Today we are answering a question that we got from one of our readers. It has to deal with the recent King K. Rool costume, ballot and Sakurai bias. If you would like to send us questions, please contact us!
Hi. I was jumping through your website and like the information you’ve gathered on Smash Bros. I read your Gematsu debate article and I have a proposal of my own. I have noticed a huge backlash regarding King K.Rool being a costume for the Mii Fighters. I would like to read your thoughts on the matter. These are the points I would like you to cover.
While it arguably effects K.Rool’s chances, do you think it completely rules him out?
Do you believe the purpose of the ballot was a publicity stunt and they had planned all characters out from the start?
The possibility people might be voting for other characters such as veterans or random characters like Shrek and Goku.
On an ending note this may seem like a controversial point to cover but do you believe Sakurai really is giving several franchises like DK, Metroid and F-Zero unfair treatment since they have been in Smash Bros from the start?
I want it to be known that I do think Sakurai cannot continue to ignore the cries from fans of these franchises for much longer. Considering DK, Metroid, F-Zero and Mother started Smash there has been a severe neglect in unique selection. None of these characters have playable villains of any sort and there is no shortage of unique movesets other popular choices can bring to the table. Personally I think Sakurai should seriously look at the Metroid bounty hunters more closely as they will open the eyes of those who dismiss the franchise as not viable.
I would like to see your views on the ballot and who you believe is most likely to appear as DLC now K.Rool’s chances have gone down.
Thanks
Let’s break down the questions:
While it arguably effects K.Rool’s chances, do you think it completely rules him out?
The following is completely opinion base. Proceed with caution!
TheAnvil: ‘Completely’ is a very powerful word. I don’t think you could honestly say that any character that Nintendo owns is ‘completely’ out. Sakurai has proven many times that he can be unpredictable and he will add characters we wouldn’t even think of, as well as proving that he’s capable of changing his mind.
That said, I think that this costume is likely a direct response to his popularity in the ballot. I know there is a lot of debate about this at the moment but in my heart I feel like this lowers his chances exponentially. To the point where I’m comfortable enough to say that I don’t think he’s got any real chance of being added. This could just be a case of me being overly pessimistic in order to not get my hopes up.
PushDustIn: No, it doesn’t completely rool him out (sorry, bad pun). However, I do believe that costumes could be consolation prizes of some sort. That is to say — for whatever reason, K. Rool could not make it in as a full fighter, but Sakurai is recognizing the fans by providing a costume. The other costumes we’ve got (minus the existing character and non-characters) almost seem to follow this trend. The likelihood we will see the Lloyd, Heiachi, Jackie, and Chrom are very low. Inklings and K. Rool probably have slightly better chances than the other costume characters, but I do believe that this “customization” does slightly negatively affect King K. Rool’s chances. For the people who are saying “costumes don’t matter!” because of the Samus Aran, Link, etc costumes are not realizing that King K. Rool, Inklings and the others are in a completely unique category.
Do you believe the purpose of the ballot was a publicity stunt and they had planned all characters out from the start?
PushDustIn: Pre-ballot characters (Roy, Ryu, Lucas and Mewtwo) were planned and worked on pre-ballot announcement (as confirmed by Sakurai here). I strongly believe that pre-ballot is 100% finished.
I don’t think it was a total publicity stunt, but I do have to wonder about the effectiveness of the ballot — as it’s open to anyone and we have no idea how votes are counted. It would’ve made far more sense to give everyone with a copy of the game one vote, and allow them to vote on the (former) Club Nintendo. The way it’s open now allows it to (theoretically) be violated by spambots and joke votes. Like SmashChu said in his upcoming article, they aren’t going to pick the winner if they can’t make it work (copyright, philosophy, game design, etc) and the ballot has always been a suggestion box.
TheAnvil: I absolutely believe that this is a publicity stunt. Giving the fans power like this is always good publicity. However, I’ve said many times that I think people are putting too much faith and stock into the ballot and what it actually means. I even made mention of our lack of knowledge as to what the ballot really means in my article on K. Rool prior to the costume being reveal.
I think the ballot’s results are unlikely change their minds on any character that they weren’t willing to add otherwise. We have to remember that this is closer to a suggestion box than it is “vote for your favorite character and we’ll make them playable”.
The possibility people might be voting for other characters such as veterans or random characters like Shrek and Goku.
