Chorus Kids for Smash Bros. DLC! ~ Lend your Song of Support in the Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot! ~

[BluePikmin11]

http://news.mynavi.jp/c_cobs/enquete/realranking/2012/09/22_2e.html
The most popular franchises in Japan for women.
Rhythm Heaven happens to be one of them. O.O

Also for men, this is really interesting:
http://news.mynavi.jp/c_cobs/enquete/realranking/2012/09/22_1e.html

 

[Wintropy]

These little weirdos have really grown on me. Add me to the support list, I'd like to see 'em in action~

 

[Esquelen]

Hey guys! Is the Chorus Kids!!!

Well... not

I am very angry that there is no stage of Rhythm Heaven... and music...

 

[SomewhatMystia]

Welp, time to make a new Mii Brawler.

Also, those guys are actually kinda terrifying.

 

[Reila]

Hey guys! Is the Chorus Kids!!!

Well... not

I am very angry that there is no stage of Rhythm Heaven... and music...

Hm... Were all the stages for Smash Wii U confirmed already? If so, that is too bad.

Then again, if Chorus Kids or any other RH character is released via DLC, I am sure Nintendo will release a RH stage as well.

 

[SomewhatMystia]

Yeah, I'd guess any newcomer would get an appropriate stage and some music.

... Well, new series newcomer, anyway. I mean I could see it going either way with someone like (my only example!) K. Rool, either give him Gangplank Galleon or one of the other Rool stages or just plop him on an existing one.

But someone from RH would definitely get a stage with 'em.

 

[Jigglystep]

Hey guys! Is the Chorus Kids!!!

Well... not

I am very angry that there is no stage of Rhythm Heaven... and music...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who did this! YOU CAN BARELY TELL THE DIFFERENCE!

Also, was the full music/stage list actually confirmed? People who have the game early are apparently under an information embargo.

 

[Esquelen]

DLC... Please... U_U

 

[Wintropy]

DLC... Please... U_U

I'd imagine that, if the Chorus Kids are DLC characters, they will come bundled with their own stage. It just seems like too good of a stage concept to ditch full-on.

 

[SomewhatMystia]

Well this is potentially concerning. Here's hoping it's a fancy way of saying 'no comment' or PR speak.

"I understand that DLC could add a lot to the appeal of Smash Bros.," Sakurai said, "and I appreciate that a major part of the excitement for these games come from which characters will appear in the roster, so I think fans could really enjoy DLC that could keep this excitement going. However, I think there might be criticism that we are cutting up content to sell characters one by one, or that we are adding things later that should have been there from the start.

"Creating a single fighter involves a huge investment, and we've already been giving it our all and investing a lot of work in the characters currently available in the game and, I think it’s an incredible package in terms of the sheer amount of content in the game. But it might be that people may not understand and may think that I am not offering enough by just looking at DLC itself.

"In light of this, we always need to weigh up both sides of this topic and carefully consider whether it really is best to have DLC or not.

"However, what I can say now about paid DLC is that we aren't working on anything at the moment," he continued. "We’ve put all our efforts into making the actual game. Creating DLC would involve large additional costs and require the involvement of a lot of people. I can't yet give you an answer about whether the price would justify the costs and criticisms mentioned above."

But what about adding Nintendo executives Reggie Fils-Aime, Shigeru Miyamoto or Satoru Iwata as official playable characters? Surely they'd turn a profit?

"I don't think the inclusion of these characters would be very interesting to a wide audience," Sakurai continues. "For the amount of effort involved, I would actually prefer to add another roster character. As it takes a lot of work to add a character to the game, it’s not a decision that can be taken lightly."

 

[Reila]

Oh no D: Most fighting games have DLC characters, why can't Smash have DLC too, Sakurai? D:

 

[TheCJBrine]

Maybe, if there's more DLC, it will be like Mewtwo.

 

[SomewhatMystia]

Again, here's hoping it's just a long-winded way of saying no comment. Remember that Mewtwo also got a vague non-answer before getting revealed as DLC.

