It has been basically three months since I last posted anything in this thread. Since then, there have been two profound developments. One was the confirmation of the fourth character to the Fighters Pass, and second, a confirmation of additional DLC after the conclusion of the Fighters Pass.
I believed Dixie Kong was unlikely for the Fighters Pass as soon as Joker's confirmation happened and Reggie said he was an example for the rest of the characters to the Fighters Pass. It ended up being entirely third-party (though there is technically one more character left to be unveiled for it).
With the confirmation of additional DLC fighters after the Fighters Pass, it opens up the possibility that Dixie Kong could have a shot at being a part of Ultimate's incredible roster. As of now, we have little idea what the motif to the DLC after the Fighters Pass will be.
Sakurai has made cryptic comments about wanting to expand the number of worlds within Smash Bros., and I think most likely the next set of characters after DLC wraps up is likely all going to be third-party. I think the closest exception to this is going to be Geno (who is technically third-party), I still think Sakurai is going to want to revisit him as a character concept (he voiced this as recently as 2016) especially considering how the Geno Mii costume has not been brought back. There are still many third-party franchises for Sakurai to draw from to fill out any amount of DLC slots.
That being said we still know very little (or maybe even nothing) about the direction the DLC after the Fighters Pass will take. There very well could be a mix of third-party and Nintendo owned characters for the additional DLC. Heck, its possible (and quite probable) that there are only going to be three more DLC characters after the Fighters Pass. There are two reasons as to why I believe this.
One is Sakurai's own admission that the development team will be shrinking over the course of the DLC period. I think, after the Fighters Pass wraps up in February, the additional fighters will take much longer to come out, and maybe even until the end of the year (2020) to release all three of them. I personally don't think there will be enough time, budget, and manpower left for another five unique newcomers.
The second reason is that I do think it is pretty suspicious the character select screen was re-arranged in a way to which there will be three additional slots left over after the Fighters Pass.
I think much like the Fighters Pass before, its best to set our expectation that the additional DLC is only going to be three more characters.
There is always the possibility that Dixie Kong somehow ends up being among those three characters (or that the DLC ends up being another five characters and has Nintendo owned characters in it as well). Dixie Kong has a few things in her favor over many other characters. She is among the few Nintendo characters left outside the Mario series not yet on the roster that is well known, popular, and integral to their franchise. She also has a character already on the roster, Diddy Kong, whom could easily be used as a base to which to develop her, which might be ideal in a situation with depreciating development resources (time, money, and manpower) as time goes on, as well as the fact, unlike many other characters, she could be made into a semi-clone.
However, on the whole, I am not optimistic on Dixie's DLC prospects even with this recent announcement. I think its going to be all third-party characters, or if Nintendo characters, promotional ones or ones big with the Smash Bubble. However, Smash Bros. has always been full of surprises with its roster choices. We shall wait and see. I personally think we will get a sneak peak at the first post-Fighters Pass character whenever they announce the final character to the Fighters Pass (which I think will happen in either November or December).
I long promised an essay in support of Dixie Kong's inclusion in Smash Bros., and I guess this is it (I am sorry if you were expecting something even longer than what you will all are about to read). I will not make much mention of moveset arguments for Dixie Kong, but I think there are plenty of others that can make the argument, and I feel after Piranha Plant, that "moveset potential" is a "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" style argument. There is a great diversity of ways to which Dixie Kong can be approached as a fighter, from a fully unique one to a semi-clone or even an echo (though I think Ken-style is the only one that really fits). I feel for Dixie Kong that passion and belief about what type of fighter she should be is proportional to just how much passion and interest there is in her. If she was on par with the likes of Waluigi and Geno for requests among the Smash Bubble, she would be universally deemed to be only fitting to be a fully unique fighter. However, with her fanbase and requests in the straits that they are in, she mostly is settled for as an echo fighter addition or semi-clone outside of her most passionate supporters. I do have confidence in Sakurai and his team to faithfully implement Dixie and her appeal regardless of what type of fighter she they ultimately do choose for her (assuming she ever does happen as a fighter). Some of my favorite characters in the Smash Bros. series are semi-clones (like Roy), and I think Dark Samus was captured very well as to who she is despite nearly all of her differences being animation based (there is actually some great subtle references to her source material in them). However, this piece is not to argue about what kind of fighter Dixie should or will be, but rather her merits are, and what she means to Smash Bros., Nintendo, and gaming as a whole.
