Having female alts definitely counts for something. But still unique female characters count for a lot and in ultimate we didn't get any until this pass. That was the main weird thing, since in ultimate we got 2 in base game at least.
If we look at unique male characters only, I wonder how many male ones there are. (a bit too lazy to do the math myself right now XD)
You got me interested. I'm using similar parameters to Dinoman96, but feel free to correct me if you think something's off:
Uniques for sure:
(30 total)
I'm classifying Megaman as male here even though he's technically a robot, just because Roll exists in his universe and is clearly meant to be a girl.
Clones of some variety:
(10 total)
These are all varying levels of clones, and some have been greatly modified from their original character over time, but still retain elements of their original clone status. Mewtwo, despite being a literal clone was left off the list, please save your jokes.
The likes of Young Link, Toon Link and Dr. Mario are two tiers down as Doc is Mario wearing a different outfit and Young/Toon Link are Link's reincarnations in a different timeline. Same soul.
Questionable status of gender:
(11 total)
Yoshi is classified as male but lays eggs. Pikachu and Pichu have male and female alts confirmed, Puff is likely female but due to it's gender diversity not being so obvious as Pikachu, it, Lucario, Greninja and Incineroar are here. Mewtwo is officially genderless even though it has a male voice, R.O.B. is a genderless robot despite their name being male, Duck Hunt might be both male but I'm unsure for certain and Plant is a plant so it's likely
both.
Not truly unique as they're another form of the same character, a male alt or attached to a female character in some way:
(
)
(15 not including the Pokemon Trainer's trio or Mii Swordsman and Brawler as seperate, 19 otherwise)
I'm sure this will be the contentious section since even amongst the alts the males usually outnumber the females as in Bowser Jr and Steve's case.
Additional male alts:
Zombie, Enderman (12 total)
Just for completions sake.
Marth:
(1 total)
Not a joke based on his looks, I'm just not sure whether to count him as a unique or not a unique since Lucina exists. Feel free to put him in whatever catogary you feel he fits.