 

[Jigglystep]

I believe that Sakurai is more or less trying to get a neutral standpoint across, given his appeal to both the pros and cons of DLC.

"In light of this, we always need to weigh up both sides of this topic and carefully consider whether it really is best to have DLC or not.

Plus, he made a point to specify that they aren't working on paid DLC. It may be stretching it, but who's to say we can't have free characters similar to Mewtwo? (it'd promote purchasing both versions, to say the least)

But hey, let's look on the bright side. The Chorus Kids have one less DLC character to compete with; Reggie is deconfirmed!

But what about adding Nintendo executives Reggie Fils-Aime, Shigeru Miyamoto or Satoru Iwata as official playable characters? Surely they'd turn a profit?

"I don't think the inclusion of these characters would be very interesting to a wide audience," Sakurai continues. "For the amount of effort involved, I would actually prefer to add another roster character. As it takes a lot of work to add a character to the game, it’s not a decision that can be taken lightly."

 

[Esquelen]

Marshal, Mrs. Ribbon and Cam trophy (mention the Chorus Kids!!!)

And the reporter and Wrestler trophy

 

[Reila]

"Wubbadubbadubba, 'zat true?"

Very nice to see more Rhythm Heaven characters as trophies, specially the Reporter and the Wrestler.

 

[Wintropy]

The name-drop of the Chorus Kids is pretty cool.

Are they ever called that canonically or is that a Smash-based nickname?

 

[SomewhatMystia]

I'm pretty sure it's canon, since they're called Chorus Kids (or at least Kid) in the credits of Game and Wario, too.

 

[Arcadenik]

Well this is potentially concerning. Here's hoping it's a fancy way of saying 'no comment' or PR speak.

Hmm.... looking at this part:

"I don't think the inclusion of these characters would be very interesting to a wide audience," Sakurai continues. "For the amount of effort involved, I would actually prefer to add another roster character. As it takes a lot of work to add a character to the game, it’s not a decision that can be taken lightly."

To the red part:

So... who would really buy Chorus Kids DLC? Rhythm Heaven fans.... and even that fanbase is pretty small. Who would buy Ice Climbers, Lucas, and Wolf DLC? Brawl fans, Ice Climbers fans, Mother 3 fans, and Star Fox fans... and the fanbases for Ice Climbers, Mother 3 and Star Fox are pretty small. Mewtwo has a huge fanbase... it got Smash fanbase and Pokemon fanbase... and the Pokemon fanbase alone is way bigger than the fanbases of Ice Climbers, Mother 3, Star Fox, and Rhythm Heaven combined.

To the yellow part:

This makes sense to me... to justify putting so much effort and work into only one character DLC, that character has to really sell... Mewtwo alone could do that... not Chorus Kids, not Ice Climbers, not Lucas, not Wolf, etc.

 

[Wintropy]

Hmm.... looking at this part:

"I don't think the inclusion of these characters would be very interesting to a wide audience," Sakurai continues. "For the amount of effort involved, I would actually prefer to add another roster character. As it takes a lot of work to add a character to the game, it’s not a decision that can be taken lightly."

To the red part:

So... who would really buy Chorus Kids DLC? Rhythm Heaven fans.... and even that fanbase is pretty small. Who would buy Ice Climbers, Lucas, and Wolf DLC? Brawl fans, Ice Climbers fans, Mother 3 fans, and Star Fox fans... and the fanbases for Ice Climbers, Mother 3 and Star Fox are pretty small. Mewtwo has a huge fanbase... it got Smash fanbase and Pokemon fanbase... and the Pokemon fanbase alone is way bigger than the fanbases of Ice Climbers, Mother 3, Star Fox, and Rhythm Heaven combined.

To the yellow part:

This makes sense to me... to justify putting so much effort and work into only one character DLC, that character has to really sell... Mewtwo alone could do that... not Chorus Kids, not Ice Climbers, not Lucas, not Wolf, etc.