With all that being said, let me explain just why Dixie Kong is not just Nintendo All-Star, but a gaming all-star as a whole.
Dixie Kong is truly something special. She might not ultimately make Ultimate's roster, but she is still one of Nintendo's best and most iconic heroines. At a time where some people complain about there being no female characters as part of the Fighters Pass, its peculiar that much of this crowd continues to ignore the sub-100 pound monkey in the room. Dixie Kong, is not just one of Nintendo's most iconic and legendary heroines, but among gaming as a whole. She became popular and well known even before Lara Croft and Jill Valentine, and moreover she was popular among boys for reasons beyond sex appeal ("WHOA SHE CAN FLY! LOOK AT HOW SHE CAN SHRED ON HER GUITAR!").
Dixie Kong was groundbreaking. As another Dixie fan noted, Samus might have been Nintendo's first prominent heroine, but Dixie was the first major one to wear her femininity on her sleeve. Back in the 90's, you could definitely be in the dark about what Samus's gender was, Dixie however, was definitely a girl, and a girly girl one at that. She liked the color pink, had long flowing hair, long eyelashes, colored toenails, and cried when she got hit. Everything about this character would make you think that she would not go over well with demographics outside of little girls. However, Dixie Kong was a rare breed of a character. She is among the few that has "Mario appeal". She is a character that manages to be popular and appealing across demographics despite her unorthodox design due to just how fun she is to play as and the charm of her character, just like Mario, whose design is of a portly middle aged mustachioed man in overalls with a high-pitched voice, but is among the most loved and iconic character in all of gaming.
Dixie is a character that embraces her femininity without having to rely on sex appeal or "waifuism", and for that she is not only just one of the best heroines in gaming but also among the most interesting. While she may cry when she got hit, or due a female tween-like pout about being thrown in a crib with Kiddy (DKC3's game over screen), she at the same time subverted tropes by managing to be one of the few Kongs (especially playable Kongs) that never got kidnapped by K. Rool, and moreover, she canonically insulted/sassed him to his face. She is not a support character like most other major prominent female Nintendo characters, but a co-protagonists in two of the Top 10 best selling SNES titles (DKC2 and DKC3). As another Dixie fan put it, she is "cute, cool, bad***".
Dixie is a character that goes beyond "girl Diddy". She has a lot of charm and personality. From sipping a drink in the middle of a journey, to lapping up honey while storming a Zinger stronghold, to taking DK's Switch for herself. Dixie is a character that knows how to smell the roses and enjoy the moment, which is why she does not hesitate to enjoy some honey in an environment full of giant bees, hijack DK's Switch from him, or mock K. Rool to his face. Dixie likes having fun just as much as we have fun playing as her. That is part of her endearment. In many ways, she might possibly be the pinnacle of the characters Rare created (and that truly says something), and it is a shame she basically went a nearly 20 year stretch without any sort of prominent role.
Dixie Kong is not just a character that stands out among heroines, but all heroes. She is a character that managed to simultaneously embrace and subvert tropes, and somehow manage to become one of the most endearing characters within not just her franchise, but gaming as a whole.
While most of the Smash Bros. Bubble continues to basically ignore her, they simply do not know the breadth to which Dixie Kong was a trailblazer and the subtle charm to her character. Dixie in many ways is the female Mario. Unlike most heroines, most of her appeal is not due to sex appeal/"waifu factor", but rather because of her gameplay mechanics and personality, much like Mario is not someone you would initially think of as cool or endearing without having a hands on experience with the character.
