Here's a warped little thought nugget I'd like to deposit in here regarding why Cranky might be a more viable choice than meets the eye.
We know that Tropical Freeze was pulled from E3 2012 at the last minute, meaning it was at least somewhat developed around the same time Sakurai began development on SSB4, and thus, began selecting characters, the very first thing he did with Brawl. Now, given the known and varied involvements of Intelligent Systems, the Pokemon Company, Aonuma, and one of the Kid Icarus developers (who IIRC joked about a new spin-off using Pit's Brawl model) in previous Smash development, we know that a hodge-podge of developers are involved in the creation of content, but whether Sakurai decides on content based on their input or decides on content before seeking assistance is unknown.
With this in mind, should Sakurai seek input from Retro in relation to Donkey Kong, Tropical Freeze and its two new Kongs would surely come up. However, whereas most speculators see Dixie as the more major inclusion over Cranky, rightly or wrongly, Sakurai would not experience any six month hiatus between Dixie's playable reveal and Cranky's playable reveal. He'd find out about both in succession (I'm picturing him in a Skype conversation with the Awkward Retro Guy from VGX), which may boost his perception of Cranky's importance more than we're already speculating.
Granted, Dixie being textbook semi-clone material and the (arguably, depending on whether you lump the importance of Arcade DK into Cranky) more important character still could put Cranky on the backburner, and K. Rool remains K. Rool, possibly pulling further ahead if Dixie and Cranky cannibalize each other as "new Kongs." That being said, the people who said that Cranky is on equal footing as Dixie based solely on Tropical Freeze may definitely be onto something, when Sakurai's possible behind-the-scenes actions are taken to mind.
We know that Tropical Freeze was pulled from E3 2012 at the last minute, meaning it was at least somewhat developed around the same time Sakurai began development on SSB4, and thus, began selecting characters, the very first thing he did with Brawl. Now, given the known and varied involvements of Intelligent Systems, the Pokemon Company, Aonuma, and one of the Kid Icarus developers (who IIRC joked about a new spin-off using Pit's Brawl model) in previous Smash development, we know that a hodge-podge of developers are involved in the creation of content, but whether Sakurai decides on content based on their input or decides on content before seeking assistance is unknown.
With this in mind, should Sakurai seek input from Retro in relation to Donkey Kong, Tropical Freeze and its two new Kongs would surely come up. However, whereas most speculators see Dixie as the more major inclusion over Cranky, rightly or wrongly, Sakurai would not experience any six month hiatus between Dixie's playable reveal and Cranky's playable reveal. He'd find out about both in succession (I'm picturing him in a Skype conversation with the Awkward Retro Guy from VGX), which may boost his perception of Cranky's importance more than we're already speculating.
Granted, Dixie being textbook semi-clone material and the (arguably, depending on whether you lump the importance of Arcade DK into Cranky) more important character still could put Cranky on the backburner, and K. Rool remains K. Rool, possibly pulling further ahead if Dixie and Cranky cannibalize each other as "new Kongs." That being said, the people who said that Cranky is on equal footing as Dixie based solely on Tropical Freeze may definitely be onto something, when Sakurai's possible behind-the-scenes actions are taken to mind.
) and he's the best for speedruns.