I'm pretty sure that, if DLC does indeed take off and become a thing, they'll include more obscure or niche characters as extra content in DLC packs. Sort of like Cat Peach and Tanuki Mario in the Mario Kart 8 DLC packs - they're cool additions to beef up the roster and genuinely will appeal to a select subset of the fanbase. They aren't justified for the time and resources they would take for the amount of fan reaction they would receive, but if you include them with more popular characters as standard, people will get them incidentally and you'll still be increasing the general popularity of that character and ensuring that a few genuine fans of those characters get what they want, too.

Goodness knows if they included Tom Nook / Isabelle alts for Villager or Wonder Red as a new character as extra content in a pack for Mewtwo or K. Rool, I'd snap up that pack just for the bonus stuff alone.

 

[Arcadenik]

Nah, I think they will just put the obscure/niche characters in the main game and put popular characters as extra content.

A bunch of obscure/niche characters in the main game? Or one obscure/niche character DLC? Who do you think people would rather get?

 

[Wintropy]

Nah, I think they will just put the obscure/niche characters in the main game and put popular characters as extra content.

A bunch of obscure/niche characters in the main game? Or one obscure/niche character DLC? Who do you think people would rather get?

You do realise that you can do both, right?

As I say, they're not going to release Chorus Kids as standalone DLC. That's just silly. But if they're going to go to the time and effort to make new characters, why wouldn't you include them and give people more incentive to buy the pack? As much as I love K. Rool, I'd be even more inclined to buy a pack with him in it if it had Chorus Kids in it, too, even if it's just because I feel like I'm getting my money's worth out of it, and some people just like having new characters to play around with~

 

[Reila]

Rhythm Heaven might be "niche" for people in the West, but it is a very popular series in Japan. And we all know that Japan is the priority. So saying Chorus Kids can't be DLC because western players don't bother buying Nintendo games (other than Mario, Zelda, DK, Mario Kart, Smash)* is silly. There is also the possibility of Nintendo releasing Chorus Kids alongside other DLC character that happens to be popular worldwide (on the vein of Mewtwo).

*Yet they keep asking for Nintendo to make new franchises

 

[Hippopotasauce]

Marshal, Mrs. Ribbon and Cam trophy (mention the Chorus Kids!!!)

And the reporter and Wrestler trophy

What's their trophy box?

 

[SmashChu]

Hmm.... looking at this part:

"I don't think the inclusion of these characters would be very interesting to a wide audience," Sakurai continues. "For the amount of effort involved, I would actually prefer to add another roster character. As it takes a lot of work to add a character to the game, it’s not a decision that can be taken lightly."

To the red part:

So... who would really buy Chorus Kids DLC? Rhythm Heaven fans.... and even that fanbase is pretty small. Who would buy Ice Climbers, Lucas, and Wolf DLC? Brawl fans, Ice Climbers fans, Mother 3 fans, and Star Fox fans... and the fanbases for Ice Climbers, Mother 3 and Star Fox are pretty small. Mewtwo has a huge fanbase... it got Smash fanbase and Pokemon fanbase... and the Pokemon fanbase alone is way bigger than the fanbases of Ice Climbers, Mother 3, Star Fox, and Rhythm Heaven combined.

To the yellow part:

This makes sense to me... to justify putting so much effort and work into only one character DLC, that character has to really sell... Mewtwo alone could do that... not Chorus Kids, not Ice Climbers, not Lucas, not Wolf, etc.

I'd argue there is a very clear market for veteran characters to be included, since they were already in a game once. And like everyone already said, Rhythm Heaven is bigger in Japan (the series was, in part, created by a big name in the music industry over there).

Now, the one thing I think you're forgetting is we don't know how they are doing DLC. I'd agree it may be a hard sell to buy one character that you're not familiar with. But they could also go the MK8 route and have multiple things in a pack. You may not want to buy the Chorus Kids, but you could buy them alongside the Ice Climbers and maybe some other things. Now it's more of a value. Mario Kart 8 proved this method is very popular. In an era where people hate DLC, the MK8 DLC was very well accepted. So this may be the route they go and it would solve the problem you brought up.

