The game features a roster of 58 playable characters, with 51 available on-disc and 7 available as downloadable content, drawn from both Nintendo's first-party franchises and third-party franchises. The base game includes 17 newcomers, such as the Wii Fit Trainer, Animal Crossing's Villager, Rosalina and Bowser Jr. from the Mario series, Little Mac from Punch-Out!!, Greninja from Pokémon X and Y, Palutena and Dark Pit from Kid Icarus: Uprising, Lucina and Robin from Fire Emblem Awakening, Shulk from Xenoblade Chronicles, the dog and duck duo from Duck Hunt, Capcom's Mega Man, Bandai Namco's Pac-Man, and the Mii Fighter. Some characters, such as Wii Fit Trainer and Bowser Jr., have multiple variations, including different genders and alternate character skins, which are selected in the same manner as alternate colors. Returning fighters who could change forms during a match in previous titles are now playable solely as individual characters, such as Zelda, Sheik, Samus, and Zero Suit Samus, along with Charizard, who was previously included alongside the now-absent Squirtle and Ivysaur in the Pokémon Trainer's team in Brawl. Dr. Mario, who first appeared in Super Smash Bros. Melee, makes his return to the roster after his absence in Brawl. The Ice Climbers were originally planned for inclusion but were removed due to the technical limitations of the 3DS. Wolf O'Donnell and Solid Snake are also absent following their appearances in the previous game. The downloadable content includes seven additional characters, including three returning characters and four newcomers, released between April 2015 and February 2016. Mewtwo, who last appeared in Melee, was released on the 28th of April 2015, but was made available on the 15th of April 2015, for Club Nintendo members who purchased and registered both 3DS and Wii U versions of the game before the 31st of March 2015. Roy from Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, who also last appeared in Melee, and Lucas from Mother 3, who last appeared in Brawl, along with Ryu from Capcom's Street Fighter franchise, were released on the 14th of June 2015. Cloud Strife from Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII was released on the 15th of December 2015, following increasing requests for Final Fantasy series characters. Finally, Corrin from Fire Emblem Fates and Bayonetta from Sega and Nintendo's Bayonetta series were released on the 3rd of February 2016, in North America and in Europe and Japan the next day. Corrin was developed as a downloadable character in response to the critical and commercial success of Fire Emblem Fates in Japan and in anticipation for the game's worldwide localization. Bayonetta was chosen as the overall winner worldwide among negotiable and realizable characters in a player-nominated ballot which ran between the 1st of April 2015, and the 3rd of October 2015, ranking first in Europe and among the top five in North America. Sakurai and former Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata decided not to reveal the top-requested fighters of the poll, believing if they had, people might demand them from the respective game companies, which would cause some inconvenience to any negotiations. In October 2021, Sakurai revealed that Sora from the Kingdom Hearts series and Banjo & Kazooie from the Banjo-Kazooie series had been the two top-requested fighters in the poll; both were ultimately added to the series as DLC characters for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.