TheAnvil: I’m sure Sakurai knew what he was getting into when they gave the ballot the go ahead. Characters like Shrek and Goku will likely get a lot of votes but I don’t think it ultimately matters. Such childishness will most likely just be discarded. I’m sure they’ll get a few laughs out of some of the more crazy suggestions though!!
PushDustIn: The possibility that they are voting for joke characters? Pretty high. Kotaku even told people to go vote for Goku, and it was a meme for the start of the ballot to suggest oddball choices. The probability that Sakurai will listen to these oddball requests? 0. These joke requests are part of the reason we got Mii Fighters. Go nuts.
On an ending note this may seem like a controversial point to cover but do you believe Sakurai really is giving several franchises like DK, Metroid and F-Zero unfair treatment since they have been in Smash Bros from the start?
PushDustIn: Of course, veteran status matters. But…not as much as everyone thinks it does. F-Zero hasn’t had a new game in a long time– something acknowledged by Sakurai. Does Smash represent Nintendo All-Stars even if they haven’t been all that…all-star lately? Sure there are retro characters, but characters like Isaac from Golden Sun are in a weird spot. They aren’t retro, but they aren’t exactly relevant either. F-Zero’s 3DS stage is pretty amazing. I don’t think it’s Sakurai bias in action, I think he just doesn’t think the series warrants additional representation outside of a fighter, two stages, an AT and some trophies.
DK and Metroid are tricky. I’ll start with DK. Up until Tropical Freeze, Dixie wasn’t used for a long time in a main Donkey Kong game. Same with K. Rool. The public (I’m talking about non-hardcore Smash fans) are unlikely to remember Dixie and K. Rool. When I showed people at my job the K. Rool costume, they said ‘cool crocodile costume’. If K. Rool/Dixie don’t get in through the Smash Ballot, I believe this will be their barrier to entry. However, I do think that they are shoo-ins for Smash 5. TheAnvil wrote about his opinions on King K. Rool chances here.
With Metroid, it’s a series that thrives on being isolated. Later installments have added more characters but in the original games it was basically just Samus in world full of aliens, alone. Ridley being the most logical third representative, but he has game-balance issues. I think if fans really want Ridley, they need to demand that whatever company is making a new Metroid game to make a Ridley version that can be put into Smash. Dark Samus had a chance, but I think a lot of fans would complain that we would have ‘three Samus’, even if there’s a perfectly legit reason for it happening. LIQUID12A wrote a great analysis of the Metroid series, breaking down all the character’s chances that I would highly suggest reading.
Ease of development (like including Kid Icarus content) and overwhelming popularity (Mario and Pokemon) are much bigger factors for who got in–and who didn’t in the base game and DLC.
TheAnvil: I’m comfortable enough to say that Sakurai does have bias. But it’s unlikely to be any more bias that anybody else in his position would have. Most people in his position use their power to get a personal favorite of theirs in the game. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 would be a good example of this as Shuma Gorath was specifically chosen by Niitsuma’s team as a character they wanted to see return. I don’t think he outright seeks to make sure certain franchises get overlooked, he just puts a bigger priority on other franchises which will always leave someone in the lurch (notably Donkey Kong).
I would actually say that Metroid hasn’t received any unfair treatment. Considering the entire franchise focuses on a character who fights giant monsters (who are unfit for a playable role in Smash Bros), they added in a completely unique second version of that character to try and appease the fans desires.
We will cover who we think will win the ballot in another installment of “SourceGaming Choice“. Make sure to subscribe! Let us know if you have any burning questions for us!
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Yeah, I mean I understand the popularity of those series and that fans want more from them, but the idea that they’re being ignored seems wrongfully placed. There hasn’t any new F-Zero content in over a decade, and the only good Metroid newcomer ideas are already in the game (while I’m sure they have fans and would be fun to use, Sylux and Rundas sometimes feel like characters chosen out of a need for Metroid characters instead rather than exciting possibilities on their own). It’s not a good idea to add characters just for the purpose of making a series bigger.
And as for K. Rool…why is he the only viable Donkey Kong candidate? You’ve covered Dixie on your article about him, and it seems really weird that he’s treated as the only possible character from the series. Maybe Sakurai, just for idle speculation, has already decided to go with Dixie because she’s been more prominent lately and very popular on her own, and he didn’t think it was good to have two DKC newcomers in the DLC. Or he felt that Dixie would be more appealing for the general Smash audience, and comparably so for the more serious fans.
