BirthNote
Smash Master
Ness, Fox, Falco, Yoshi and Captain Falcon are also SNES characters though. Roy debuted in 2002 and Pac-Man, Mario, Donkey Kong, and G&W are Pre-NES because they're Arcade era, and Luigi counts as Pre-NES because his debut (Mario Bros.) released on Arcade just one day before the NES came out. Ryu and Ken debuted in the Arcade during the NES days but didn't get on Nintendo until the SNES and get that distinction too. Since Sonic got included, Daisy and Wario also count as SNES-era since their games released around the same time but on handheld.Smash Ultimate barely got any non-DLC newcomers but that was obviously a deliberate choice to sell more DLC. But every time they pick a "retro" newcomer it's always someone from the NES and never from the SNES because for some reason they've put it in their heads that the NES is the only thing people are nostalgic for.
Ever since Melee the majority of the newcomers have been NES-era (Ice Climbers, Marth/Roy, Pit & Palutena, ROB, Little Mac, Pac-Man, Duck Hunt, Megaman, Simon Belmont and now Dragon Quest). Meanwhile what has the SNES/16-bit era got? Very little in comparison. Diddy Kong, Sonic, K. Rool. The Street Fighter guys don't count since SF debuted in 87, technically making it an NES-era game. SNES is the console that always seems to get skipped over and I'm honestly tired of it.
The NES is the most overrated Nintendo console. Looking back on it I think it had an overwhelming amount of lackluster games and only really pulled ahead because of the novelty of its accessories like ROB and the Zapper. Not that I'm saying the third party NES newcomers are from lackluster games, but we don't need any more NES stuff. We have more than what we need from that era.
Arcade/Pre-NES: Mario, Pac-Man, G&W, Luigi, Donkey Kong, Ryu, Ken
NES: Peach, Bowser, Marth, Ice Climbers, Duck Hunt, Link, Pit, Zelda, ROB, Mac, Mega Man, Palutena, Simon, Snake, Kirby, Meta Knight, DeDeDe, Samus, Ridley, Piranha Plant, Solo, Arusu
SNES: Ness, Diddy Kong, K. Rool, Yoshi, Fox, Falco, Captain Falcon, Sonic*, Wario*, Richter*, Daisy*, Terry*, Pikachu*, Jigglypuff*, Pokemon Trainer*, Charizard*, Mewtwo* Koopalings (7)
N64/Playstation: Ganondorf, Cloud, Banjo & Kazooie, Wolf, Pichu*, Sheik, Young Link
Gamecube: Olimar, Alph, Toon Link, Villager, Bowser Jr., Dark Samus, Ike, Roy*, Lucario*, Lucas*, Zero Suit Samus*, Eight*
Wii: Mii Fighters, Wii Fit Trainer, Shulk, Rosalina, Robin*, Chrom*, Lucina*, Dark Pit*, Bayonetta*
Wii U: Inklings, Isabelle*, Corrin*, Greninja*, Joker*, Incineroar*
Switch: Luminary*
*Didnt debut on that system but debuted in that era.
NES has the most in its category but it's not as lopsided as you're making it seem. There's 7 Arcade characters, 22 NES-era, 18 or 24 SNES characters depending on how you count the Koopalings (I'll go with 24 since I'm counting Alph and Hero Alts); 7 N64, 12 Gamecube, 9 from Wii, 6 for Wii U, and 1 for Switch. Thanks to the Koopalings, SNES can get away with having the most characters from that era.
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