I got to thinking of all the First Party franchises in Smash with either a stage or a character (or both).
The First Party franchises with characters are...
- Super Mario
- Donkey Kong
- The Legend of Zelda
- Metroid
- Yoshi
- Kirby
- Star Fox
- Pokemon
- Earthbound
- F-Zero
- Ice Climber
- Fire Emblem
- Game & Watch
- Kid Icarus
- Wario Ware / Wario Land
- Pikmin
- R.O.B.
- Animal Crossing
- Wii Fit
- Punch Out!!
- Mii (Also counts for Super Smash Bros.)
- Xenoblade Chronicles
- Duck Hunt
- Splatoon
- ARMS
That's 25 different franchises. 26 if you count the Miis are Super Smash Bros. characters
To add to that, here are the first party franchises with only stages...
- Electroplankton
- Pictochat
- Balloon Fight
- Nintendogs
- Find Mii
- Tomodachi Life
- Wrecking Crew
- Pilotwings
- Wii Sports
That's 9 more franchises, making a total of 34 (or 35 if you count Smash).
Why list the franchises like this?Well I'm trying to think of the largest first party franchises not included in either category.
Now that ARMS has a character, I think the largest Nintendo franchises that could feasibly include a character that don't have on are currently...
- Golden Sun
- Advance Wars (Famicom Wars, Battalion Wars)
- Rhythm Heaven
- Astral Chain
- Dragalia Lost
- Ring Fit Adventure
The largest franchises that couldn't feasibly include a character are...
- Brain Age
- Excite (Excitebike, Excitetruck Excitebots)
- Style Savvy
- Wii Play
- Tetris (Eh.... kinda of Nintendo owned)
I tried to limit these picks to franchises who either had constant smaller entries or at least one big more successful entry. Do you agree that these are the largest franchises without a character/stage? Do you see any of these IPs as possible additions?