I’m don’t think he’s likely from the costume, but I do think it’s worth noting that K. Rool has had two separate designs, and the more distinct, older, yet also more divisive one was chosen for the Mii outfit. Possibly, like Giga Bowser, it’s Sakurai’s way of trying to honor one particular interpretation? Again, that does feel like grasping at straws, but it’s still entirely possible.
The complaint about “listening to fans” is really odd, since a) three of the four DLC characters were more wanted among fans than K. Rool, Isaac, and almost every other newcomer choice from Nintendo (with the other being one of the most beloved icons of video game history) and b) the more serious or “hardcore” fans aren’t the entirety of Smash. It has a lot of different fans from different demographics, interests, and from all over the world. That Reddit poll, for instance, wasn’t showing a really accurate reading of what Smash fans wanted, it showed what a very specific subset of Smash fans wanted.
Agreed on those points.
I think the main reason K. Rool is favored over Dixie so much is because he fulfills two criteria fans have been begging for: more DK reps and more villains. Also, many fans see K. Rool’s diverse gimmicks over the years as justification that he can have a pretty good variety of source material to work with. But let’s face it… that last point is moot when we have characters like Fox and Captain Falcon in the mix. 😛
Thank you for addressing my questions. I am ready to give my opinion on why I asked the last part. Funny enough UMVC3 was my target example.
I don’t think Sakurai was as ‘bias’ in Brawl as people claim. I heard the Subspace story line was written by someone else so I cannot say with certainty that Sakurai had strong interference with the story. This game however is starting to show signs of things.
I will be fair and say that nobody who eventually gets in the driver’s seat can claim for a fact they won’t show bias. When you have the power it is all too easy to fall in the trap of favoritism but I do believe a lot who throw this criticism would genuinely not throw extras in there just to get it under the spotlight. For Sakurai he might be getting a tad too comfortable being in control of things. This is what concerns me for the next installment.
He has made some very good decisions in this game. He has focused more on gender balance and new IP representation than he has done in the past. He has even shown signs of acknowledging overseas requests with Mega Man, Little Mac and Duck Hunt. So I know he isn’t completely ignoring what gets said. What concerns me is he might be getting too much say in making the roster he wants rather than the roster the fans want.
The reason I asked the last question is because I feel Sakurai is on the same track that Marvel was on with the Ultimate installment of MVC3. UMVC3 is proof that fans eventually retaliate against roster interference. True the game failed Capcom’s expectations for multiple reasons but a lot of it was obviously down to Marvel promoting their characters and movies. Sakurai is nowhere near that level but it doesn’t mean that one day he might be.
You know, it’s actually kind of funny that you mentioned MvC3’s roster. It’s true that Marvel’s main influence was what characters were going to be appearing in movies, but I honestly did not have a problem with it.
MvC2’s roster was all X-Men’d up. I know Capcom made Children of the Atom and X-Men vs. Street Fighter prior, and that X-Men was a pretty big thing in the 90’s, but the ridiculous amount of X-Men characters in MvC2 was just… well, ridiculous. To top it off, the three new characters that WERE included on the Marvel end were X-Men characters as well!
MvC3 had a big Avengers influence. The Avengers itself created a team of already established super heroes, so if you think about it, MvC3’s roster is actually more Marvel than MvC2’s was: it has a wide variety of heroes from various series rather than a bunch of mutants. 😛
I don’t think any “bias” Sakurai or Marvel may have had on their respective series are a bad thing. Sure, fans of certain characters may have their feelings hurt, but there are more fans than the hardcore as well. In Marvel’s case, they have a lot of fans that just watch the movies, but don’t read the comics, so it makes sense to appeal to those fans as well. Sakurai tries to please everyone as much as he can, but in the end, it’s an impossible task to please EVERYONE.
In the end, with both series, it pretty much comes down more to “this character is good for this game because they bring something interesting to the mix” rather than “this character is good for this game because I like her/him.” That’s exactly how Sakurai operates. Of course, more popular series are going to get more reps, but that’s a given. If a character doesn’t bring something new to the mix (Chrom) or won’t work in Smash (Ridley), they won’t be included no matter how much ANYBODY wants them in.
