Dixie Kong's Barrel Of Support Spirits. Farewell Everyone, Thank You ALL For Making This Thread An Excellent Place For DK Fans!

[Mushroomguy12]

So she would need another Mini Potion to go back to her debut body type

It'll look funny knowing we're going back to an old body instead of the somewhat canon type

Maybe something in between her old and new looks.

 

[BirthNote]

Ok so hear me out....I think Tiny can do more with her 2 ponytails than Dixie can do with her 1 ponytail. I know it's sacrilege, but on paper Tiny's a 6-limbed Kong while Dixie's a 5-limbed Kong. That, plus the DK64 gadgets (orange grenades, feather crossbow, saxophone) and shrinking means that Tiny can go in a very different direction from her little big sister.

I still like Dixie more, but I'm just saiyan lol.

 

[~ Valkyrie ~]

Oh boy...I hope this rumor is false...

https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeak...over/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

DONKEY KONGA

FOUUUUUUR

___

Not going to lie though, I'd be disappointed after these chunky rumors. At least Mario and Rabbids was something very fresh.

 

[Dixie Kong]

Ok so hear me out....I think Tiny can do more with her 2 ponytails than Dixie can do with her 1 ponytail. I know it's sacrilege, but on paper Tiny's a 6-limbed Kong while Dixie's a 5-limbed Kong. That, plus the DK64 gadgets (orange grenades, feather crossbow, saxophone) and shrinking means that Tiny can go in a very different direction from her little big sister.

I still like Dixie more, but I'm just saiyan lol.

I'm dumb, how come Dixie is a five limbed Kong while Tiny is a 6 limbed Kong?

 

[Mushroomguy12]

I'm dumb, how come Dixie is a five limbed Kong while Tiny is a 6 limbed Kong?

Dixie: 2 arms + 2 legs + 1 ponytail = 5 limbs.
Tiny: 2 arms + 2 legs + 2 ponytails = 6 limbs.

 

[~ Valkyrie ~]

Ok so hear me out....I think Tiny can do more with her 2 ponytails than Dixie can do with her 1 ponytail. I know it's sacrilege, but on paper Tiny's a 6-limbed Kong while Dixie's a 5-limbed Kong. That, plus the DK64 gadgets (orange grenades, feather crossbow, saxophone) and shrinking means that Tiny can go in a very different direction from her little big sister.

I still like Dixie more, but I'm just saiyan lol.

Depends on how long Tiny can grow her ponytails... so far longest have been around her lower leg area if you account her "growth spurt" while Dixie's having longer than that, and even then her ponytails don't seem as prehensile as Dixie's. She's got some way to go.

 

[Mushroomguy12]

Hmm..... I think Conker probably shouldn't be operating a vehicle in that state.

There was a problem fetching the tweet

 

[BirthNote]

Depends on how long Tiny can grow her ponytails... so far longest have been around her lower leg area if you account her "growth spurt" while Dixie's having longer than that, and even then her ponytails don't seem as prehensile as Dixie's. She's got some way to go.

Hmmm...nowadays I count Tiny's current look as her default, and while those pinytails are longer than her DK64 version you have a point.

I might have to do a refresher with DK64

 

[Michael the Spikester]

So there was a supposed leak that has since been terminated on Reddit shared on the newcomer speculation thread.

Assuming it's real, Dixie is one of the two, her trailer being a continuation to Banjo's but with no fake-out.

Spoiler

In case you're curious, the other character supposedly is Master Chief.

 

[CrusherMania1592]

So there was a supposed leak that has since been terminated on Reddit shared on the newcomer speculation thread.

Assuming it's real, Dixie is one of the two, her trailer being a continuation to Banjo's but with no fake-out.

Spoiler

In case you're curious, the other character supposedly is Master Chief.

Interesting to see but I’m disappointed with MC being one of them. Not a fan :/

can we have the actual details on what the leak said?

 

[okamifire]

So there was a supposed leak that has since been terminated on Reddit shared on the newcomer speculation thread.

Assuming it's real, Dixie is one of the two, her trailer being a continuation to Banjo's but with no fake-out.

Spoiler

In case you're curious, the other character supposedly is Master Chief.

I would love Dixie but that "leak" was way janky. There were way too many odd details where they didn't matter and not enough where they did. It was probably removed as it amounted to nothing more than the equivalent of a 4chan text with no source. If it turns out to be true I'll totally own up and eat my words, but there was nothing particularly trustworthy about any of it in my opinion.

 

[BirthNote]

Color me skeptical. Until E3's over, I'm not believing any of it.

 

[Michael the Spikester]

Someone managed to save it.

Spoiler

Posted this in the Smash Ultimate subreddit but it was removed. Someone's got to leak something before the big event, right? Original post below:

==============

Vergeben may be absent lately but he's not the only one with access to reliable sources to get the news out. Spoilers ahead, your choice to believe this or not. Maybe we can get u/practicalbrush12 to confirm this to, since he's proven to be reliable and I'm confident our sources overlap along with Vergeben.

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One of my sources has managed to watch the Nintendo Direct for next Tuesday multiple times now and has given me this info:

-E3 is the fabled double reveal and we'll know all the characters in FP2

-The Direct opens with a Smash trailer, but does NOT open with the white bar on black animation because Nintendo is triple dipping into the King K. Rool and Banjo-Kazooie trailer, but it's been altered like how Banjo-Kazooie's trailer had K. Rool sleeping in it. It starts with the good guys vs. bad guy artwork and adds a Banjo-Kazooie and Gruntilda one. It cuts to Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, K. Rool, and Banjo-Kazooie sitting around a table playing cards and hanging out before they hear rustling through the jungle outside before cramming into the window sill. Unlike the previous trailers, they do NOT do the fakeout a third time where there's a character silhouette that is actually another character. Instead, it's just a silhouette of a character jumping from tree to tree, and then the character floats down to the house in a spinning fashion and whips out a guitar, similar to how Banjo-Kazooie used their instruments. Of course, it's Dixie, and you know it as soon as she floats down with her hair twirl. Dixie's entrance line is "Dixie Kong Rocks Out!"

-Dixie is to Diddy like Isabelle is to Villager. She has some shared moves but some unique ones. Most of the shared moves in this case are normal moves and not special moves. She has a float mechanic like Peach, but unlike Peach, she constantly descends a bit.

-Dixie's stage is a pirate ship like stage. It has ropes that are re-skinned ladders, but it does not move on water like the actual Pirate Ship stage (Toon Link's stage)

-One of her alternate costumes is her purple outfit from DKC2's multiplayer mode thing. I'm not familiar with the mode myself so I don't know if there's anything else related to it.

-No release date will be given in the trailer but it will mention a Sakurai Presents in July.

-After Dixie is shown, the Direct jumps straight into a new Donkey Kong Country like game that comes out in October. Nintendo mentions DK's 40th anniversary. Retro Studio's doesn't appear to be involved in this one because of their work on Metroid Prime 4, so I think this is actually coming from Nintendo themselves but don't know if it's a different developer.

-The last Smash trailer reveal will be the second to last announcement because Nintendo is saving their best for last. It's worth the wait so I won't spoil that one here, but the Smash announcement is excellently done in the Direct. Again, the trailer foregoes the white bar on black background opening animation. It's just a black screen after the Direct does it's normal transition, and it starts with Smash sound effects playing in the background before slowly - and I mean VERY SLOWLY - fading in. In one way, it's actually kind of annoying how much they draw it out, but my assumption is that it's done that way because it's the last character for Ultimate and I guess most people won't recognize it's Smash until the sound effects. Anyways, it fades out to show a bunch of different characters battling on Mementos before switching to a few other stages - Spiral Mountain, King of Fighters Stadium, and Northern Cave. It's kind of like the Steve trailer how Mario gets knocked around by third parties, but instead, it's third party DLC stages this time. There are cuts in this small montage that show emphasis on the stages too, so it'll be pretty obvious to Smash fans that there's a focus on maps here. Anyways, it then cuts to black again for a brief second before showing a shot of space. It pans slowly until the right side of the screen has a curved, silver bend with a technologic motiff. The trailer then has a quick pan and zoom past this bend to reveal a Halo ring, where it then zooms in on a character standing there, back turned waiting while music slowly fades in. It cuts to a shot of the character's feet standing on a grassy plain (with it panning up slowly) with while Cortana does a voice over saying "Chief, I'm picking up movement, but it doesn't seem to be Covenant forces or the Flood!". The camera hits the top part of the character's model from a side view before it zooms quickly to see Mario attacking him, and he quickly turns around and knocks him away revealing it's Master Chief on a Halo stage. The entrance line reads "Master Chief Finishes the Fight" before cutting away to the standard stuff you'd see in a Smash trailer.

-The Halo stage works a lot like the Minecraft stage in the sense that it has different biomes. There's a grassy one reminiscent of the second level in Halo CE, and there's a snowy one from Assault on the Control Room. There's also a nighttime one, but I'm not familiar with Halo enough to tell you exactly what it references it.

-One of Master Chief's taunts is shown off in the trailer and it takes the Cortana chip out of his head and she says a line.

-Most of Master Chief's alts that are shown in the trailer are different colors from Halo games. Nintendo must've been in on the joke because at one point, there's a red colored Master Chief vs a blue one.

-The trailer ends by saying Fall 2019.

-The trailer leads into a Direct transition and then Nintendo goes over their final announcement.



And that's all I got with Smash news. Get ready for Tuesday everyone.



Edit: Kept the error for Fall 2019 in there. You know I meant 2021. But w/e

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

Dixie would be a fantastic addition to Smash and a solid co-note to go out on for Ultimate's DLC.

That being said, I don't buy a word of that leak no matter how nice it would be to happen.

 

[Mushroomguy12]

Someone managed to save it.

Spoiler

Posted this in the Smash Ultimate subreddit but it was removed. Someone's got to leak something before the big event, right? Original post below:

==============

Vergeben may be absent lately but he's not the only one with access to reliable sources to get the news out. Spoilers ahead, your choice to believe this or not. Maybe we can get u/practicalbrush12 to confirm this to, since he's proven to be reliable and I'm confident our sources overlap along with Vergeben.

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-

-

-

-

-

One of my sources has managed to watch the Nintendo Direct for next Tuesday multiple times now and has given me this info:

-E3 is the fabled double reveal and we'll know all the characters in FP2

-The Direct opens with a Smash trailer, but does NOT open with the white bar on black animation because Nintendo is triple dipping into the King K. Rool and Banjo-Kazooie trailer, but it's been altered like how Banjo-Kazooie's trailer had K. Rool sleeping in it. It starts with the good guys vs. bad guy artwork and adds a Banjo-Kazooie and Gruntilda one. It cuts to Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, K. Rool, and Banjo-Kazooie sitting around a table playing cards and hanging out before they hear rustling through the jungle outside before cramming into the window sill. Unlike the previous trailers, they do NOT do the fakeout a third time where there's a character silhouette that is actually another character. Instead, it's just a silhouette of a character jumping from tree to tree, and then the character floats down to the house in a spinning fashion and whips out a guitar, similar to how Banjo-Kazooie used their instruments. Of course, it's Dixie, and you know it as soon as she floats down with her hair twirl. Dixie's entrance line is "Dixie Kong Rocks Out!"

