on the outside looking in...I also expected more varied responses like Excitebiker or Urban Champion, but not that many this time around.

Anyway, onto the next series: Sword Emble-I mean Fire Emblem. Okay but really, this one should be real interesting considering A. The controversy that Fire Emblem has to the Smash community, and B. The fact that no one seems to be in agreement on who from this series should even stay when the next Smash Bros. comes around. Also, please keep this one civil, like Rule 1 of the Subreddit says. I don't want to have to extinguish any flame wars in the comments

As a reminder, the rules:

1. Only characters that originate from the games of the franchise for the day (in this case, Fire Emblem), but the characters don't have to have been playable in an official Smash Bros. game
2. No downvoting
3. You can choose either a team of three or an individual character, but only one submission per person on each day
4. All votes to a team will count as the three characters in that team getting a vote
5. The three characters with the most upvotes will make the team for their franchise

When I told some friends of mine about this project, and got to Earthbound/Mother, one friend was desperately hoping Kumatora would make the team with Ness and Lucas. I'm proud to tell her that yes, Kumatora did get in, and with a pretty decisive vote too! Honestly, I thought Ninten was gonna get more votes, but y'all happily surprised me.

Alright, onto one I've been excited for. Some of you might have wondered why Ice Climbers, Game & Watch, R.O.B., and Duck Hunt are in the same square. That's because those four are being lumped together in what I call "80's Retro". Basically, as long as the character is an 80's character from Nintendo, and they aren't from a series already on this list (things like Mario, Zelda, and upcoming Kid Icarus as examples), they are free game for this entry, and you can put them on a team with other characters that fit that description, even if they're not from the same game or series. I expect some neat ideas for this one, so make me proud.

As a reminder, the rules:

1. Only characters that originate from the games of the franchise for the day (in this case, the 80's Retro characters), but the characters don't have to have been playable in an official Smash Bros. game
2. No downvoting
3. You can choose either a team of three or an individual character, but only one submission per person on each day
4. All votes to a team will count as the three characters in that team getting a vote
5. The three characters with the most upvotes will make the team for their franchise

Ordinarily, I would've waited to post this a couple hours from now, but I need to get up a little earlier in the morning, so we're gonna post the update now. Captain Falcon, Samurai Goroh, and Jody Summer win the votes, and so they race ahead to the roster. Now from a series that hasn't been updated for unknown reasons to one that hasn't been updated because the creator has ended it already: Earthbound, AKA Mother.

As a reminder, the rules:

1. Only characters that originate from the games of the franchise for the day (in this case, Earthbound/Mother), but the characters don't have to have been playable in an official Smash Bros. game
2. No downvoting
3. You can choose either a team of three or an individual character, but only one submission per person on each day
4. All votes to a team will count as the three characters in that team getting a vote
5. The three characters with the most upvotes will make the team for their franchise

GOOD GOD, was this one explosive. Not only did the first place nominee have more votes than any of the others (Pikachu with 92), but we also had 36 nominees. The most we had before this was Kirby with 9. Y'all really had a good number of choices, with some really cool ideas I would love to see put together. But sadly, only three could win, and those three are Pikachu, Greninja, and Charizard. Now from the highest grossing IP of all time to an IP that it feels like Nintendo forgets that they have: F-Zero.

As a reminder, the rules:

1. Only characters that originate from the games of the franchise for the day (in this case, F-Zero), but the characters don't have to have been playable in an official Smash Bros. game
2. No downvoting
3. You can choose either a team of three or an individual character, but only one submission per person on each day
4. All votes to a team will count as the three characters in that team getting a vote
5. The three characters with the most upvotes will make the team for their franchise

Okay, you guys admittedly kinda surprised me. I was expecting that it would be the Smash playable characters of Fox, Falco, and Wolf, but instead it's Krystal who gets in, and Falco was third in votes. Still, quite happy to see this surprise. Now for a series that I'm very excited to see who you all vote for: Pokémon.

As a reminder, the rules:

1. Only characters that originate from the games of the franchise for the day (in this case, Pokémon. Yes, this includes characters like Ash, Jessie, James, etc. that come from the anime won't count), but the characters don't have to have been playable in an official Smash Bros. game
2. No downvoting
3. You can choose either a team of three or an individual character, but only one submission per person on each day
4. All votes to a team will count as the three characters in that team getting a vote
5. The three characters with the most upvotes will make the team for their franchise

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Kirby, Meta Knight, and King Dedede make the team of three for Kirby. Although there were a couple of very interesting characters that got votes who didn't make the cut (poor Bandana Dee). Let's see if you'll all surprise me with the next series that has now become extremely relevant: Star Fox

As a reminder, the rules:

1. Only characters that originate from the games of the franchise for the day (in this case, Star Fox), but the characters don't have to have been playable in an official Smash Bros. game
2. No downvoting
3. You can choose either a team of three or an individual character, but only one submission per person on each day
4. All votes to a team will count as the three characters in that team getting a vote
5. The three characters with the most upvotes will make the team for their franchise

Quite a wide variety of votes this time around, but Yoshi, Poochy, and Kamek get to represent the Yoshi series. Also I was quite happy with how many votes characters got. Nice touch. I do have a feeling I know how this next series will go, but let's see if you guys give me any surprises with Kirby.

As a reminder, the rules:

1. Only characters that originate from the games of the franchise for the day (in this case, Kirby. Sorry Escargoon fans), but the characters don't have to have been playable in an official Smash Bros. game
2. No downvoting
3. You can choose either a team of three or an individual character, but only one submission per person on each day
4. All votes to a team will count as the three characters in that team getting a vote
5. The three characters with the most upvotes will make the team for their franchise

Well, well, well. This was certainly an interesting vote. Not only the most number of nominees for this part, but also one where the main protagonist didn't have the most votes. Still, with a close vote between the main antagonists of the two previous Metroid Games, the Metroid Team is decided with Ridley, Samus, and Raven Beak. Great work. Now onto the first Smash franchise in the group with only 1 rep in it: Yoshi.

As a reminder, the rules:

1. Only characters that originate from the games of the franchise for the day (in this case, Yoshi, but like with Donkey Kong, I'll allow nominees that are at least closely tied enough with Yoshi for them to count), but the characters don't have to have been playable in an official Smash Bros. game
2. No downvoting
3. You can choose either a team of three or an individual character, but only one submission per person on each day
4. All votes to a team will count as the three characters in that team getting a vote
5. The three characters with the most upvotes will make the team for their franchise

Well, this final result was certainly expected. Link, Zelda/Sheik, and Ganondorf all had the most votes. Although we had some interesting suggestions in the comments. That bodes well for franchises that have only one or two reps when we get to them later on. But for now, we continue onward to Metroid. This one should be an interesting challenge, given how this franchise handles characters.

As a reminder, the rules:

1. Only characters that originate from the games of the franchise for the day (in this case, Metroid), but the characters don't have to have been playable in an official Smash Bros. game
2. No downvoting
3. You can choose either a team of three or an individual character, but only one submission per person on each day
4. All votes to a team will count as the three characters in that team getting a vote
5. The three characters with the most upvotes will make the team for their franchise