Yo good you called me out on this! And yes, I DO remember that conversation! In fact, this thread has always been the very best qualitive thread on Smashboards honestly. And this is one of the very reasons why.
No I do not think her design is so similar to Diddy, in fact, it totally isn't. They aren't even of similar species at all. If anything it's the artstyle that's to blame with it. I also think that Kiddy plays far more like Diddy in the SNES DKC games, but a heavier weight version with DK's roll attack. She doesn't need to play like Diddy at all therefore, yet, I DO think they will build up from his moveset to create Dixie's eventually.
The main reason why is Tropical Freeze and how Dixie got a Bubblegum Popgun. This makes creating her Neutral Special far easier. Then again, Bowser and Charizard also share the same fire breathing attack for their Neutral Special and they play nothing alike, even if they are both powerful heavy weight fighters.
I imagine Dixie being somewhat closer to Diddy as a semi-clone like the Wolf~Fox style of semi-clone. They are clearly based on each other, but have drastic different moves, a few similarities, but different weights, and stats all over. Fox is a light weight speedster specialised in combos, but has some strong finishers, Wolf is a more powerful character but has his share of speedy moves all over the place that can combo well at times.
Dixie wouldn't be much like Diddy in playstyle at all! She would be slower, floatier and focus more on getting grabs, and slightly zoning / poking with her hair based attacks. They would both excell in the air, but Diddy should be faster, and in a way more powerful, but Dixie trades this off for more careful defensive play, and far more safe recovery options.
A few of Diddy's moves could stay, I'll list them below:
B Air
Side B (after all, Diddy probably has this move because of the orignal idea of having him and Dixie tagged - seems very much based on the Kongs throwing each other at enemies in DKC2)
Neutral B, but Bubblegum instead of Peanuts
D Tilt
U Tilt?
First few hits of jab, and then doing hair twirls instead of the tail wag
D Smash
I really don't think the other moves of Diddy fit Dixie, as they emphasise on either Diddy's natural agility or are too much strenght-based which wouldn't suit Dixie at all. F Smash, F Air and U Smash are too physical for Dixie. I can't see Dixie display as much strenght as Diddy honestly. Unless it's a throwing move, which I think Dixie will mainly use to finish off enemies.
In other cases, a hair attack would make far more sense for a move than simply copy Diddy. She wouldn't do cartwheels at the very least, and she has no Barrel Jetpack. I also don't want her to have the Banana Peel attack, but I struggle to see other options for her that fit naturally. Maybe an attack that's similar to the whirling attack that the Cat O'Ninetails does in DKC2?
It could drag enemies in and then launch them up high without causing damage? Or little damage? It seems VERY fitting for Dixie at the very least.
Am still 100% in the boat of seeing Dixie unique. But I think we need to approach it differently. I think in the end, she'll be as unique as the last batch of Smash 4 DLC characters, maybe a little less so. It was downrightly stated by Sakurai that Corrin took inspiration from Marth's moveset as a base, Cloud took it from Ike (most obvious imo) and Bayonetta was build up from Zero Suit Samus.
I am just looking at this realistically. There's no reason to build Dixie Kong completely from base if they can take a lot from Diddy's moveset as a base, even borrowing stuff from DK if they must for example, his cargo grab game. The Smash team is getting more experienced, and if it can release them of some work.. why not? Even IF she becomes a semi-clone, her Helicopter Spin, lighter weight, more grappler based fight style, hair based throws, slower speed and weaker hits would make her play DRASTICALLY different from Diddy.[/user]