-Dixie is to Diddy like Isabelle is to Villager. She has some shared moves but some unique ones. Most of the shared moves in this case are normal moves and not special moves. She has a float mechanic like Peach, but unlike Peach, she constantly descends a bit.

-Dixie's stage is a pirate ship like stage. It has ropes that are re-skinned ladders, but it does not move on water like the actual Pirate Ship stage (Toon Link's stage)

-One of her alternate costumes is her purple outfit from DKC2's multiplayer mode thing. I'm not familiar with the mode myself so I don't know if there's anything else related to it.

-No release date will be given in the trailer but it will mention a Sakurai Presents in July.

-After Dixie is shown, the Direct jumps straight into a new Donkey Kong Country like game that comes out in October. Nintendo mentions DK's 40th anniversary. Retro Studio's doesn't appear to be involved in this one because of their work on Metroid Prime 4, so I think this is actually coming from Nintendo themselves but don't know if it's a different developer.

-The last Smash trailer reveal will be the second to last announcement because Nintendo is saving their best for last. It's worth the wait so I won't spoil that one here, but the Smash announcement is excellently done in the Direct. Again, the trailer foregoes the white bar on black background opening animation. It's just a black screen after the Direct does it's normal transition, and it starts with Smash sound effects playing in the background before slowly - and I mean VERY SLOWLY - fading in. In one way, it's actually kind of annoying how much they draw it out, but my assumption is that it's done that way because it's the last character for Ultimate and I guess most people won't recognize it's Smash until the sound effects. Anyways, it fades out to show a bunch of different characters battling on Mementos before switching to a few other stages - Spiral Mountain, King of Fighters Stadium, and Northern Cave. It's kind of like the Steve trailer how Mario gets knocked around by third parties, but instead, it's third party DLC stages this time. There are cuts in this small montage that show emphasis on the stages too, so it'll be pretty obvious to Smash fans that there's a focus on maps here. Anyways, it then cuts to black again for a brief second before showing a shot of space. It pans slowly until the right side of the screen has a curved, silver bend with a technologic motiff. The trailer then has a quick pan and zoom past this bend to reveal a Halo ring, where it then zooms in on a character standing there, back turned waiting while music slowly fades in. It cuts to a shot of the character's feet standing on a grassy plain (with it panning up slowly) with while Cortana does a voice over saying "Chief, I'm picking up movement, but it doesn't seem to be Covenant forces or the Flood!". The camera hits the top part of the character's model from a side view before it zooms quickly to see Mario attacking him, and he quickly turns around and knocks him away revealing it's Master Chief on a Halo stage. The entrance line reads "Master Chief Finishes the Fight" before cutting away to the standard stuff you'd see in a Smash trailer.

-The Halo stage works a lot like the Minecraft stage in the sense that it has different biomes. There's a grassy one reminiscent of the second level in Halo CE, and there's a snowy one from Assault on the Control Room. There's also a nighttime one, but I'm not familiar with Halo enough to tell you exactly what it references it.

-One of Master Chief's taunts is shown off in the trailer and it takes the Cortana chip out of his head and she says a line.

-Most of Master Chief's alts that are shown in the trailer are different colors from Halo games. Nintendo must've been in on the joke because at one point, there's a red colored Master Chief vs a blue one.

-The trailer ends by saying Fall 2019.

-The trailer leads into a Direct transition and then Nintendo goes over their final announcement.



And that's all I got with Smash news. Get ready for Tuesday everyone.



Edit: Kept the error for Fall 2019 in there. You know I meant 2021. But w/e

Yeah that leak is most likely fake, not sure why Gruntilda would be in the montage since she isn't playable.

But if they hypothetically did do a Dixie trailer in that style I would love to see a heroines montage replacing the heroes vs villains one with Peach, Zelda, Palutena, etc.

 

[~ Valkyrie ~]

The trailer ends by saying Fall 2019.

Sounds like he's from alternate timeline. I'm floored by the technological advancements it implicates from that kind of world.

 

[BirthNote]

Let's not mistake rumors and hoaxes for leaks. Right now, this is all just a rumor; if it's BS then it's a hoax someone started to get attention. If it's real it indeed was a leak, but we won't know that until the day of. In the meantime, it's never a good idea to treat a rumor as genuine, as it creates toxic hype cycles and leads to disappointment.

Putting rumors ("I heard Sackboy's in"), hoaxes (Omni's Rayman art) and leaks (Castlevania music getting uploaded by accident) in the same category is NEVER a good idea. It makes it too easy to troll people. Grains of salt and skepticism are mandatory.

 

[SeashoreWar]

Now finally updating the Kongs from DKC for Donkey Kong Racing!

Candy obviously got the most revisions out of the bunch. She's back in her music shop and upgraded to some vinyl headphones. This time she's going for a vintage look hence the 50's inspired outfit. I also gave her a strawberry/blonde for her fur and hair. Oh and Cranky changed his sweater back to green lol.

Spoiler: Comparison

All the Kongs together.

Now onto the new additions to the roster! And I still need to look over the op BirthNote !

 

[InASnowBoundLand]

FAMILY PICTURE! I like Candy's outfit a lot! That's a sentence rarely uttered in human history. But you did a good job, Seashore War. I like it more than your previous version, which was good too, but I just like the more original take. And way better than "current" Candy. If current means appearing in a game like 14 years ago.

I will try to post it tomorrow but maybe might wait until Monday if that's alright.

 

[True Blue Warrior]

FAMILY PICTURE! I like Candy's outfit a lot! That's a sentence rarely uttered in human history. But you did a good job, Seashore War. I like it more than your previous version, which was good too, but I just like the more original take. And way better than "current" Candy. If current means appearing in a game like 14 years ago.

I will try to post it tomorrow but maybe might wait until Monday if that's alright.

I do wonder if Wrinkly, Swanky and Candy are ever going to come back. They are the only Kongs from the original trilogy still missing.

 

[Mushroomguy12]

Tiny's Piroshkis.

There was a problem fetching the tweet

 

[Bodacious66]

Why do the "rumors" for characters I want have to all sound so fake lol. I know there is a 99% chance it's not real but at least make it sound believable so I can imagine, instead of going into insane levels of details and even giving us release date

 

[cybersai]

It's fake, Master chief is not getting into Smash (especially this time around), lol

 

[Mushroomguy12]

Kong Sketches.

There was a problem fetching the tweet

 

[BirthNote]

Kong Sketches.

There was a problem fetching the tweet

I love every single one of these.

 

[Vector Victor]

I would love Dixie but that "leak" was way janky. There were way too many odd details where they didn't matter and not enough where they did. It was probably removed as it amounted to nothing more than the equivalent of a 4chan text with no source. If it turns out to be true I'll totally own up and eat my words, but there was nothing particularly trustworthy about any of it in my opinion.

Of course the leak is fake. Do we really think that they would have Dixie and Master Chief share the same stage? Please, it would look ridiculously lopsided.

Dixie would overshadow Master Chief, stealing his hype thunder.

 

[PestilenceSSB]

I'm disappearing from the internet until Tuesday to hide from potential leaks. Good luck to all my fellow DKC enthusiasts and Dixie supporters and here's hoping something pans out for us in the near future...

 

[Diddy Kong]

I bet the new DK game by Nintendo EAD, if the rumors are real of course, is gonna be based on Jungle Beat mixed with a little Returns / Tropical Freeze. Might just be a typical platformer like the Retro games, but with beat em up mechanics, and combo's you can stunt through the levels with. And honestly, Jungle Beat being EAD's product, should we really expect anything else? I do hope it'll be shown off this Monday however. I'll take anything Donkey Kong related at this point, even a potential Donkey Konga 4.

 

[ChronoBound]

Music to listen to while reading this:

We are now just a few days away from the penultimate character unveil for Ultimate, and possibly the last one as well. My last post I made on this site was over three months ago as well. I feel we are pretty much drawing near the end now.

This place has been the only support topic to which I have made over 100 posts in during this epoch. The only other character support threads I think I ever reached such a milestone for were for Ridley and Roy.

My personal expectation is that Dixie Kong is not going to be one of the two remaining characters for Ultimate. In general, what tiny bit of hope she does have left has to be with this upcoming unveil. There is really no way I could see Dixie Kong being the final newcomer unveiled for Ultimate, and I say that as someone that thinks very highly of her.

As such we are now at the end of the road for Dixie Kong more or less.

I think this thread's mood in a few days time will be bittersweet. There will be many here happy about the new DK title that was unveiled and the fact that K. Rool and the Kremlings have returned, but at the same time disappointment that Dixie Kong yet again missed out on yet another critical DK title (my expecation is that she will be absent from it).

Personally, I think such a development would bode poorly for her prospects in regards to getting in as a newcomer for the next Smash title. In general, as I brought up numerous times before, missing out on critical DK titles and having very poor timing and circumstances in regards to Smash inclusion are regular themes in regards to Dixie's 25 year history.

She would then obviously need a very big push to make it clear she is a valued part to the DK series just like K. Rool is. I do not want to be involved in such an endeavor, and I already wrote a heart felt essay nearly two years ago about what a special heroine Dixie Kong is. I might make some edits to it though because it was written in the context of when Ultimate's DLC was ongoing.

In a recent column Sakurai made in Famitsu, he said, "Everything must come to an end at some point." Sakurai used this column to announce that he would retire his Famitsu column that he had been writing since 2003. Ultimate will not be the end for Smash, but I think Sakurai will like to take a break from the franchise for a few years, especially after having worked nonstop on Smash for nearly a decade (development on Smash 4 began in early 2012).

At this point much of my interest in Smash speculation and character support is gone. There are a multitude of reasons for this. One is that I have far less free time than I did during prior Smash speculation epochs. Another is that I am getting older and increasingly gradually losing interest in many gaming things in general. Another reason is that the general dynamics for speculation have changed with the in-depth dives only really only being appreciated if you are a known Youtube personality. Platforms like Reddit and Twitter seem counter-intuitive for speculation to me, and the old mainstays like GameFAQs and SmashBoards have bled much of their userbase.

Another important thing about my depreciated interest is that Ultimate has basically given me most of what I had been hoping for in regards to Smash. Ridley was a character I had been dreaming about being playable ever since I saw him in the background to Planet Zebes back in 1999, and I had been supporting him as a playable character for Smash online since 2001 (when he was shown as part of Melee's E3 2001 trailer). Ridley was a very big deal to me personally, and it was surreal to finally see him added in especially after Sakurai had seemed like he thought Ridley was not suited for playable status.

