I am grouping some characters for a purpose you may already know.
Group 1:
Mario
Peach
Yoshi
Luigi
Group 2:
Sonic
Tails
Shadow
Knuckles
Group 3:
Mega Man
Proto Man
Mega Man X
Zero
Group 4:
Samus
Pit
Link
Fox
Group 5:
Pikachu
Kirby
Mewtwo
Meta Knight
Group 6:
Lloyd
Goku
Kratos
Ness
I left Geno and Silver out for a reason, but I'm not rejecting them at all. Let me know if I missed anyone else.