Also, I’ll probably get a lot of flak for this and I really don’t mean it as offensively as it sounds… Sakurai knows what the fans want more than the fans do themselves. When browsing around comments in places like Miiverse, Siliconera, and GameFAQs, I saw so many terrible suggestions… they were ones that wouldn’t bring anything interesting, wouldn’t work at all, or were such pathetically second-banana characters that including them would probably be more of an insult to Smash’s roster than an asset.
[WARNING: INCOMING TEXT WALL] (Sorry in advance for that.)
Wow, this is an interesting discussion! Thanks haruhisailormars for asking the questions, and TheAnvil and PushDustIn for answering them. I’ve seen a lot of these subjects come up in other places (Miiverse particularly, especially when the Rool costume announcement first dropped) and was curious what SG’s contributors thought.
I definitely agree that the Mii Fighter costume hurts Rool’s chances of making it in Smash. If one thinks about the characters as costumes, it becomes pretty apparent (probably with the sole exceptions of Rool himself and the Inklings) that the majority of the characters wouldn’t bring much new gameplay into Smash or are in the game in some form. Breaking it down:
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Proto Man is pretty much covered by his younger brother, Mega Man.
Ryu has the fighting game character thing down for Heihachi, Akira, and Jacky, except Ryu has a more iconic moveset that includes throwing fireballs.
I may not have played the source games enough, but I think the Black Knight and Lloyd are pretty well covered by the other sword-fighters in the game, despite the latter dual-wielding. I know this is definitely the case for Zero, as his MvC3 and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom inclusions show.
X, Dunban, Skull Kid (via Majora’s Mask), Isabelle, MegaMan.EXE, K.K. Slider, Flying Man, and Chrom are all in the game as part of Final Smashes, as Assist Trophies, or in stages.
Even if they weren’t, Skull Kid is pretty much the only one who could offer something totally new.
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My theory is that Mii Fighter costumes are consolation prizes of sorts: essentially, they’re characters that tend to be popular, but wouldn’t work in Smash this time around for one reason or another. Some of these characters COULD come back as full-fledged fighters in future installments (much like how Little Mac got an upgrade from an Assist Trophy), but this is the best we’ve got for now. Ditto for Assist Trophies… pretty sure Sakuai said somewhere (perhaps Brawl’s Dojo?) that AT’s are a way to include characters in Smash that don’t have enough going on to make them fully playable.
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As for the Ballot, it’s pretty hard to say at this point. Signs point to us getting at least ONE character from the Ballot, considering Sakurai’s statements about us getting “several more characters,” the “DLC being ‘fanservice'” comment, and the description of the Ballot itself, which talks about “seeing a fighter in Smash.” Of course, all those comments could also point to Mii Fighter costumes or the Ballot results being considered for Smash 5 (or would it be considered Smash 6?)
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On the subject of Sakurai bias, I think it’s just silly fan conjecture / saltiness. I’m pretty much with PushDustIn in saying that popularity and ease of development are more in line of who is included and who is not. If you look at the newcomers, most are from unrepresented series (Villager, Little Mac, WFT, Shulk, Duck Hunt, and the third parties.) Rosalina, Bowser Jr., and Greninja are probably attributed to the Mario and Pokemon series’ popularity (they ARE Nintendo’s two most successful franchises.) If we don’t include our “free dessert” clone characters, we are left with Robin and Palutena.
Palutena I suspect was brought over from KI:U’s resources… of course, I could be completely wrong about that, but many enemies from it were brought into Smash Run, so I thought it might have been the same thing. Regardless, Palutena would be the closest evidence I would see to “Sakurai bias” anyway, in which bringing on a character like Palutena really isn’t a bad thing.
Fire Emblem appears to be pretty successful since it came overseas. Additionally, since nearly every game has an entirely new cast, it has a much wider selection of characters to pick from, unlike series like Metroid, where it’s essentially the same playable character each time.
If Sakurai bias was a real thing, would we not have had Dedede much sooner? I mean, he was planned since Smash 64 and didn’t make it in until Brawl. Meta Knight is arguably one of the more popular Kirby characters, and besides Palutena, would probably be the only other evidence of Sakurai bias, but both are pretty weak in that respect anyway.
What other evidence is there of bias anyway? Besides “a character from Fire Emblem: Awakening,” I don’t recall reading a whole lot on characters Sakurai wanted that actually made it in that wouldn’t make sense otherwise. (Say what you will about WFT, but she’s pretty much the only one besides Miis who can represent the highly successful Wii series.)