Other long running desires that Ultimate had granted to me were every single veteran returning as well as most stages. As you probably know, I was among the biggest Roy supporters out there, and I spent a lot of my efforts from late 2007 to mid 2015 supporting Roy's return in Smash. Along the way, I became sympathetic with the supporters of other cut veterans outside of Mewtwo and Roy (Mewtwo and Roy were the only cut Melee veterans with sizeable movements supporting their return). Smash 4 had cut even more characters while also bringing back a few cut Melee veterans (Mewtwo, Roy, and Dr. Mario). I was very happy to see that all of the veterans were brought back for Ultimate, and that fans of characters like Pichu, Young Link, Squirtle, and Ivysaur (whom had small fanbases for their return) got to feel what Roy supporters felt back in June 2015.

Most of the stages getting brought back was also very nice because it allowed me to enjoy the characters that were introduced in later titles (especially ones like Ridley) in games where I had wished that they had been part of the roster for (such as Melee).

Aside from that, Ultimate made other roster additions that I was very surprised and hyped about such as the Belmonts and Banjo & Kazooie. I thought these additions were very unlikely to ever happen, and both the Castlevania series and Banjo-Kazooie were very special to me.

To put this into context, three years ago I wrote this:

Aside from Ridley (who I am pessimistic on, and really think people would be doubting if not for the various rumors going around now), it is difficult to think of characters that I would personally be excited about if they did make it in. Dixie Kong might be one of those few. She was among my favorite gaming protagonists during the 1990's, and both DKC2 and DKC3 were favorites of mine on the SNES. She is among the few legendary female video game characters, and one of the very few Nintendo all-stars left not playable on the roster. Unlike many other female characters, she has a legitimately strong history in her own series and is among the few faces of it.

Like Ridley, I am pessimistic on Dixie Kong's prospects. Dixie Kong was planned for Brawl, but only as a part of a tag-team with Diddy Kong (who then got re-tooled into a separate fighter), and Sakurai did not bother re-tooling Dixie into a separate fighter as well. Dixie Kong also had an important role in Tropical Freeze, but unfortunately that game was released after Sakurai had decided most of the roster and before it was likely on his radar. There is also the fact that K. Rool has the lionshare of newcomer requests for a DK newcomer, and likely got twice as many ballot requests. Dixie Kong seems to have never have gotten a break despite have a fantastic resume (and no weird issues). The only other character that comes to mind that has had a great starpower (and no weird issues) yet still failed to get in is Toad.

There is the assumption that Dixie Kong will be among the most highly requested newcomers once K. Rool is actually confirmed (there is a precedence for this seeing as how K. Rool was not even in the Top 10 most wanted newcomers for Brawl until Diddy Kong was actually confirmed), however, as it stands right now, I think the best course of action would be for Sakurai to do what he did with Meta Knight and King Dedede back during Brawl, and add in both of them.

However, operating under the assumption that K. Rool's shadow will not be removed until Smash Switch is a few months away from release (if at all), it looks like the Dixie Kong fanbase will be playing by the same rules as it has been for the last ten years, the only people supporting the character being those who actually appreciate and enjoy the character and her primary source material (namely DKC2, DKC3, and now Tropical Freeze). Those who want to see Dixie Kong in Smash Bros. are not operating under the mantras of "I want to be part of the winning team", "think of the moveset potential" (I remember when people bashed Bowser Jr. for being clone material, look how that turned out), "we need more villains/females/xxx".

It is something else I observed in late 2014 and early 2015 in regards to the Roy fanbase. A reminder for those who are unfamiliar. The situation regarding Roy's return in Smash Bros. was absolutely dire at that point in time.

1. There were a lot of popular Brawl veterans that had been cut and viewed as a higher priority for DLC than Roy (Ice Climbers, Wolf, Snake, and Lucas)
2. Fire Emblem already have four slots, which many viewed as more than enough characters.
3. One of those four characters was a Marth clone.
4. There was already a "Roy" (Roy Koopa) on the roster (a lot of Roy detractors would make the joke "durr Roy is already in the game"

Yet despite all of this bad news, support for Roy's return was actually strong. I surmised why this was. It ultimately came down to this. A personal connection to the character, heart. People that wanted to see Roy return wanted to see him return because they had many fond memories with him and his source material (Melee, Project M, and FE6). Playing as Roy and enjoying fond memories through this avatar, allowed a connection to the character that was very strong despite the constant abuse by detractors and various bad news regarding his prospects of returning.

Such resolve is not exclusive to Roy fans. It is probably the reason why Isaac still enjoys a lot of support to this very day despite Golden Sun's heyday being 15 years ago, or why Toad still has a core of loyal dedicated fans after three games of still retaining the same role in Smash Bros.

Generally those who wish to see Dixie Kong in Smash Bros. are those who have strong fond memories of playing as the character in DKC2 and DKC3 (and possibly a new generation in Tropical Freeze). For those who played as Dixie Kong in out childhood, it was nice being able to glide over enemies and and obstacles too difficult to surmount at the tim, as well as how cool it was that she could throw things with her pony tail. She had personality too. Whether it was sitting buy and drinking a soda when leaving the controller for a few seconds, or actually licking the honey in the bee hive levels in DKC2, Dixie Kong had little nuances that showed that although she was on an arduous adventure, she could still stop and enjoy herself a bit. This monkey was pretty human.

I fought over seven years for Roy's return in Smash Bros., and I have been fighting for over 17 years for Ridley's inclusion (which I am doubtful on despite the strong rumors, I do not see how Sakurai could have changed his mind so quickly after Smash 4 ended). I am overall fatigued with the speculation and character support scene, and I actually left it for nearly three years (I basically retired after the Roy and Ryu update in June 2015). I intended for Smash 4 to be the final Smash Bros. game I would follow. It was only for this weird occurrence of Smash Switch being unveiled a mere two years after the end of Smash 4 DLC that I have decided to at least follow the game (I barely make speculation or character support comments anymore).

However, Dixie Kong is definitely a character that needs far more support than she currently gets (the only other character that comes to mind in regards to this is Toad). I am doubtful about her prospects, but she is absolutely fitting on the moniker "Nintendo All-Star" and she is a character that has been long overdue for the roster. However, she even though she will most likely take a backseat to K. Rool (who also deserves a spot on the roster), we must not lose hope, and continue to fight and speak up about our support and endearment about this legend. I am basically retired from the Smash Bros. community, but I still felt the need to put a good word out for this pink beret wearing heroine.

DIXIE KONG FOR SMASH BROS.

It is remarkable what ended up happening only days later (everyone is here as well as Ridley's long awaited confirmation). Just months later we got the 8/8 direct which confirmed Castlevania, K. Rool, as well as most prior stages in the series to return.

This was the first post I made in this topic. I could never have guessed that Ultimate would end up giving me Ridley and so much more.

Ultimate implemented many things I had wanted to see, but had always thought of as being very unlikely to ever happen. I am someone that had been following Smash even before the first installment was internationally released, and I have been involved in online roster speculation for 20 years now. To me, Ultimate feels like a culmination or rather a personal conclusion.

In general Ultimate was basically a "too good to be true" title that somehow ended up being real. There are some things that I wish ended up happening with Ultimate, but the thing is that as far as a Smash title goes in terms of being in line with my own personal desires and tastes, this is the best it will get (assuming Ultimate is not ported and built upon). At some point the journey has to end for myself.

By comparison, there are many others that are still waiting for their most wanted characters to debut in Smash or for it to take a direction that they want the series to go down (such as a single player mode that is similar to Subspace Emissary or a high focus on competitive gameplay). For many others here, their dream Smash has yet to be realized and it is what will be driving them going forward aside from particular characters that they want to see make it onto the roster.

Ultimate is likely the pinnacle in terms of character and stage count, but there are other directions Smash can taken that can take that can make them stand as tall as Ultimate has. For myself, though, Ultimate is what I was hoping for.

There are also very few characters not yet part of the roster at this point that I would be quite happy to see included in future installments. Aside from Dixie Kong (who is the only character that I have been putting in notable character support since Ultimate's release), there is also Toad. Toad, like Dixie Kong, is a character that could be considered to be among the last remaining Nintendo All-Stars, and he really should have been a part of the roster a long time ago (even Captain Toad or Toadette would suffice). Unfortunately, interest for a Mario newcomer is primarily directed towards Waluigi and Geno with Toad still in the background among most Smash fans. I do appreciate that Toad was given an expanded role as part of Peach's moveset (shown as an actual combative character) as well as the Toad Mii costume being available in the base game. That was a decent consolation prize for the character.

Aside from Toad, there is also Paper Mario, though he kind of suffers from the same issue as Toad, with most interest going towards Waluigi and Geno. Though Paper Mario still has an active series which could potentially be used as a method for his eventual inclusion. The series at the very least deserves more content aside from two music tracks and a handful of spirits or trophies.

In terms of third-parties, nearly all of the third-party franchises I really like now have playable representation in Ultimate. The two exceptions being Chrono Trigger and the Ace Attorney series. For both of these, I would be satisfied with even a spirit event for them. I am pretty pessimistic on anything happening with Chrono Trigger, but I do think we will see probably see something with Ace Attorney for Ultimate, especially considering the 20th anniversary to the series is in a few months. I think there is also a decent chance that Phoenix Wright is one of the two final characters to Pass 2. In general, I think there is a good chance that one of the final two slots is a Capcom character (likely either Dante or Phoenix Wright, though Chun Li also has a shot).

A day later after Ultimate was unveiled, a long time regular for this thread said this:

I almost don't have any remaining hope

This post was made three years ago.

Three years later, while most of us think that Dixie Kong most likely will not make it onto Ultimate's roster. There is still a little residual hope left. Sakurai in many cases with Ultimate made the impossible possible. For these remaining three days until the next unveil there is still a little more time to dream. As I said many, many times before whatever little hope Dixie Kong has of making Ultimate's roster will have to come from all of the stars aligning in her favor. With the exception of Piranha Plant (who was very likely a character intended for the base game), every single Nintendo character that ever ended up as DLC was basically a promotional character. Fire Emblem Fates (going by Japanese release) was about a year old by the time Corrin was made available. Fire Emblem Three Houses was less than a year old by the time Byleth was included. ARMS was three years old by the time Min Min was included. Xenoblade 2 was a bit over three years old by the time Pyrra and Mythra were included.

Dixie Kong is not a promotional character, and her only prominence she has had on the Switch was through a Wii U port (Tropical Freeze). While Tropical Freeze has barely any content in Ultimate, its still a Western developed first party game, and those typically have little prominence in the Smash titles (which makes Dark Samus's inclusion even more miraculous, in my opinion).