Dixie Kong is a character that is exemplary of the term Nintendo All-Star in many ways. She is a showcase for the Nintendo brand as a whole. A character, that like Nintendo, has their net cast wide across demographics despite what the industry conventions are to what "appealing" is. If there is one Nintendo character left to ever be added to Smash Bros., I could not think of a finer Nintendo character for the series to close on than Dixie Kong: The Last Nintendo All-Star.
I re-iterate that Ultimate's roster is absolutely fantastic, and I am extremely grateful to Sakurai and his team for everything that they did for Ultimate from finally adding Ridley to the roster (a childhood dream of mine that went on for nearly 20 years), to bringing back every single veteran (another dream I thought was unlikely to ever happen), to bringing in Castlevania (one of my favorite non-Nintendo franchises, and one to which the Smash Bubble seemed to care little for), and recently bringing in Banjo-Kazooie (a character that is outright owned by a console competitor to Nintendo). Sakurai and his team have increasingly broken through each "impossible" bar, and left us in awe of just what we can expect or what we see as "plausible".
Dixie Kong as a character in many ways is someone who seems "on paper" to be the most obvious character that could be added to Smash Bros. She is a popular Nintendo characters that is prominent within her franchise of origin. Of such a basal quality, Dixie has this one in spades. However, after over 20 years of history to the franchise, Dixie is still conspicuously absent from the roster. Moreover, as time goes on. her prospects of ever being added keep becoming lower and lower. Smash now has gone on to become something than just about Nintendo characters. With Smash 4 and especially Ultimate, its about celebrating gaming as a whole.
Dixie is a character in many ways that completes the circle. When I first learned of Smash Bros., I was very (pleasantly) surprised Samus was part of the roster when every other character on the roster had an upcoming game for the Nintendo 64 at the time except her. Samus beat and exceeded the odds of what most would have put on a roster of 12 Nintendo characters back in 1999. However, regardless of the Metroid series having gone into hiatus during those past five years, there was no denying it, Samus and Metroid were still a major part of Nintendo and their brand. Samus and Dixie Kong were both among my favorite gaming heroes during my childhood (and still are). It was Samus's unexpected presence on the Smash Bros. roster that I even got as overwhelmingly hyped for Smash Bros. even months before the game's international release.
Dixie Kong is a character that I believe in my heart does not just fit the descriptor of Nintendo All-Star, but also Gaming All-Star. She might not have launched a franchise, but she is a character that in many way encapsulates just what charm there is to a character in the medium of gaming. She is a character that manages to have a foot both in her criteria to fit what it took to enter Smash Bros. at the beginning of the series and what it means now (importance to gaming as a whole).
However, just like Samus before her, conventionally she does not seem likely at all. Dixie is not a character even Nintendo fans are clamoring for (or rather the "Smash Bubble"). Dixie might very well never be added to Smash Bros.'s roster (Ultimate or any future installment).
However, even if she is never added, she is still an incredible heroine, and Ultimate's roster is still incredible. However, if by some miracle, and it would be an absolutely incredible miracle, Dixie Kong were added as DLC, it would be one of the greatest miracles of Ultimate's roster yet. Dixie, a character that does not meet the criteria of what is expected for DLC newcomers for Ultimate, might somehow, someway, managed to be selected to be DLC. That would be a miracle on par with Ridley being playable, EVERYONE IS HERE!, and Banjo-Kazooie making it in.
I do not know what Sakurai and his team's interpretation of Dixie Kong as a fighter will be (assuming if it ever does happen), but regardless, I have hope that Sakurai will implement her in a way that captures just what is so endearing and charming about Dixie Kong.
Dixie paradoxically is a character that makes the most sense on paper as a Smash Bros. addition, yet is also unlikely to be added in the future even among actual Nintendo characters. It is poetic this unconventional circumstances matches her unconventional appeal.