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I think overlooked series are also something salty fans came up with. Even Diddy Kong’s inclusion in Brawl was pretty generous, considering if we factor in that Brawl’s development started in 2005 and he hadn’t been in a non spin-off game since 1999, that’s a pretty big gap.
DK and Metroid simply just don’t have the character selection power that other series have. Besides Dixie, most of the secondary Kongs that fans are screaming for pretty much only appeared in one game, and they’re dated appearances at that. Same goes for the Hunters in Metroid Prime. I think a lot of hardcore fans take for granted that they know who all these characters are, unlike a lot of the more “casual” players.
F-Zero and Star Fox are weird cases: they both involve characters who pilot machines rather than do any action on foot. As it is, Sakurai pretty much had to pull a moveset out of nowhere for them, even more so than he had to do for characters like Villager or WFT. Although it’s possible to do, F-Zero and Star Fox don’t truly have that many characters that can hold their own weight in Smash (more so for F-Zero.)
So, in short… no, I don’t think there are overlooked franchises, I think there are just some that have better resources to work with and some that are more relevant than others.
…I’d better stop now before my reply becomes longer than the article itself. 😐
Great comments guys, I always enjoy reading feedback (even if I don’t respond directly to them). We’re hoping to have the next Source Gaming Choice article sometime later next week.
I’ve been really thinking about Chris Pranger’s comment on the Part-Time Gamer podcast. Trying to figure out how to contextualize what he said in a way that’s productive for the fanbase, and what it means for the future of Smash. I really feel that his comments were ignored by most media sites (they instead focused on his “Sakurai is sad” comments instead of the “the hardcore/ competitive Smash fanbase is actually smaller than you guys think”). The fanbase smaller than you guys think is something that no one wants to hear, but it explains a lot of decisions by Sakurai and Nintendo. Sakurai’s latest Famitsu article posted yesterday is also related to this line of thought, and we should have it for you guys sometime soon (Masked Man is translating it right now). Ill be looking at characters that are heavily requested online in Japan next week(a sequel to Perception of DLC in Japan), so it’s something that’s really been on my mind. Anyhow, thanks for all the comments guys!
Thanks PushDustIn! I’m especially interested to see the part about the requested characters in Japan. I’ve seen a lot of comments from North America and Europe, but Japan is a pretty different fanbase at times (though from the bit I’ve seen in unofficial Smash polls, maybe not as much as some might think.)
To this day, I still wish Ayumi Tachibana and Takamaru made it in. 🙁 Screw western obscurity, that’s how we got Fire Emblem localized, after all!
I don’t know about Murasame Castle so can’t say about Takamaru but Ayumi would just be an awesome addition. I’ve watched The Girl in Back all the way through and I do wish Nintendo would localize those games now.
I also wish she made it but we don’t really know how far she was considered for Melee. Was it like Animal Crossing in Brawl where he actually thought up potential movesets and how they would work? Or was it just “Hey Ayumi….. nah”? I think they should add her instead of ever seeking rights to Phoenix Wright.
In regards to your reply to me, I do agree sometimes pushing stuff forward for the sake of spotlighting can be a good thing but I think Marvel went way over the line in terms of approval. As the article points out Niitsuma did get Shuma Gorath but it was only after a massive push for him and he probably needed an awful lot of haggling. Niitsuma was even quoted by multiple journalists as taking verbal jabs at Marvel after the project finished.
True in MVC2 they went overboard with X-Men and Street Fighter but it is because they threw in every sprite they could get their hands on. For the sake of a case, lets say there are enough X-Men. But then you have to question why Venom never got in. He isn’t X-Men. Marvel’s TQ Jefferson has also admitted he vetoed Black Panther (a comic book favorite which their biggest group of fans were requesting) in favor of Taskmaster.
That is why I think Marvel crossed the line in control.
For your last part about liking characters, I think it is an interesting point and one I believe Sakurai has done. I don’t question why Palutena is in the game. I know she was highly requested anyway in Japan. I don’t question why Dark Pit is a stand alone fighter. It is because he was planned as an alt. What I question is why Sakurai went to the trouble of making him an alt. He could have made Young Link an alt for Toon Link instead. I believe he did it because he likes the character.