The other factor against Dixie Kong is that she has no readily available gimmick to her, something most DLC fighters draw upon. Really the only one that people has associated with Dixie is the tag team gimmick (which she was considered for back during Brawl). The fact that her spirit upgrades to her being alongside Kiddy Kong makes me think that Sakurai still thinks that this is what should be done with Dixie Kong. Sakurai said in the presentation for Pyrra and Mythra, that the tag team gimmick was considered again, but this time for Rex and Pyrra, but like with Brawl, it was again considered not feasible and too difficult to make it work properly. This thus eliminates a possible avenue Dixie had for a gimmick in Ultimate.

Personally, I think one possibility for a gimmick pertaining to Dixie Kong is one that utilizes the animal buddies with her. That she could cycle through animal buddies through a special move, that summons a crate (only one buddy could be summoned at a time), These buddies would give Dixie different stats for her speed, weight, and jumping ability, as well as a different special or two (possibly different specials completely). For me personally, the animal buddies were a very big reason as to why I enjoyed the DKC trilogy so much, especially the latter two installments. Rattly, Squitter, Rambi, and Ellie were some of the funnest parts of DKC2 and DKC3. It is really a shame that the only animal buddy that managed to return was Rambi (Squawks exists more as an item now). None of the animal buddies aside from Rambi have been utilized in a platformer since 1997 (Donkey Kong Land 3).

I am not sure if Rambi alone would be enough to be considered a "gimmick". Riding him would give Dixie Kong different stats for her speed, jump, and weight, as well as different specials. Wario already has something a little similar through his bike, but Dixie riding Rambi would give her an array of different stats as well as access to different moves. Rambi is an iconic part of the DK brand, having been in two out of three of the DKC trilogy, as well as DK64 and both DKC Returns and Tropical Freeze. Dixie Kong would also have the ability to fight stand alone. Without Rambi she has much better recovery, but she becomes much lighter and her offensive capabilities would take a hit.

Regardless this is just twilight speculating and food for thought.

Well if Dixie doesn't end up in the DLC, she is one of the front runners for Smash 6. That's something to look forward to

Her status as a front runner for the next title is very much contingent on an assortment of factors that we do not know the answers to yet. If, for example, she is absent from the rumored upcoming DK title that will probably be unveiled in the next few days, she likely will not even be among the Top 20 most wanted characters overall. There is also the factor that for Smash, requests have increasingly trended towards third-party character inclusions.

My belief for a long time was that Dixie Kong would take off as a highly requested character for Smash once K. Rool made it in. Instead, it ended up being the case while Dixie Kong got a boost, though much of the energy would go into Banjo & Kazooie, and after they made it in, Dixie still stayed within the background.

Her future is largely out of of our hands. Her fanbase skews older due to the fact that her most prominent titles were DKC2 and DKC3 which were originally released in 1995 and 1996, though she has some younger fans due to the GBA ports of those titles, which were released in 2004 and 2005. Dixie Kong needs major prominence again to gain new and younger fans to carry the torch going forward (assuming she does not make it into Ultimate). There are some exceptions to this (look at how Geno was able to garner a bunch of young fans through special circumstances), but for Dixie Kong, I feel her missing out on having any appearance on the Nintendo 64 is a big factor for why she does not have the amount of requests she should have and that she needs brand new appearances to become a popular character choice for Smash.

It is good to have hope going forward, but we should not blindly assume all will be well in the end. The sentiment that "Dixie Kong is inevitable" has been a part of the Smash speculation scene since 2013, when Dixie was confirmed for Tropical Freeze. For Diddy Kong, K. Rool, and even Banjo & Kazooie, it took a massive outpouring of support to make it so that they would make it in. I feel it most likely will the same for Dixie, unless there is a miracle and she somehow makes it as one of the final two characters for Ultimate.

Someone managed to save it.

Spoiler

Posted this in the Smash Ultimate subreddit but it was removed. Someone's got to leak something before the big event, right? Original post below:

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Vergeben may be absent lately but he's not the only one with access to reliable sources to get the news out. Spoilers ahead, your choice to believe this or not. Maybe we can get u/practicalbrush12 to confirm this to, since he's proven to be reliable and I'm confident our sources overlap along with Vergeben.

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One of my sources has managed to watch the Nintendo Direct for next Tuesday multiple times now and has given me this info:

-E3 is the fabled double reveal and we'll know all the characters in FP2

-The Direct opens with a Smash trailer, but does NOT open with the white bar on black animation because Nintendo is triple dipping into the King K. Rool and Banjo-Kazooie trailer, but it's been altered like how Banjo-Kazooie's trailer had K. Rool sleeping in it. It starts with the good guys vs. bad guy artwork and adds a Banjo-Kazooie and Gruntilda one. It cuts to Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, K. Rool, and Banjo-Kazooie sitting around a table playing cards and hanging out before they hear rustling through the jungle outside before cramming into the window sill. Unlike the previous trailers, they do NOT do the fakeout a third time where there's a character silhouette that is actually another character. Instead, it's just a silhouette of a character jumping from tree to tree, and then the character floats down to the house in a spinning fashion and whips out a guitar, similar to how Banjo-Kazooie used their instruments. Of course, it's Dixie, and you know it as soon as she floats down with her hair twirl. Dixie's entrance line is "Dixie Kong Rocks Out!"

-Dixie is to Diddy like Isabelle is to Villager. She has some shared moves but some unique ones. Most of the shared moves in this case are normal moves and not special moves. She has a float mechanic like Peach, but unlike Peach, she constantly descends a bit.

-Dixie's stage is a pirate ship like stage. It has ropes that are re-skinned ladders, but it does not move on water like the actual Pirate Ship stage (Toon Link's stage)

-One of her alternate costumes is her purple outfit from DKC2's multiplayer mode thing. I'm not familiar with the mode myself so I don't know if there's anything else related to it.

-No release date will be given in the trailer but it will mention a Sakurai Presents in July.

-After Dixie is shown, the Direct jumps straight into a new Donkey Kong Country like game that comes out in October. Nintendo mentions DK's 40th anniversary. Retro Studio's doesn't appear to be involved in this one because of their work on Metroid Prime 4, so I think this is actually coming from Nintendo themselves but don't know if it's a different developer.

-The last Smash trailer reveal will be the second to last announcement because Nintendo is saving their best for last. It's worth the wait so I won't spoil that one here, but the Smash announcement is excellently done in the Direct. Again, the trailer foregoes the white bar on black background opening animation. It's just a black screen after the Direct does it's normal transition, and it starts with Smash sound effects playing in the background before slowly - and I mean VERY SLOWLY - fading in. In one way, it's actually kind of annoying how much they draw it out, but my assumption is that it's done that way because it's the last character for Ultimate and I guess most people won't recognize it's Smash until the sound effects. Anyways, it fades out to show a bunch of different characters battling on Mementos before switching to a few other stages - Spiral Mountain, King of Fighters Stadium, and Northern Cave. It's kind of like the Steve trailer how Mario gets knocked around by third parties, but instead, it's third party DLC stages this time. There are cuts in this small montage that show emphasis on the stages too, so it'll be pretty obvious to Smash fans that there's a focus on maps here. Anyways, it then cuts to black again for a brief second before showing a shot of space. It pans slowly until the right side of the screen has a curved, silver bend with a technologic motiff. The trailer then has a quick pan and zoom past this bend to reveal a Halo ring, where it then zooms in on a character standing there, back turned waiting while music slowly fades in. It cuts to a shot of the character's feet standing on a grassy plain (with it panning up slowly) with while Cortana does a voice over saying "Chief, I'm picking up movement, but it doesn't seem to be Covenant forces or the Flood!". The camera hits the top part of the character's model from a side view before it zooms quickly to see Mario attacking him, and he quickly turns around and knocks him away revealing it's Master Chief on a Halo stage. The entrance line reads "Master Chief Finishes the Fight" before cutting away to the standard stuff you'd see in a Smash trailer.

-The Halo stage works a lot like the Minecraft stage in the sense that it has different biomes. There's a grassy one reminiscent of the second level in Halo CE, and there's a snowy one from Assault on the Control Room. There's also a nighttime one, but I'm not familiar with Halo enough to tell you exactly what it references it.

-One of Master Chief's taunts is shown off in the trailer and it takes the Cortana chip out of his head and she says a line.

-Most of Master Chief's alts that are shown in the trailer are different colors from Halo games. Nintendo must've been in on the joke because at one point, there's a red colored Master Chief vs a blue one.

-The trailer ends by saying Fall 2019.

-The trailer leads into a Direct transition and then Nintendo goes over their final announcement.



And that's all I got with Smash news. Get ready for Tuesday everyone.



Edit: Kept the error for Fall 2019 in there. You know I meant 2021. But w/e

A rule of thumb about "leaks" is that the more detailed they are, the more likely that they are fake. As far as I know, I think the only trailer where the details were leaked was the one with Incineroar and Ken, and even then I am not sure (I think it might have only been mentioned that they shared a trailer).

It also has very odd details to it. As others have pointed out, its very peculiar that Gruntilda is part of the opening montage of heroes vs. villains despite not being playable. It is even odder that Cloud vs Sephiroth is not there, especially given that Sephiroth's inclusion alone was enough to get a tournament centered around villains (or dark characters).

I also really doubt a semi clone of a character already on the base roster would be sold as DLC as well (with one possible exception, which would be the Octolings). I also doubt a playable Dixie would not have the bubble gum popgun which operate pretty similarly to Diddy's peanut popgun.

Another aspect that needs to be touched upon, is that I doubt that they would develop Dixie as a semi-clone of Diddy when Diddy seems to rank at the bottom of popularity polls for characters in Smash. I think there was a recent Japanese poll where Diddy Kong was right at the bottom.

The only possibility I see for a semi clone as DLC is Octoling. I will talk about my reasoning for that character later on.

It is nice that Dixie Kong finally has another fake leak centered around her. I think this has not happened since the base game period as far as I recall.

It is even nicer that the Dixie Kong fanbase has not fallen for this, and basically dismissed it.

That being said Dixie Kong and Master Chief would be very high peak to end Ultimate with, and truly a worthy sendoff. One of the greatest Nintendo icons not yet part of the roster, and the other one of the most iconic gaming heroes ever.

That being said, this is a character combination I see as basically impossible. I cannot see them closing Ultimate with two Western created characters back to back. I do see a Western created character as likely for one of the two remaining slots though (most likely either Crash Bandicoot or Master Chief, though the likes of Rayman and Doom Slayer are also possibilities).

I am also not confident in a double unveil happening either, but it is a decent possibility, especially if a Western created character is among the final two slots.

We shall see. I can see definitely see Master Chief being the final character for Ultimate and him even having the tag line "Master Chief finishes the fight" though. However, I have a hard time seeing Dixie Kong as among the last two. Though with what little hope she has, I see her being the penultimate character.