As an aside, I think a DLC pack would work well for Chorus Kids and Ice Climbers. They can restrict it to the New 3DS to make sure it works on the 3DS version without a problem.

 

[SomewhatMystia]

>Chorus Kids, but you could buy them alongside the Ice Climbers

I'm getting flashbacks to that 'Ice and Music Trailer' leak waybackwhen. I'd laugh so hard if it ended up being true.

Yeah, I could totally see DLC packs being a thing like in MK8.

 

[JimmyTheCaterpillar]

I'm definitely in support of them being the Rhythm Heaven representative once the franchise inevitably gets one. The possibility is too much to ignore.

Add me if you will.

 

[Jigglystep]

I'm definitely in support of them being the Rhythm Heaven representative once the franchise inevitably gets one. The possibility is too much to ignore.

Add me if you will.

Added.

I honestly feel like if there isn't a Rhythm Heaven DLC character, Smash 5 will definitely get one. The franchise is growing in popularity (especially with the leaks and such) and already having content in Smash is definitely a start. Heck, we might even get a fourth RH game for Wii U or 3DS by then if Tsunku recovers.

 

[Reila]

The franchise was already one of the most popular coming from Nintendo back in 2012. There needs to be a Rhythm Heaven DLC if DLC is a thing for Smash 4.

 

[deebeethedeity]

If dlc besides mewtwo is a thing then I have no doubts chorus kids and ice climbers will be part of that. Say what you will about the gematsu leak, but I'm positive it was entirely real, albeit simply outdated. Chrom was swapped for robin. Add in both the ice climber and rhythm heaven Smash run enemies and that supports their initial inclusion. I think their chances are strong.

Btw, you can count me in as a supporter

 

[SomewhatMystia]

if Tsunku recovers.

Wait, what happened to him?

 

[False Sense]

If dlc besides mewtwo is a thing then I have no doubts chorus kids and ice climbers will be part of that. Say what you will about the gematsu leak, but I'm positive it was entirely real, albeit simply outdated. Chrom was swapped for robin. Add in both the ice climber and rhythm heaven Smash run enemies and that supports their initial inclusion. I think their chances are strong.

Btw, you can count me in as a supporter

Just wanted to point out that, according to Sakurai, Chrom was not swapped for Robin; he simply considered both, and went with Robin. Nothing suggests that Chrom was ever actually planned to be a character, which raises the question of why the leak mentioned Chrom in the first place.

 

[deebeethedeity]

Phrased that wrong lol. Either way the gematsu was almost entirely right and thats stretching lucky guesses

 

[Hippopotasauce]

Wait, what happened to him?

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/new...oducer-tsunku-laryngeal-cancer-returns/.80067

 

[Wintropy]

Just wanted to point out that, according to Sakurai, Chrom was not swapped for Robin; he simply considered both, and went with Robin. Nothing suggests that Chrom was ever actually planned to be a character, which raises the question of why the leak mentioned Chrom in the first place.

Easy guess? I know for a fact that I considered Chrom to be an incredibly likely choice.

Chorus Kids still baffles me, though. Either he was going from accurate, albeit outdated, information from his informant, or he genuinely made the whole thing up and went out on a limb with a long-shot stretch of a wild guess.

 

[False Sense]

Easy guess? I know for a fact that I considered Chrom to be an incredibly likely choice.

Chorus Kids still baffles me, though. Either he was going from accurate, albeit outdated, information from his informant, or he genuinely made the whole thing up and went out on a limb with a long-shot stretch of a wild guess.

As strange as it may sound, that is a real possibility. The Gematsu leak was only ever mere text on a page that claimed to be future characters. It's not like a leaked image or footage, where if it's proven that part of it is real (like Shulk's artwork matching that of the ESRB leak's), then the whole thing is almost certainly real; even if parts of the Gematsu leak were real, we have no way of knowing if parts of it weren't just educated guesses or completely made up information. It's within the realm of possibility that the one responsible for the Gematsu leak had inside information on certain characters (such as Villager, Wii Fit Trainer, and Mii Fighter), but made up others (perhaps such as Chrom, a character widely regarded as a shoo-in anyway, and the Chorus Men, a character concept so out there that it surely could have only come from the mind of Sakurai).