As I pointed out, Sakurai is nowhere close to Marvel’s level yet. What concerns me is we may see more of this type of control in the future. We don’t have too much proof that Sakurai is bias right now but people are starting to have their suspicions. I can see a huge backlash coming if there is this continued neglect towards these franchises. I have heard tonnes of theories like Sakurai hating DK and Metroid. This isn’t one I agree with but I have to admit, if some of these franchises don’t show some kind of improvement in representation in the next game, I will agree with people that there is definitely some kind of grudge he has against these franchises.
I don’t think he hates them. He completely revamped Zero Suit Samus in ways he wasn’t even willing to revamp Ice Climbers for. But things are starting to look a little shady here. I am waiting for the next installment to judge for certain if he is neglecting these franchises. If he is producing it, I think he will.
Well, even not playing Murasame Castle, you can kind of get an idea of what Takamaru’s capable of by looking at his Assist Trophy. He didn’t have a TON of things he could do in the game, but it would’ve been interesting to see how Sakurai filled in the blanks. MC in its place in history is pretty interesting for two reasons for me: it is to Zelda as Kid Icarus is to Metroid… it ran on the same engine; also, there was a MC crossover for Samurai Warriors in addition to Takamaru’s appearance in Captain Rainbow, so obviously Japan remembers it.
Ayumi I could totally see playing like MvC3 Phoenix Wright, which would be totally rad in Smash. WFT and Villager kind of come close with the idea, but c’mon… how many text adventure game reps do we have? 😛
Good points about Marvel, I didn’t even know some of that. It may be possible that Marvel vetoed certain characters for gameplay reasons rather than promotional reasons, so who knows? Unless Taskmaster had more going on in the comics than Black Panther at the time, I couldn’t imagine why he would be favored for any other reason. I do understand companies wanting to protect their IPs, but yeah, it must be pretty bad if Niitsuma himself was talking smack about Marvel.
Of course, oftentimes Japan seems to find it difficult working with Western companies anyway. I recently read about how Keiji Inafune described Capcom’s relationship with GRIN as a nightmare, and how a lot of times such collaborations get more difficult as time goes on. (Of course, GRIN is a terrible representation, but Inafune spoke of those kinds of working relationships in general.)
I can see your point about “Sakurai bias.” From a purely development standpoint, though, making Dark Pit an alt for Pit is literally just taking the textures in Photoshop and recoloring them. Unlike Young Link, who would need to have an entire model created, Dark Pit probably used the same (or a very similar) model to Pit. Although, they made ones for Lucina and Dr. Mario, so I dunno. The only things I can think of is either:
1) The bones on the models did not match up neatly because of their differing proportions, or…
2) This: http://www.ssbwiki.com/Toon_Link_(SSBB)#Gameplay_differences_between_Young_Link_and_Toon_Link
The former is a purely technical issue. For the latter, if Lucina and Dark Pit can be justified as standalone characters with far less differences in gameplay, Sakurai might have thought that making Young Link a model swap of Toon Link would betray YL’s fans. It’d probably be a bit like if Dr. Mario was an alt for regular Mario these days, since Dr. Mario was once a playable character with gameplay differences.
I disagree with the Metroid series being neglected. To be fair, besides the Hunters (who were only in one game that came out on the original DS) and the marines from Federation Force, who can they really have as playable characters from Metroid? We already got a Metroid Assist Trophy and ZSS in Brawl, and Dark Samus and Mother Brain ATs in Smash 4, in addition to Ridley as a stage hazard, so I think Metroid is getting pretty fair representation for what little it has to work with.
As for Donkey Kong, let’s be fair… in the main series, Donkey, Diddy, Dixie, and K. Rool are the only major characters who appeared in more than one game (barring spin-offs.) …well, I do guess we also have Cranky now too, but what are the odds of him getting in before Dixie?
And speaking of Dixie… from what I can tell, pretty much all she has going for her is her ponytail. Being Diddy’s tag partner in Brawl like she was planned to be would have been awesome, but maybe Sakurai feels she can’t stand on her own as a character.
K. Rool obviously has some issues if he made it in as a Mii Fighter costume. Not sure if it has to do with relevance, his size, or some other issue with his moveset (everyone’s so quick to talk about specials, but what about regular attacks?)
Kremlings made it into Smash Run, so Sakurai hasn’t forgotten about the DK series, but much like Metroid, I think it may be one of those cases where there isn’t a terrible lot to work with.