It's fake, Master chief is not getting into Smash (especially this time around), lol

Master Chief is very believable, and at the very least much more likely than Dixie Kong. There have been long running rumors for years about the Master Chief Collection being ported to the Switch. At the very least there is hidden coordination between Microsoft and Nintendo going on for a while. I very strongly expect some sort of Xbox and Switch cross platform promotion to be announced at this E3.

I see Master Chief as one of the two most likely possibilities for another Western third-party newcomer, with the other being Crash Bandicoot.

Master Chief would certainly be a very worthy send off for Ultimate, and I say that as someone who has never even played the Halo series.

Of course the leak is fake. Do we really think that they would have Dixie and Master Chief share the same stage? Please, it would look ridiculously lopsided.

Dixie would overshadow Master Chief, stealing his hype thunder.

As sad as it is to say, there would likely be quite a bit of whining if Dixie Kong were to make it in as one of the last two characters simply because of how much the Smash fanbase has now skewed its tastes towards third-party characters. I do think though she is enough of a Nintendo icon that most of the Smash fanbase would welcome her with open arms though.

My E3 Predictions:

I am going to make my predictions about E3 now.

Games announced:

• Breath of the Wild 2 is fully unveiled.
• New Donkey Kong platformer announced. Its 2D. It has DK, Diddy, Cranky, K. Rool, and the Kremlings. No Dixie (my intuition is strongly telling me that).
• New 2D Metroid developed by Mercury Stream.
• Metroid Prime 4 fully unveiled (50/50 on this)
• Halo Master Chief Collection announced for the Switch.

Now for my Smash predictions. I think there will only be a single character unveiled, but a double unveil is technically possible.

Here is the pool that I see as far as possible unveils go:

Nintendo newcomers:

Pokemon newcomer:
All of the Nintendo newcomers for Ultimate's DLC (with the exception of Piranha Plant) have been to promote major Switch software. Pokemon Sword and Shield is the biggest piece of Nintendo software (aside from Animal Crossing New Horizons) that does not have any notable content in Ultimate (it simply has a few spirits). The most likely Pokemon is Cinderace.

Octoling:
Splatoon 3 is going to be a very major software release for the Switch in 2022. Octoling is a very obvious choice to help promote that title. There is also the fact that the Octo Expansion has barely any content in Ultimate (aside from two spirits). Octoling would be an easy semi-clone for the team to implement. I could see the Octoling being more along the lines of a Wolf/Lucas style semi-clone though. Possibly even more unique since I see the Octoling having mostly unique specials and an unique Final Smash.

If there is a Nintendo newcomer shown, he/she will either be a Pokemon newcomer or the Octoling. However, I will say there is also a possibility that Ayumi Tachibana is chosen. A remake of Famicom Detective Club was released a few weeks ago, and this remake was actually released internationally. Sakurai in the past has said that he wanted to make this character playable, but an obstacle towards her inclusion was her obscurity outside of Japan. I think this has now been removed with the international release of the remake. It is also peculiar that a spirit event has not been made about this title yet.

Third-Party newcomers:

There is a much bigger pool of characters here:

Crash Bandicoot
Master Chief
Dante
Ryu Hayabusa
Arle
Shin Megami Tensei Character
Lloyd Irving

Crash Bandicoot:
Activision has said that they want to really promote the 25th anniversary to the Crash Bandicoot series. I think Crash might at this point be the most wanted character for Smash. Activision has been a heavy supporter for the Switch as well. It is pretty peculiar about why there has not been a spirit event yet for Crash Bandicoot 4.

Master Chief:
Microsoft and Nintendo have been pretty friendly lately. Banjo & Kazooie and Steve were both DLC additions for Ultimate. There have been long running rumors about Master Chief Collection being ported to the Switch. I do think there will be some sort of Xbox to Switch announcement at this E3, even if a Master Chief confirmation is not there. I do think Master Chief is a strong contender for being the final character unveiled for Ultimate, but I do also see him as a contender for the penultimate spot.

Dante:
As I said before, I do not see the release of the Monster Hunter Mii costumes and Arthur Mii costume in the previous Mii costume wave as a deconfirmation for a Capcom newcomer as Smash DLC. The 20th anniversary for the Devil May Cry series is in August as well.

Ryu Hayabusa:
Ninja Gaiden Master Collection recently released for multiple platforms. Koei-Tecmo is the biggest Japanese game developer without a character on Ultimate's roster. While some have said the recent interviews with the developers at Tecmo being really hungry for Hayabusa's inclusion are a deconfirmation, I personally do not think so. He is still among the strongest contenders for the last two slots.

Arle:
Puyo Puyo is perhaps the most iconic puzzle game franchise outside of Tetris. It will have its 30th anniversary later this year. Its tremendous legacy and impact on its genre is likely a factor for consideration by Nintendo.

Shin Megami Tensei Character:
A port of Nocturne is releasing on the Switch soon. SMTV is also a Switch exclusive. There was no SMT content released with Joker's update. I think its very likely there will be some sort of SMT content in Ultimate before development ends simply due to the amount of promotion the series received on the 3DS and now the Switch.

Lloyd Irving:
Namco has said that they plan to promote the 25th anniversary of Tales all throughout this year. What better way to promote the 25th anniversary to the series than a character from that franchise making it onto the roster of Ultimate. It is very peculiar that Lloyd is the sole third-party Mii costume that has not yet returned yet.

I can see a double unveil as a possibility, especially if one of the remaining two characters is a Western third-party character. However, it is still possible that we only get a single unveil and that single unveil ends up being a Western third-party character. We shall see. There are only three days left of waiting.

Conclusion:

Three years ago the impossible was made possible. Every veteran in the history of the Smash franchises was confirmed for a single grand unveil, with it all capping off with the confirmation of Ridley at long last. I never would have thought that I would still be here three years later still making posts about a particular character and doing speculation.

Ultimate later would continue to "make the impossible possible" and add in many characters that most had seen as unlikely.

The new DK title unveiled could be quite bittersweet with the people in this topic. While it will be first new major DK title in over seven years, and very likely bring back K. Rool and the Kremlings, it could be a possibility that Dixie is once again absent. Regardless, it will hopefully bring the DK franchise back to the forefront, and hopefully give it back the prestige and massive following it had during the second half of the 1990's.

However, in the event that Dixie Kong does have a major role in this upcoming DK title, it will very likely mean little for Ultimate (likely the only content it would receive being a spirit event), as well as the fact that there may only be a single character left to be unveiled (or possibly none left if there is a double unveil on Tuesday). However, it will mean possibly good momentum for Dixie Kong fans going forward.

It is amusing that I spent most of Ultimate’s speculation cycle supporting a character that stopped seeming like a likely prospect very early into it. I would say after the August 2018 presentation is when Dixie’s chances started to seem dismal. Ironically, this is when I would start to become a regular poster in the Dixie thread, although my first post was a day or two before E3 2018.

Aside from being older and having less free time as well as Ultimate fulfilling most of my personal hopes with the series, another factor for my depreciated involvement with the Smash community is that almost all online spaces for discussion in general are very unpleasant in one way or form.

That is one of the reasons why I cherish this thread so much. It actually seems like a sort of oasis in the midst of an infinite desert. However, even here, there are a lot less active posters in here than there was even a year ago (myself included). If Dixie Kong fails to show up in the unveil for the next DK title, I can only imagine that it will be a further death knell for this thread.

However, despite myself being a constant conduit for pessimism, this thread still valued my thoughts, analyses, and insight. It has been my online home for speculation and discussion especially since Ultimate’s release. I am truly thankful for this appreciation.

I do cherish the time I have spent posting and speculating in this thread. I know its kind of a cliche, but even though we are most likely not going to win in the end (either Dixie being in Ultimate or being a major part of the next major DK title), the real victory was us having such a good time along the way. I really enjoyed my time sharing my thoughts and ideas with the people in this thread. Supporting this legendary heroine among you was a real privilege, and the community and atmosphere you cultivated was the primary reason I even continued posting after Ultimate's release.

Seeing so many old faces, and gaining an appreciation for a bunch of new ones, this thread is really something special. Its bittersweet that the journey is coming to an end, and even if things end amicably (Dixie miraculously making it onto Ultimate's roster, and having a major role in the new DK title), it will be a bit sad to part ways.

Dixie Kong might not be the "last Nintendo all-star" but for many of us here, she is the last piece of the puzzle so to speak. DKC2 and DKC3 were some of the best titles on the SNES. Dixie Kong had an unique charm among heroines that makes her loved among all sorts of people and demographics. The female Mario in my opinion.

Regardless of whether Dixie Kong makes it onto Ultimate's roster or not, she is still a special heroine and character.

I am very close to nearing the 20th anniversary of when I started being involved in Smash speculation and character support online. These past 20 years have been quite the journey. I have gone from childhood to adulthood. I have seen so many things come and go, and so many things change.

It was me discovering that Samus was going to be a part of Smash 64 that began my fascination with Smash Bros., and now over 20 years later, my remaining tether at this point is the hope that another one of Nintendo's legendary heroines makes Smash's roster.

Regardless of whether Dixie Kong makes it in or not, this is the last Smash title I will be doing speculation and character support for. I wish Dixie Kong fans all the best going forward assuming she does not make it in the end (which is the most likely outcome). For those whom were disappointed with Ultimate, I do hope the next title fulfills your long held dreams like Ultimate did with mine.

Three years ago, Ridley's inclusion and "everyone is here" could have very well have been my jumping off point in regards to Smash community involvement. Afterall, after Roy's return, I had only made two posts after June 2015 and prior to April 2018. I am very glad I chose to stay on as a speculator and character supporter for a multitude of reasons. The miraculous nature of Ultimate's full unveil made me very eager to see just what else Ultimate had to offer. Now, things are coming to an end.

My activity for this epoch has been gradually dissipating with each passing year. For 2018, I made over 500 posts. In 2019, I made over 100 posts. In 2020, I made only 30 posts. And now so far this year, I have only made four posts (this one included).

Like Sakurai said, everything must come to an end at some point. This has been an incredible journey. Thank you to all of you for being a part of this. This thread would not have been the same without any of you.

I really hope for the best, and that we Dixie Kong fans are given another miracle this coming Tuesday, whether its an extremely miraculous Smash Bros. debut and/or a major role in the rumored new Donkey Kong title. Even if Dixie Kong fails to show up in Smash or the new DK title, all of you should still remember the good all of you did here. You were fantastic supporters, and while Dixie Kong could maybe use a bigger fanbase, she certainly could not ask for a better one.

You did well and did all that you could. Remember that regardless of what happens. The curtain will soon be lifted revealing the last act. We should use this remaining time not just to dream and hope for our desired outcome, but also to prepare ourselves for the outcome we might not like or be disappointed in.

