Hello! This post was suppose to come out sooner, but after I came back from vacation my video card decided to die. Because of that, I didn’t have access to a computer for several days. I will extend the deadline for the Mega Smash Poll for another two weeks in order to further promote it. Sorry for the delay!
The Mega Smash Poll was created in order to better understand the online Smash community.The previous version, which was finished the day before DLC was announced, and this new version will allow us to map changes over the course of DLC development.
Of course, I’ve written about the Dangers of Online Polling in the past. While I tried to reach as many people as possible, there is only so many people interested in taking unofficial polls. So far, the poll has 800 responses which would be less than 1% of the people who bought Smash for Wii U and 3DS. It’s even less than 1% of the number of people who are subscribed to /r/smashbros.
This post was written to advertise the poll, and to show what kind of information we can learn. So please take it and share it!
(Direct Link to the poll)
I also included optional questions about Source Gaming, which will directly affect what kind of content we will make. Based on feedback, I’ve decided to bring two editors on board in order to improve the quality of the articles. MaskO’ and A10TheHero will help revise articles starting next week. Also, we are working on improving the quality and availability of the podcasts. Stay tuned for more information! Anyway, let’s get started with the data!
The first thing I looked at was the age of the poll takers. 16 is by far the most common age, while the age is about 19 and a half.
| Post-DLC Poll | Pre-DLC Poll | |
| Mean: | 19.44136192 | 19.69271061 |
| Mode | 16 | 19 |
| Median: | 19 | 19 |
This is slightly younger than the previous poll. The previous poll had over double the responses, so that might explain the difference.
Europeans, South Americans and Asians accounted for a higher percentage this time around. North America still took up the most though.
Brawl and Super Smash for Wii U both grew in percentages. This probably happened as I decided to only include official releases in this poll. The previous version had Project M and Super Smash Flash. Speaking of favorite games and ages, let’s compare the two:
| Game: | Average Age (Pre) | Average Age (Post) | Difference: |
| Smash 64 | 21.36170213 | 20.5 | -0.86170213 |
| Melee | 19.53200883 | 18.80487805 | -0.72713078 |
| Brawl | 20.0733945 | 20 | -0.0733945 |
| Smash for 3DS | 19.40718563 | 20.14285714 | +-0.73567151 |
| Smash for Wii U | 19.61052632 | 19.39219331 | -0.21833301 |
Favorite Series Count:
| Pre-DLC | Post-DLC | Change in Ranking | |
| Pokemon | 490 | 141 | +1 |
| Legend of Zelda | 559 | 112 | -1 |
| Mario | 272 | 85 | — |
| Fire Emblem | 172 | 84 | — |
| Kirby | 77 | 46 | +2 |
| Earthbound | 111 | 39 | -1 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog | 57 | 36 | +3 |
| Metroid | 101 | 27 | -2 |
| Xenoblade | 56 | 25 | +2 |
| MegaMan | 68 | 21 | +2 |
| Star Fox | 41 | 18 | +3 |
| Final Fantasy | — | 17 | — |
| Metal Gear Solid | 48 | 17 | -1 |
| DK | 57 | 14 | -5 |
| Street Fighter | — | 12 | — |
| WarioWare/Wario Land | 9 | 12 | +3 |
| Yoshi’s Island | 4 | 10 | +6 |
| Bayonetta | — | 9 | — |
| Animal Crossing | 45 | 8 | -6 |
| Kid Icarus | 31 | 8 | -4 |
| Pikmin | 32 | 8 | -6 |
| F-Zero | 19 | 5 | -5 |
| Punch Out!! | 5 | 5 | -1 |
| Retro | 14 | 5 | -6 |
| Namco | 6 | 2 | -4 |
| Wii Fit | 8 | 2 | -6 |
One thing that was interesting was to see how perceptions of characters have changed.
Here is the data sorted by the amount it changed:
| Diddy Kong | 20.08% |
| Meta Knight | 15.35% |
| Wario | 9.07% |
| Donkey Kong | 6.46% |
| Pit | 5.88% |
| Mr. Game and Watch | 5.85% |
| Mii Swordsman | 4.69% |
| R.O.B | 4.15% |
| Falco | 3.92% |
| Ike | 3.33% |
| Mii Gunner | 3.29% |
| Toon Link | 3.06% |
| Sonic | 2.96% |
| Charizard | 2.48% |
| Palutena | 2.23% |
| Greninja | 2.20% |
| Lucario | 1.88% |
| Shulk | 1.54% |
| Megaman | 1.32% |
| Marth | 0.75% |
| Dark Pit | 0.73% |
| Pac-Man | 0.00% |
| Wii Fit Trainer | -0.25% |
| Little Mac | -0.66% |
| Bowser | -0.79% |
| Fox | -1.40% |
| Peach | -1.70% |
| Kirby | -1.71% |
| Dr. Mario | -1.76% |
| Samus | -1.85% |
| Zelda | -2.12% |
| Zero Suit Samus | -2.38% |
| Bowser Jr. | -2.56% |
| Link | -2.72% |
| Robin | -2.77% |
| Mii Fighter | -3.29% |
| Captain Falcon | -4.83% |
| Mario | -5.73% |
| Jigglypuff | -6.37% |
| King Dedede | -7.38% |
| Pikachu | -7.50% |
| Ganondorf | -8.32% |
| Ness | -8.56% |
| Villager | -8.88% |
| Rosalina and Luma | -9.26% |
| Olimar and Pikmin/ Alph and Pikmin | -10.72% |
| Duck Hunt Dog | -11.01% |
| Lucina | -11.52% |
| Luigi | -16.08% |
| Yoshi | -16.51% |
| Sheik | -16.79% |
Part of the reason why Diddy Kong was so disliked in the first version was because a majority of players felt that Diddy Kong needed a nerf. After several nerfs, the tide swung the other way. Some of the other characters likes and dislike can also be attributed to balance.
Anyway, that’s it for today. You can check out the data the poll has collected so far here. Feel free to use the data for anything you would like. Just please include a link to the data so other people can use it too.
- Smash Ultimate Development Timeline - May 16, 2020
- Straight from the Source: Koji Igarashi on Castlevania in Smash, Bloodstained - October 16, 2018
- Sakurai Discusses Isabelle, Echoes, and Newcomers - September 26, 2018