 

[Wintropy]

As strange as it may sound, that is a real possibility. The Gematsu leak was only ever mere text on a page that claimed to be future characters. It's not like a leaked image or footage, where if it's proven that part of it is real (like Shulk's artwork matching that of the ESRB leak's), then the whole thing is almost certainly real; even if parts of the Gematsu leak were real, we have no way of knowing if parts of it weren't just educated guesses or completely made up information. It's within the realm of possibility that the one responsible for the Gematsu leak had inside information on certain characters (such as Villager, Wii Fit Trainer, and Mii Fighter), but made up others (perhaps such as Chrom, a character widely regarded as a shoo-in anyway, and the Chorus Men, a character concept so out there that it surely could have only come from the mind of Sakurai).

Well, for better or for worse, it put Chorus Kids on the map. At least something good came out of it~

 

[Hippopotasauce]

It's actually super cool that they made new drawings for the back of the Wrestler trophy.

Edit: I guess I stole the pic of the day.
Also Sakurai totally just mentioned Rhythm Heaven by name.

 

[Jigglystep]

Sakurai mentioned Rhythm Heaven.. WHAT COULD THIS MEAN!?

Nah, but in all seriousness, it's cool to see some acknowledgement of the series in a PoTD for once. I'm just loving the attention to detail in every aspect of the game, and even the trophies are no slouch to including unnecessary details.

Also - one thing I wanted to point out about Gematsu seeing as how it's being discussed; Sakurai did confirm that Chrom was initially considered.

I played all the way through FE:A and really wanted to include a character from that rich cast in Smash Bros. Naturally, I considered adding Chrom to the roster, but the decision wasn’t easy by any means.

That said, Chrom may have been part of an early concept roster that was discussed among the team, which Sal's informant may have acquired information from at the time.

I am convinced that Sal did come across some legitimate leaked information at one point given the Wii Fit Trainer and all those shenanigan characters. Some are suggesting that fabricated information and extremely lucky guesses could have been added on to his real information, but would someone really do that? Especially if it's only one or two characters? (Chorus Kids weren't the most.. anticipated character at the time, so why make that up on top of 9 other legitimate characters?)

I dunno. The whole thing just completely baffles me if he simply had multiple incredibly lucky stabs in the dark with the predicted characters and the fact that the Sneaky Spirit was coincidentally a Smash Run enemy.

 

[Wintropy]

Sakurai mentioned Rhythm Heaven.. WHAT COULD THIS MEAN!?

Nah, but in all seriousness, it's cool to see some acknowledgement of the series in a PoTD for once. I'm just loving the attention to detail in every aspect of the game, and even the trophies are no slouch to including unnecessary details.

Also - one thing I wanted to point out about Gematsu seeing as how it's being discussed; Sakurai did confirm that Chrom was initially considered.


That said, Chrom may have been part of an early concept roster that was discussed among the team, which Sal's informant may have acquired information from at the time.

I am convinced that Sal did come across some legitimate leaked information at one point given the Wii Fit Trainer and all those shenanigan characters. Some are suggesting that fabricated information and extremely lucky guesses could have been added on to his real information, but would someone really do that? Especially if it's only one or two characters? (Chorus Kids weren't the most.. anticipated character at the time, so why make that up on top of 9 other legitimate characters?)

I dunno. The whole thing just completely baffles me if he simply had multiple incredibly lucky stabs in the dark with the predicted characters and the fact that the Sneaky Spirit was coincidentally a Smash Run enemy.

I honestly am uncertain as to where I stand on these issues, so I prefer to just keep an open mind and non-committal perspective and say that I'm willing to believe he had some good info and then it was either outdated by the time the characters were revealed or he just made some stuff up.

I would kill for Wrestler and Reporter to be a playable character in Smash, though. My god that would be wonderful.