However, I would like to err on the side of dreaming and hoping. For over 20 years of my life, I had been dreaming about prospective Smash Bros. inclusions. Now this journey is nearing its end. Against my better judgment on what is likely to happen, I will continue to dream. I will allow myself some hope.

Thank you again for all of your contributions that you have made over the past three years, and I am appreciative of those that do enjoy taking the time of reading my works. I am not sure what the future holds in these next few days. All we can do is wait and see.

This might very well be the last remaining days that we have any residual hope for Dixie Kong being playable in Ultimate. Ultimate has been having characters unveiled for it for over three years, the longest period of any Smash title, and thus we have had a very long time to be dreaming and hoping for an active Smash title.

We are drawing near the end for this Smash cycle. It was your fantastic contributions to this thread and community as well as my little bit of hope for Dixie (and Ultimate being as amazing it turned out to be) as to why I ended up staying throughout this cycle (albeit with a much depreciated output compared to prior Smash speculation periods). You are a great community.

So before we know just who penultimate newcomer to Ultimate is (or possibly even who the final two are) let us give another a shout and say....

DIXIE KONG FOR SMASH BROS.

 

[Mushroomguy12]

Regardless of what happens on Tuesday, this thread has reached the Top 3 of active individual support threads for Ultimate, being one of the only active 3 individual threads to have over 10,000 replies and 1,000,000 views. It's amazing how far we have come and how much it has grown, and it shows that love for Dixie and DKC is as strong as ever!

 

[Justin Little]

Did anybody see this?

There was a problem fetching the tweet

Funny they showed off games that are on Switch (Mario Odyssey, Animal Crossing) and is soon to come out (Skyward Sword), then a Donkey Kong centric question about K. Rool comes up. They could be promoting Smash, but I have my suspicion.

 

[Fuzzy Pickles!]

Music to listen to while reading this:

We are now just a few days away from the penultimate character unveil for Ultimate, and possibly the last one as well. My last post I made on this site was over three months ago as well. I feel we are pretty much drawing near the end now.

This place has been the only support topic to which I have made over 100 posts in during this epoch. The only other character support threads I think I ever reached such a milestone for were for Ridley and Roy.

My personal expectation is that Dixie Kong is not going to be one of the two remaining characters for Ultimate. In general, what tiny bit of hope she does have left has to be with this upcoming unveil. There is really no way I could see Dixie Kong being the final newcomer unveiled for Ultimate, and I say that as someone that thinks very highly of her.

As such we are now at the end of the road for Dixie Kong more or less.

I think this thread's mood in a few days time will be bittersweet. There will be many here happy about the new DK title that was unveiled and the fact that K. Rool and the Kremlings have returned, but at the same time disappointment that Dixie Kong yet again missed out on yet another critical DK title (my expecation is that she will be absent from it).

Personally, I think such a development would bode poorly for her prospects in regards to getting in as a newcomer for the next Smash title. In general, as I brought up numerous times before, missing out on critical DK titles and having very poor timing and circumstances in regards to Smash inclusion are regular themes in regards to Dixie's 25 year history.

She would then obviously need a very big push to make it clear she is a valued part to the DK series just like K. Rool is. I do not want to be involved in such an endeavor, and I already wrote a heart felt essay nearly two years ago about what a special heroine Dixie Kong is. I might make some edits to it though because it was written in the context of when Ultimate's DLC was ongoing.

In a recent column Sakurai made in Famitsu, he said, "Everything must come to an end at some point." Sakurai used this column to announce that he would retire his Famitsu column that he had been writing since 2003. Ultimate will not be the end for Smash, but I think Sakurai will like to take a break from the franchise for a few years, especially after having worked nonstop on Smash for nearly a decade (development on Smash 4 began in early 2012).

At this point much of my interest in Smash speculation and character support is gone. There are a multitude of reasons for this. One is that I have far less free time than I did during prior Smash speculation epochs. Another is that I am getting older and increasingly gradually losing interest in many gaming things in general. Another reason is that the general dynamics for speculation have changed with the in-depth dives only really only being appreciated if you are a known Youtube personality. Platforms like Reddit and Twitter seem counter-intuitive for speculation to me, and the old mainstays like GameFAQs and SmashBoards have bled much of their userbase.

Another important thing about my depreciated interest is that Ultimate has basically given me most of what I had been hoping for in regards to Smash. Ridley was a character I had been dreaming about being playable ever since I saw him in the background to Planet Zebes back in 1999, and I had been supporting him as a playable character for Smash online since 2001 (when he was shown as part of Melee's E3 2001 trailer). Ridley was a very big deal to me personally, and it was surreal to finally see him added in especially after Sakurai had seemed like he thought Ridley was not suited for playable status.

Other long running desires that Ultimate had granted to me were every single veteran returning as well as most stages. As you probably know, I was among the biggest Roy supporters out there, and I spent a lot of my efforts from late 2007 to mid 2015 supporting Roy's return in Smash. Along the way, I became sympathetic with the supporters of other cut veterans outside of Mewtwo and Roy (Mewtwo and Roy were the only cut Melee veterans with sizeable movements supporting their return). Smash 4 had cut even more characters while also bringing back a few cut Melee veterans (Mewtwo, Roy, and Dr. Mario). I was very happy to see that all of the veterans were brought back for Ultimate, and that fans of characters like Pichu, Young Link, Squirtle, and Ivysaur (whom had small fanbases for their return) got to feel what Roy supporters felt back in June 2015.

Most of the stages getting brought back was also very nice because it allowed me to enjoy the characters that were introduced in later titles (especially ones like Ridley) in games where I had wished that they had been part of the roster for (such as Melee).

Aside from that, Ultimate made other roster additions that I was very surprised and hyped about such as the Belmonts and Banjo & Kazooie. I thought these additions were very unlikely to ever happen, and both the Castlevania series and Banjo-Kazooie were very special to me.

To put this into context, three years ago I wrote this:



It is remarkable what ended up happening only days later (everyone is here as well as Ridley's long awaited confirmation). Just months later we got the 8/8 direct which confirmed Castlevania, K. Rool, as well as most prior stages in the series to return.

This was the first post I made in this topic. I could never have guessed that Ultimate would end up giving me Ridley and so much more.

Ultimate implemented many things I had wanted to see, but had always thought of as being very unlikely to ever happen. I am someone that had been following Smash even before the first installment was internationally released, and I have been involved in online roster speculation for 20 years now. To me, Ultimate feels like a culmination or rather a personal conclusion.

In general Ultimate was basically a "too good to be true" title that somehow ended up being real. There are some things that I wish ended up happening with Ultimate, but the thing is that as far as a Smash title goes in terms of being in line with my own personal desires and tastes, this is the best it will get (assuming Ultimate is not ported and built upon). At some point the journey has to end for myself.

By comparison, there are many others that are still waiting for their most wanted characters to debut in Smash or for it to take a direction that they want the series to go down (such as a single player mode that is similar to Subspace Emissary or a high focus on competitive gameplay). For many others here, their dream Smash has yet to be realized and it is what will be driving them going forward aside from particular characters that they want to see make it onto the roster.

Ultimate is likely the pinnacle in terms of character and stage count, but there are other directions Smash can taken that can take that can make them stand as tall as Ultimate has. For myself, though, Ultimate is what I was hoping for.

There are also very few characters not yet part of the roster at this point that I would be quite happy to see included in future installments. Aside from Dixie Kong (who is the only character that I have been putting in notable character support since Ultimate's release), there is also Toad. Toad, like Dixie Kong, is a character that could be considered to be among the last remaining Nintendo All-Stars, and he really should have been a part of the roster a long time ago (even Captain Toad or Toadette would suffice). Unfortunately, interest for a Mario newcomer is primarily directed towards Waluigi and Geno with Toad still in the background among most Smash fans. I do appreciate that Toad was given an expanded role as part of Peach's moveset (shown as an actual combative character) as well as the Toad Mii costume being available in the base game. That was a decent consolation prize for the character.

Aside from Toad, there is also Paper Mario, though he kind of suffers from the same issue as Toad, with most interest going towards Waluigi and Geno. Though Paper Mario still has an active series which could potentially be used as a method for his eventual inclusion. The series at the very least deserves more content aside from two music tracks and a handful of spirits or trophies.

In terms of third-parties, nearly all of the third-party franchises I really like now have playable representation in Ultimate. The two exceptions being Chrono Trigger and the Ace Attorney series. For both of these, I would be satisfied with even a spirit event for them. I am pretty pessimistic on anything happening with Chrono Trigger, but I do think we will see probably see something with Ace Attorney for Ultimate, especially considering the 20th anniversary to the series is in a few months. I think there is also a decent chance that Phoenix Wright is one of the two final characters to Pass 2. In general, I think there is a good chance that one of the final two slots is a Capcom character (likely either Dante or Phoenix Wright, though Chun Li also has a shot).

A day later after Ultimate was unveiled, a long time regular for this thread said this:



This post was made three years ago.

Three years later, while most of us think that Dixie Kong most likely will not make it onto Ultimate's roster. There is still a little residual hope left. Sakurai in many cases with Ultimate made the impossible possible. For these remaining three days until the next unveil there is still a little more time to dream. As I said many, many times before whatever little hope Dixie Kong has of making Ultimate's roster will have to come from all of the stars aligning in her favor. With the exception of Piranha Plant (who was very likely a character intended for the base game), every single Nintendo character that ever ended up as DLC was basically a promotional character. Fire Emblem Fates (going by Japanese release) was about a year old by the time Corrin was made available. Fire Emblem Three Houses was less than a year old by the time Byleth was included. ARMS was three years old by the time Min Min was included. Xenoblade 2 was a bit over three years old by the time Pyrra and Mythra were included.

Dixie Kong is not a promotional character, and her only prominence she has had on the Switch was through a Wii U port (Tropical Freeze). While Tropical Freeze has barely any content in Ultimate, its still a Western developed first party game, and those typically have little prominence in the Smash titles (which makes Dark Samus's inclusion even more miraculous, in my opinion).

The other factor against Dixie Kong is that she has no readily available gimmick to her, something most DLC fighters draw upon. Really the only one that people has associated with Dixie is the tag team gimmick (which she was considered for back during Brawl). The fact that her spirit upgrades to her being alongside Kiddy Kong makes me think that Sakurai still thinks that this is what should be done with Dixie Kong. Sakurai said in the presentation for Pyrra and Mythra, that the tag team gimmick was considered again, but this time for Rex and Pyrra, but like with Brawl, it was again considered not feasible and too difficult to make it work properly. This thus eliminates a possible avenue Dixie had for a gimmick in Ultimate.

