October 26, 2016|
Source Gaming Guest Poster Delzethin discusses the possibility of King K. Rool being in Super Smash Bros. and how he could work within the game! Make sure to check out his video down below, as well as his Twitter, and let us know what you think!
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Relevance is a fickle thing in Super Smash Bros. Sakurai has repeatedly said that characters are selected through their relevance in new or upcoming games, and characters and/or series that don’t have a future are rarely considered… And yet we have Mr. Game & Watch, R.O.B., and the Duck Hunt dog, characters from games or even systems that definitely do NOT have a future, or were mere products of their time, that got in due to different criteria than most other characters. There are also characters like Captain Falcon and Ness, who haven’t seen a new title in years yet they continue to be Super Smash Bros. mainstays. Even Jigglypuff, to an extent, is in the same boat due to not being nearly as popular as it used to be. So while relevance is indeed a factor to a character’s inclusion, it’s not the be-all, end-all to whether or not a character will make it into Super Smash Bros.
As a side-note, I feel like Sakurai doesn’t fully realize the effect Super Smash Bros. has on a game’s visibility or publicity. He says he includes characters based on relevance, yet a character’s inclusion in Super Smash Bros. can make a character, game, or series suddenly relevant simply by being in Super Smash Bros. EarthBound, Fire Emblem, Kid Icarus, and even Xenoblade Chronicles to an extent are games/series who have had a direct cause-and-effect thanks to Super Smash Bros.! Many Smash players (myself included) were introduced to EarthBound through Ness being in Super Smash Bros. and increased it’s growing huge fan-followings; Marth and Roy’s inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Melee finally prompted Nintendo to release the Fire Emblem games worldwide to massive success; Pit’s inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Brawl revived the Kid Icarus series after 17 years since it’s last game; and now Shulk’s inclusion in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U is introducing people to Xenoblade Chronicles, a game that just barely managed to get a US release and thus prompted Xenoblade Chronicles X’s international release and now the sequel! My point being is that Super Smash Bros. has the power to breath new life in a game/series that otherwise would not be relevant (STILL waiting on a sequel to Ice Climber), and I kind of wish Sakurai would realize that…
Anyway, with regards to King K. Rool, it’s a really frustrating case. Were this around the time of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, I feel like his inclusion would be a sure thing, because King K. Rool was still the main antagonist of the Donkey Kong series as it was during that time, which was an awkward state of spin-offs and side games. However, when the series came back to life with Donkey Kong Country Returns and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Retro Studios, for whatever reason, decided NOT to bring back King K. Rool and the Kremling Krew as the villains for either game. Instead we got the Tiki Tak Tribe and the Snowmads, both of which have their own strengths and unique enemies to them, and it’s certainly nice to see a series change things up with a new villain (as opposed to Mario who always, without fail, falls on Bowser to be the villain in anything that’s not an RPG). That being said, it means that King K. Rool has faded from relevance in the Donkey Kong series and Sakurai has no way of knowing if King K. Rool will return for the next Donkey Kong installment, if there even is one in the coming years. This would kind of explain why he isn’t playable in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U, but it’s still strange, given that he is single-handedly the most popular choice for a new character, particularly in Japan, and you’d THINK Sakurai would notice that… Like I said, it’s a really frustrating situation, one that I hope gets resolved come the next Super Smash Bros.
Great video, BTW! Keep it up!