Sakurai and his team have my gratitude for making Ultimate the way they did (aside from the things I mentioned before, there are even small touches that I am grateful for like giving my favorite F-Zero character Pico, a role in the World of Light) , but like RomanceDawn, I have one more request (and it is the same as his), and that is to the complete the circle. Make Dixie Kong join the fight. Samus, one of Nintendo's AND gaming's biggest and beloved heroines joined the battle at the dawn of the franchise (the very dawn of it, she was even among the four fighters to the demo pitch Sakurai made for the original Smash Bros.). Ultimate in many ways is the apex of the Smash Bros. series. Dixie Kong joining the fight now, while long overdue, would be a moving swansong to what is shaping up to Masahiro Sakurai's magnum opus.
Dixie Kong is a character that epitomizes what Smash Bros. is, then and now. She is important to both Nintendo and gaming.
Dixie is a character that I have been very fond of going back over 20 years ago. My Dixie Kong figurine was one of my favorite toys from my childhood and was consistently near my bedside as I went to sleep every night. Having a physical object to enjoy and play with was something that I wish had extended to Samus, my other favorite gaming hero from childhood. However, I was happy to have just Dixie Kong (and Yoshi) to play with and enjoy, Now 20 years later, I am grateful that Sakurai and his team have added in not just nearly all of my favorite Nintendo characters but also my favorite gaming characters in general. Dixie this time though is the one not part of the toy box.
For many of Dixie's fans and supporters, the love and support for her runs deep. BirthNote, has been courteous enough to chronicle many of these stories into the opening post of this thread. Much like Roy (another character I deeply wanted to see, although to return), much of his appeal was not easily apparent to those who did not experience him, but rather from those who played with him hands-on and thus got appreciate his personality charm and gameplay flair. Dixie is much in the same way, to many people who never or barely played DKC2, DKC3, and Tropical Freeze, Dixie is just "girl Diddy" just like Roy was "fire Marth". However, I think the comparisons are even more unfair because Dixie's differences from Diddy are much readily apparent than Roy and Marth's were.
Thus, even if I were to craft the best prose ever written on the merits of Dixie Kong's value and worth to be a part of Ultimate's roster, it never ever would be enough to grow her fanbase and the passion for her possible inclusion. Words may touch, but actions MOVE. The best way to truly appreciate Dixie is to enjoy her source material. She is one of the two protagonists for both DKC2 and DKC3, with the former regarded as one of the best 2D platformers of all time (and the latter a very underrated game, and I personally believe to be among the best platformers for the SNES even if it is not quite as good as DKC2, it is stronger than the first DKC entry). In Tropical Freeze, she is arguably the most helpful of all the support Kongs and the game itself is argued to be the pinnacle of 2D platformers as well.
I said almost a year ago (back in December), that Dixie Kong was a treasure to the future. She might be the last long running Nintendo character left that is both a main character to their franchise (as in actual main protagonist level) that is still not part of the roster to the Smash Bros. series. Going forward Dixie is a throwback to the possible newcomer pools that Smash Bros. fans who anticipated Melee, Brawl, and Smash 4 had access to. The likes of Wario, Diddy Kong, Ridley, King Dedede, Olimar, Little Mac, Meta Knight, K. Rool, Ganondorf, Zelda, Bowser, Peach, and Bowser Jr. have all been added in now. Dixie Kong (and arguably the Toads) are all that is left from the ages of where characters had to fit "the old criteria" (namely being an integral character to a major Nintendo franchise). In an era where the most wanted characters are retro Nintendo characters, side Nintendo characters, and third-parties, Dixie Kong is a throwback to the very beginning of this legendary game franchise for character requests. She is a character that Smash fans back in 2001 would agree deserves to be in Smash Bros., which is something that I think few other characters left at this point could say (again, aside from Toad), and would be surprised to find out, nearly 20 years later, still did not make it in yet.
Dixie might not have much internet "cool kids" saying she is a great possible addition, or a massive online fanbase, but she is an absolutely legendary character, and I think even if I might not follow a future installment that does end up adding her in down the road, I think that it is something that Nintendo and Smash Bros. fans who were not around for Melee, Brawl, or Smash 4 newcomer support periods should have, an unequivocal Nintendo All-Star to support and champion . Sometimes the shiniest jewel goes unnoticed.