Personally, I think one possibility for a gimmick pertaining to Dixie Kong is one that utilizes the animal buddies with her. That she could cycle through animal buddies through a special move, that summons a crate (only one buddy could be summoned at a time), These buddies would give Dixie different stats for her speed, weight, and jumping ability, as well as a different special or two (possibly different specials completely). For me personally, the animal buddies were a very big reason as to why I enjoyed the DKC trilogy so much, especially the latter two installments. Rattly, Squitter, Rambi, and Ellie were some of the funnest parts of DKC2 and DKC3. It is really a shame that the only animal buddy that managed to return was Rambi (Squawks exists more as an item now). None of the animal buddies aside from Rambi have been utilized in a platformer since 1997 (Donkey Kong Land 3).

I am not sure if Rambi alone would be enough to be considered a "gimmick". Riding him would give Dixie Kong different stats for her speed, jump, and weight, as well as different specials. Wario already has something a little similar through his bike, but Dixie riding Rambi would give her an array of different stats as well as access to different moves. Rambi is an iconic part of the DK brand, having been in two out of three of the DKC trilogy, as well as DK64 and both DKC Returns and Tropical Freeze. Dixie Kong would also have the ability to fight stand alone. Without Rambi she has much better recovery, but she becomes much lighter and her offensive capabilities would take a hit.

Regardless this is just twilight speculating and food for thought.



Her status as a front runner for the next title is very much contingent on an assortment of factors that we do not know the answers to yet. If, for example, she is absent from the rumored upcoming DK title that will probably be unveiled in the next few days, she likely will not even be among the Top 20 most wanted characters overall. There is also the factor that for Smash, requests have increasingly trended towards third-party character inclusions.

My belief for a long time was that Dixie Kong would take off as a highly requested character for Smash once K. Rool made it in. Instead, it ended up being the case while Dixie Kong got a boost, though much of the energy would go into Banjo & Kazooie, and after they made it in, Dixie still stayed within the background.

Her future is largely out of of our hands. Her fanbase skews older due to the fact that her most prominent titles were DKC2 and DKC3 which were originally released in 1995 and 1996, though she has some younger fans due to the GBA ports of those titles, which were released in 2004 and 2005. Dixie Kong needs major prominence again to gain new and younger fans to carry the torch going forward (assuming she does not make it into Ultimate). There are some exceptions to this (look at how Geno was able to garner a bunch of young fans through special circumstances), but for Dixie Kong, I feel her missing out on having any appearance on the Nintendo 64 is a big factor for why she does not have the amount of requests she should have and that she needs brand new appearances to become a popular character choice for Smash.

It is good to have hope going forward, but we should not blindly assume all will be well in the end. The sentiment that "Dixie Kong is inevitable" has been a part of the Smash speculation scene since 2013, when Dixie was confirmed for Tropical Freeze. For Diddy Kong, K. Rool, and even Banjo & Kazooie, it took a massive outpouring of support to make it so that they would make it in. I feel it most likely will the same for Dixie, unless there is a miracle and she somehow makes it as one of the final two characters for Ultimate.



A rule of thumb about "leaks" is that the more detailed they are, the more likely that they are fake. As far as I know, I think the only trailer where the details were leaked was the one with Incineroar and Ken, and even then I am not sure (I think it might have only been mentioned that they shared a trailer).

It also has very odd details to it. As others have pointed out, its very peculiar that Gruntilda is part of the opening montage of heroes vs. villains despite not being playable. It is even odder that Cloud vs Sephiroth is not there, especially given that Sephiroth's inclusion alone was enough to get a tournament centered around villains (or dark characters).

I also really doubt a semi clone of a character already on the base roster would be sold as DLC as well (with one possible exception, which would be the Octolings). I also doubt a playable Dixie would not have the bubble gum popgun which operate pretty similarly to Diddy's peanut popgun.

Another aspect that needs to be touched upon, is that I doubt that they would develop Dixie as a semi-clone of Diddy when Diddy seems to rank at the bottom of popularity polls for characters in Smash. I think there was a recent Japanese poll where Diddy Kong was right at the bottom.

The only possibility I see for a semi clone as DLC is Octoling. I will talk about my reasoning for that character later on.

It is nice that Dixie Kong finally has another fake leak centered around her. I think this has not happened since the base game period as far as I recall.

It is even nicer that the Dixie Kong fanbase has not fallen for this, and basically dismissed it.

That being said Dixie Kong and Master Chief would be very high peak to end Ultimate with, and truly a worthy sendoff. One of the greatest Nintendo icons not yet part of the roster, and the other one of the most iconic gaming heroes ever.

That being said, this is a character combination I see as basically impossible. I cannot see them closing Ultimate with two Western created characters back to back. I do see a Western created character as likely for one of the two remaining slots though (most likely either Crash Bandicoot or Master Chief, though the likes of Rayman and Doom Slayer are also possibilities).

I am also not confident in a double unveil happening either, but it is a decent possibility, especially if a Western created character is among the final two slots.

We shall see. I can see definitely see Master Chief being the final character for Ultimate and him even having the tag line "Master Chief finishes the fight" though. However, I have a hard time seeing Dixie Kong as among the last two. Though with what little hope she has, I see her being the penultimate character.



Master Chief is very believable, and at the very least much more likely than Dixie Kong. There have been long running rumors for years about the Master Chief Collection being ported to the Switch. At the very least there is hidden coordination between Microsoft and Nintendo going on for a while. I very strongly expect some sort of Xbox and Switch cross platform promotion to be announced at this E3.

I see Master Chief as one of the two most likely possibilities for another Western third-party newcomer, with the other being Crash Bandicoot.

Master Chief would certainly be a very worthy send off for Ultimate, and I say that as someone who has never even played the Halo series.



As sad as it is to say, there would likely be quite a bit of whining if Dixie Kong were to make it in as one of the last two characters simply because of how much the Smash fanbase has now skewed its tastes towards third-party characters. I do think though she is enough of a Nintendo icon that most of the Smash fanbase would welcome her with open arms though.

My E3 Predictions:

I am going to make my predictions about E3 now.

Games announced:

• Breath of the Wild 2 is fully unveiled.
• New Donkey Kong platformer announced. Its 2D. It has DK, Diddy, Cranky, K. Rool, and the Kremlings. No Dixie (my intuition is strongly telling me that).
• New 2D Metroid developed by Mercury Stream.
• Metroid Prime 4 fully unveiled (50/50 on this)
• Halo Master Chief Collection announced for the Switch.

Now for my Smash predictions. I think there will only be a single character unveiled, but a double unveil is technically possible.

Here is the pool that I see as far as possible unveils go:

Nintendo newcomers:

Pokemon newcomer:
All of the Nintendo newcomers for Ultimate's DLC (with the exception of Piranha Plant) have been to promote major Switch software. Pokemon Sword and Shield is the biggest piece of Nintendo software (aside from Animal Crossing New Horizons) that does not have any notable content in Ultimate (it simply has a few spirits). The most likely Pokemon is Cinderace.

Octoling:
Splatoon 3 is going to be a very major software release for the Switch in 2022. Octoling is a very obvious choice to help promote that title. There is also the fact that the Octo Expansion has barely any content in Ultimate (aside from two spirits). Octoling would be an easy semi-clone for the team to implement. I could see the Octoling being more along the lines of a Wolf/Lucas style semi-clone though. Possibly even more unique since I see the Octoling having mostly unique specials and an unique Final Smash.

If there is a Nintendo newcomer shown, he/she will either be a Pokemon newcomer or the Octoling. However, I will say there is also a possibility that Ayumi Tachibana is chosen. A remake of Famicom Detective Club was released a few weeks ago, and this remake was actually released internationally. Sakurai in the past has said that he wanted to make this character playable, but an obstacle towards her inclusion was her obscurity outside of Japan. I think this has now been removed with the international release of the remake. It is also peculiar that a spirit event has not been made about this title yet.

Third-Party newcomers:

There is a much bigger pool of characters here:

Crash Bandicoot
Master Chief
Dante
Ryu Hayabusa
Arle
Shin Megami Tensei Character
Lloyd Irving

Crash Bandicoot:
Activision has said that they want to really promote the 25th anniversary to the Crash Bandicoot series. I think Crash might at this point be the most wanted character for Smash. Activision has been a heavy supporter for the Switch as well. It is pretty peculiar about why there has not been a spirit event yet for Crash Bandicoot 4.

Master Chief:
Microsoft and Nintendo have been pretty friendly lately. Banjo & Kazooie and Steve were both DLC additions for Ultimate. There have been long running rumors about Master Chief Collection being ported to the Switch. I do think there will be some sort of Xbox to Switch announcement at this E3, even if a Master Chief confirmation is not there. I do think Master Chief is a strong contender for being the final character unveiled for Ultimate, but I do also see him as a contender for the penultimate spot.

Dante:
As I said before, I do not see the release of the Monster Hunter Mii costumes and Arthur Mii costume in the previous Mii costume wave as a deconfirmation for a Capcom newcomer as Smash DLC. The 20th anniversary for the Devil May Cry series is in August as well.

Ryu Hayabusa:
Ninja Gaiden Master Collection recently released for multiple platforms. Koei-Tecmo is the biggest Japanese game developer without a character on Ultimate's roster. While some have said the recent interviews with the developers at Tecmo being really hungry for Hayabusa's inclusion are a deconfirmation, I personally do not think so. He is still among the strongest contenders for the last two slots.

Arle:
Puyo Puyo is perhaps the most iconic puzzle game franchise outside of Tetris. It will have its 30th anniversary later this year. Its tremendous legacy and impact on its genre is likely a factor for consideration by Nintendo.

Shin Megami Tensei Character:
A port of Nocturne is releasing on the Switch soon. SMTV is also a Switch exclusive. There was no SMT content released with Joker's update. I think its very likely there will be some sort of SMT content in Ultimate before development ends simply due to the amount of promotion the series received on the 3DS and now the Switch.

Lloyd Irving:
Namco has said that they plan to promote the 25th anniversary of Tales all throughout this year. What better way to promote the 25th anniversary to the series than a character from that franchise making it onto the roster of Ultimate. It is very peculiar that Lloyd is the sole third-party Mii costume that has not yet returned yet.

I can see a double unveil as a possibility, especially if one of the remaining two characters is a Western third-party character. However, it is still possible that we only get a single unveil and that single unveil ends up being a Western third-party character. We shall see. There are only three days left of waiting.

Conclusion:

Three years ago the impossible was made possible. Every veteran in the history of the Smash franchises was confirmed for a single grand unveil, with it all capping off with the confirmation of Ridley at long last. I never would have thought that I would still be here three years later still making posts about a particular character and doing speculation.

Ultimate later would continue to "make the impossible possible" and add in many characters that most had seen as unlikely.

