But there aren't as many DK fans as Metroid fans, or RE fans, or Mario fans, or Zelda fans. And when it comes down to it, popularity determines character additions, plain and simple.
Now your comparing DK with the best of the best. There's no franchise in the world who can ever be compared to Mario in populairity, Zelda is easly the best franchise in it's gerne, Metroid... I don't know for sure, the games aren't well received in Japan, whereas the Donkey Konga games did - and I'll be honest here with ya: Metroid Prime sure IS a better game than Donkey Konga...
And as you might know, the Diddy and Ridley threads are by far the biggest support threads here at Smashboards. However, keep in mind that the Japanese nearly aren't as hyped on Ridley as most of us are here so Diddy probarly has a bigger fanbase international.
Can't agrue with you about Resident Evil... Though you can safely asume we won't see any RE characters in Brawl while Diddy is a very big posibility after Ike's confirmation.
And no, DK does not need more chars. What have they done with that franchise in the past 10 years? Nothing but gimmickey, younger audience, deviations that aren't TRUE DK titles. There are many, many other characters and franchises that need spots in this game besides DK.
In the past 10 years? If it where just 12, I could counter this all with one word: Donkey Kong Country, and frankly... I still can, but with explenation. Donkey Kong Country is still a very well known game... It got ported on the Gameboy Color, on the Gameboy Advance and recently on the Wii Virtual Console (where it's the 5th most populair game right now) . Rare may be gone, but that doesn't mean that DKC doesn't has any dedicated fans left.
And what's wrong with appealing to younger audience? You would agree with me if I said that Pokémon Diamond and Pearl are huge populair games, yet besides myself and a friend, the only people I saw playing the games where childeren from 7 to 11. And I see a lot more childeren playing Mario Kart Super Circuit on their GBA than I see people from our ages. DK, just as Mario and Pokémon are games everybody can enjoy.
But yeah, I hate the Bongo's aswell, but so far, there are already 2
real DK games accounced which I can't wait to play: Donkey Kong Bongo Blast, and DK Jungle Climber.
Besides... Wario's whole moveset looks like it's one big gimmick just like the WarioWare games, and I hear nobody complaining that the WarioWare games aren't real Wario games. =/
This isn't Mario Tennis, or Mario Golf. Not Diddy Kong's Racing or Mario Kart. This is Brawl, and this is where the big boys come to play.
Big boys as Kirby, Zelda, Peach, Pikachu, Kirby, Yoshi and Squirtle? Diddy fits in easly among them.
Even still, he's a side character no matter how you look at it. He's second to others.
Hell no he isn't! Diddy's importance in the DK franchise is far more than that! In the Rare era, the two of them even where completely ALIKE. Whereas DK was only playable in DKC, Diddy was playable in 2 games, in which he stared one: Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. Don't forget the Diddy Kong Racings either, where even DK isn't playable in.
Before the Rare buyout, Rare was developing 2 Donkey Kong games: Donkey Kong Racing, and Diddy Kong Pilot. If Rare was just longer around, Diddy could easly have his own sub-franchise to Donkey Kong right now.
Luigi and Falco both made it to Melee, whereas their roles in their games aren't nearly as important as Diddy's. And even if he wasn't - who else would be a better DK character for Brawl? Mario and Zelda even have their damsell in dress playable... And Diddy clearly isn't less than them.
And with that being said...
DIDDY FOR BRAWL!!
. Who can deny a potbellied little monkey who likes cool jams?