However, my personal hope, my hope beyond hope, is that somehow Sakuai and his team once again make the impossible possible and decide to implement Dixie Kong even though she is not a third-party character or promoting an upcoming Nintendo title. Her addition would not only be unprecedented as DLC newcomers go, but it would fittingly show how Smash Bros. has come full circle. One of its first newcomers being Samus, and if Dixie Kong were added, one of the last, for what is arguably the culmination for the franchise and what it has been building toward. It would be perhaps the last miracle (or one of the last) of Ultimate's many miracles.
I am not going to get my hopes up though. I expect only third-party characters as DLC (Geno still counts as third-party). I have very limited free time, and I think at this point in time, it is a poor usage of my time to write up grandiose and passionate posts about a character whom I can do basically nothing in terms of moving the needle towards their possible inclusion. I have been a fan of Smash Bros. for over 20 years, a member of the online Smash Bros. community for over 18 years, and part of SmashBoards for nearly 13 years (going to be 13 next week). I have gotten nearly everything I ever could have wanted or hoped for in relation to Smash Bros. Ridley being a part of the Smash roster was a childhood dream of mine that I thought was likely never going to be realized after Sakurai's own statements on him back in November 2014. Not just Ridley, but so many other things with Ultimate. I have won the lottery multiple times with this title, and yet I still am asking for more. As I said before, I have been spoiled rotten, and I think the best way I can show gratitude moving forward is through moving on.
If there is any profound news in relation to Dixie's prospects made in the future I will comment on it, but I think what I have said here will be my final profound word in relation to Dixie unless in the event of either a confirmation as a newcomer for Ultimate's DLC or when Ultimate's DLC wraps up and Dixie is not one of them (in that case I will give a short essay pep talk to Dixie fans that are disappointed but plan to support her for the next title).
The Dixie fanbase has a lot of fans with diverse talents. From SeashoreWar's talented artwork, to BirthNote's caretaking of the support topic. While many do appreciate my character support prose and introspective and detailed analyses, I cannot keep doing this forever, nor do I want to. While Dixie Kong being in Smash Bros. is something reminiscent of the dreams I had throughout my childhood and young adulthood (Ridley in Smash Bros., and Roy's return in Smash), it is something I have to relinquish to the rest of you. I feel Ultimate is as beautiful a sendoff for a longtime fan of Smash Bros. such as myself could hope for, and gradually over the course of this year I found myself posting less and less with Ultimate's actual release. I feel with this essay, I can finally pass the baton to the next generation.
It is likely going to be a long and arduous journey Dixie fans. How long that journey ultimately is, or whether it even leads to the destination you are all hoping for (Dixie being a part of the roster for Ultimate or a future installment), only time will tell. I wish you all the best regardless of whether you decide to support Dixie in the months and years ahead, or even if you decide to give up on character support and speculation entirely.
To sum it all up, Dixie Kong is a legendary heroine. She is a character that is only under Samus as far as Nintendo heroines go in terms of legacy and prominence to their own franchise and Nintendo as a whole. She is an exemplary heroine for gaming a whole, a rare heroine whom most of their appeal and charm goes beyond sex appeal or the "waifu factor", and one that also embraces and utilizes her femininity to further enhance her character appeal and endearment. She is a character that has "Mario appeal", able to be appreciated by a diverse array of demographics despite her unconventional design through her personality charm and the fun of her gameplay abilities. This particular resume arguably sets her in a league of her own not just as far as Nintendo characters go, but gaming ones as a whole as well.
Whether Dixie is ever eventually added in or not, Dixie Kong is a Nintendo All-Star. She may be underappreciated, and many not actually know or understand just why she is such an endearing character and worthy addition, but in our hearts she is truly special and the ultimate heroine.
Dixie Kong might very well be The Last Nintendo All-Star, and you know what they say about saving the best for last...
DIXIE KONG FOR SMASH BROS.
(Credit goes to J. Marme for drawing this incredible piece:
https://365timeline.com/m/Byp47gkn54j )
ROCK ON ALWAYS DIXIE FANS