The new DK title unveiled could be quite bittersweet with the people in this topic. While it will be first new major DK title in over seven years, and very likely bring back K. Rool and the Kremlings, it could be a possibility that Dixie is once again absent. Regardless, it will hopefully bring the DK franchise back to the forefront, and hopefully give it back the prestige and massive following it had during the second half of the 1990's.

However, in the event that Dixie Kong does have a major role in this upcoming DK title, it will very likely mean little for Ultimate (likely the only content it would receive being a spirit event), as well as the fact that there may only be a single character left to be unveiled (or possibly none left if there is a double unveil on Tuesday). However, it will mean possibly good momentum for Dixie Kong fans going forward.

It is amusing that I spent most of Ultimate’s speculation cycle supporting a character that stopped seeming like a likely prospect very early into it. I would say after the August 2018 presentation is when Dixie’s chances started to seem dismal. Ironically, this is when I would start to become a regular poster in the Dixie thread, although my first post was a day or two before E3 2018.

Aside from being older and having less free time as well as Ultimate fulfilling most of my personal hopes with the series, another factor for my depreciated involvement with the Smash community is that almost all online spaces for discussion in general are very unpleasant in one way or form.

That is one of the reasons why I cherish this thread so much. It actually seems like a sort of oasis in the midst of an infinite desert. However, even here, there are a lot less active posters in here than there was even a year ago (myself included). If Dixie Kong fails to show up in the unveil for the next DK title, I can only imagine that it will be a further death knell for this thread.

However, despite myself being a constant conduit for pessimism, this thread still valued my thoughts, analyses, and insight. It has been my online home for speculation and discussion especially since Ultimate’s release. I am truly thankful for this appreciation.

I do cherish the time I have spent posting and speculating in this thread. I know its kind of a cliche, but even though we are most likely not going to win in the end (either Dixie being in Ultimate or being a major part of the next major DK title), the real victory was us having such a good time along the way. I really enjoyed my time sharing my thoughts and ideas with the people in this thread. Supporting this legendary heroine among you was a real privilege, and the community and atmosphere you cultivated was the primary reason I even continued posting after Ultimate's release.

Seeing so many old faces, and gaining an appreciation for a bunch of new ones, this thread is really something special. Its bittersweet that the journey is coming to an end, and even if things end amicably (Dixie miraculously making it onto Ultimate's roster, and having a major role in the new DK title), it will be a bit sad to part ways.

Dixie Kong might not be the "last Nintendo all-star" but for many of us here, she is the last piece of the puzzle so to speak. DKC2 and DKC3 were some of the best titles on the SNES. Dixie Kong had an unique charm among heroines that makes her loved among all sorts of people and demographics. The female Mario in my opinion.

Regardless of whether Dixie Kong makes it onto Ultimate's roster or not, she is still a special heroine and character.

I am very close to nearing the 20th anniversary of when I started being involved in Smash speculation and character support online. These past 20 years have been quite the journey. I have gone from childhood to adulthood. I have seen so many things come and go, and so many things change.

It was me discovering that Samus was going to be a part of Smash 64 that began my fascination with Smash Bros., and now over 20 years later, my remaining tether at this point is the hope that another one of Nintendo's legendary heroines makes Smash's roster.

Regardless of whether Dixie Kong makes it in or not, this is the last Smash title I will be doing speculation and character support for. I wish Dixie Kong fans all the best going forward assuming she does not make it in the end (which is the most likely outcome). For those whom were disappointed with Ultimate, I do hope the next title fulfills your long held dreams like Ultimate did with mine.

Three years ago, Ridley's inclusion and "everyone is here" could have very well have been my jumping off point in regards to Smash community involvement. Afterall, after Roy's return, I had only made two posts after June 2015 and prior to April 2018. I am very glad I chose to stay on as a speculator and character supporter for a multitude of reasons. The miraculous nature of Ultimate's full unveil made me very eager to see just what else Ultimate had to offer. Now, things are coming to an end.

My activity for this epoch has been gradually dissipating with each passing year. For 2018, I made over 500 posts. In 2019, I made over 100 posts. In 2020, I made only 30 posts. And now so far this year, I have only made four posts (this one included).

Like Sakurai said, everything must come to an end at some point. This has been an incredible journey. Thank you to all of you for being a part of this. This thread would not have been the same without any of you.

I really hope for the best, and that we Dixie Kong fans are given another miracle this coming Tuesday, whether its an extremely miraculous Smash Bros. debut and/or a major role in the rumored new Donkey Kong title. Even if Dixie Kong fails to show up in Smash or the new DK title, all of you should still remember the good all of you did here. You were fantastic supporters, and while Dixie Kong could maybe use a bigger fanbase, she certainly could not ask for a better one.

You did well and did all that you could. Remember that regardless of what happens. The curtain will soon be lifted revealing the last act. We should use this remaining time not just to dream and hope for our desired outcome, but also to prepare ourselves for the outcome we might not like or be disappointed in.

However, I would like to err on the side of dreaming and hoping. For over 20 years of my life, I had been dreaming about prospective Smash Bros. inclusions. Now this journey is nearing its end. Against my better judgment on what is likely to happen, I will continue to dream. I will allow myself some hope.

Thank you again for all of your contributions that you have made over the past three years, and I am appreciative of those that do enjoy taking the time of reading my works. I am not sure what the future holds in these next few days. All we can do is wait and see.

This might very well be the last remaining days that we have any residual hope for Dixie Kong being playable in Ultimate. Ultimate has been having characters unveiled for it for over three years, the longest period of any Smash title, and thus we have had a very long time to be dreaming and hoping for an active Smash title.

We are drawing near the end for this Smash cycle. It was your fantastic contributions to this thread and community as well as my little bit of hope for Dixie (and Ultimate being as amazing it turned out to be) as to why I ended up staying throughout this cycle (albeit with a much depreciated output compared to prior Smash speculation periods). You are a great community.

So before we know just who penultimate newcomer to Ultimate is (or possibly even who the final two are) let us give another a shout and say....

DIXIE KONG FOR SMASH BROS.

I am 50/50 on Dixie Kong showing up on the next DK game, but I expect she will return in the DK game afterwards. If DK can get a consistent developer behind it - which might be the case if Nintendo EPD is working on the next DK title - she could be a mainstay going forward.

I am hoping for a double reveal so that we can move on from Smash speculation already. It's time that we move on to greener pastures and it's time for Sakurai to move on from Smash like you said. I have no more reveals that I am hoping for that I think has a plausible shot this game but it would be nice to see the roster be completed at E3 just for completionist sake. This is a once-in-a-lifetime event and I would be damned if I missed out Tuesday if it happens there.

All things must come to an end, such is constant of the universe. We say our goodbyes and accept when it is time to move on. With the end of a story though comes a new beginning. A new journey to take and an adventure to seize. We made friends that we can trust for many years to come and that in itself is worth all that we went through.

I want to see what happens with the fan art and fan fiction communities myself. What stories and myths will Nintendo fans make, be it fanfiction, fan comics, or even animation? Where do Nintendo franchises like Donkey Kong go going forward? There is so much to explore that canon will never go into and I could see the Smash fan base continuing through that regardless of what happens to the speculation and competitive community.

Despite all that we have been through, the best is yet to come. I will take that belief to my grave because that makes life worth living.

 

[Justin Little]

I desperately need a new DK to numb the pain of being a Rayman fan. And for my hemorrhoids.

 

[Phoenix Douchebag]

A new DK game is probably the only non-Smash announcement i hope they do.

 

[Mushroomguy12]

I am 50/50 on Dixie Kong showing up on the next DK game, but I expect she will return in the DK game afterwards.

Yeah, I'm really not a fan of this idea that Dixie's only allowed to show up every other DK game because they constantly feel the need to pander to DKC1 nostalgia and reboot to the moon and back. (Similar to how Krystal has been evicted from her own series due to the need to constantly pander to Star Fox 64 nostalgia).

Just let her be a mainstay already and please stop for the love of god resetting to only DK and Diddy. DKC Returns should be a one and done thing, we've only had one actual game since then with an expanded Kong cast, now lets move forward and include more, not backward and include less.

 

[Dixie Kong]

I am soo excited for Tuesday, I hope a new toyline is eventually unveiled for the new DK game! I want a good articulated figure of Dixie finally! (And K. Rool!)

 

[Justin Little]

Would be cool to have a DK amiibo line: DK, Diddy, Dixie, Funky, Cranky, Rambi, Squawks, Enguarde, Squitter, K. Rool, etc. Split them up into series if they have to.

I regret not picking up DK when I had the chance.

 

[Fuzzy Pickles!]

Yeah, I'm really not a fan of this idea that Dixie's only allowed to show up every other DK game because they constantly feel the need to pander to DKC1 nostalgia and reboot to the moon and back. (Similar to how Krystal has been evicted from her own series due to the need to constantly pander to Star Fox 64 nostalgia).

Just let her be a mainstay already and please stop for the love of god resetting to only DK and Diddy. DKC Returns should be a one and done thing, we've only had one actual game since then with an expanded Kong cast, now lets move forward and include more, not backward and include less.

I agree with this, she should be part of the permanent cast of Donkey Kong already. She already starred in her own games with Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! and Donkey Kong Land 3. Why they did not add Dixie in Donkey Kong 64, I have no idea.

Her chance of returning with the first Nintendo EPD title depends on how ambitious the game is. If it's a full-blown 3D game, I expect she will show up since I have no doubt there will be more than two playable Kongs. Should the game be 2.5D like Donkey Kong Country Returns, then she might miss out. Still, you would think that if Nintendo develops the next DK game in-house that they would want to give some element of 3D platforming since that's all the jazz now. Nintendo will want to break ten million or more on DK if they make an ambitious title, especially given how well the Switch is selling.

We will likely find out if Dixie is in the DK game a couple of days for now. At least we can be confident that DK, Diddy, Cranky, King K. Rool, and Kremlings are returning.

 

[Mushroomguy12]

Her chance of returning with the first Nintendo EPD title depends on how ambitious the game is. If it's a full-blown 3D game, I expect she will show up since I have no doubt there will be more than two playable Kongs. Should the game be 2.5D like Donkey Kong Country Returns, then she might miss out.

It’s so weird though. I could understand more so why she wasn’t in DKC Returns since that was the first original main series 2D title since the SNES, and Dixie herself hadn’t appeared in a while after missing out on DK64, so it essentially served as a reboot of sorts, but it hasn’t been that long since Tropical Freeze. Why remove her now?

 

[Justin Little]

Tbh, if DK isn't revealed at E3, I just can't see them revealing it in July for the anniversary. Nintendo already has plans in motion for Zelda's anniversary. It would be weird to quickly go "Oh here's Donkey Kong's anniversary too." I personally don't see it getting celebrated, but if it does then it will most likely be delayed much later on in the year like they did with Zelda. I'm half asleep so I'm probably not thinking clearly, but this is my two sleepy cents.