Shovel Knight, I'm happy for you, and I'mma let you finish, but Kim Kardashian is one of the best 3rd parties of all time. Of
all time.
Let's be real, the only
worthy 3rd party newcomer is and always has been Kim Kardashian.
Queen of social media, fashion, free-to-play-with-ingame-purchase games, reality TV, being married to Kanye West. She represents the casual and mobile markets. She has no history with Nintendo... yet. Wouldn't Smash be an incredible debut for her? She can even film her own trailer and Kanye can write a song about Smash. The promotion would be incredible. Her fans are used to in-game purchases, so she'd be the #1 DLC for sure. Shovel who? Simon what?
...Okay, now that I'm done, I'm really hoping this SK rumor is false. I don't want to make SK fans feel bad because I
know how much it sucks when internet strangers just dismiss your fave. I just don't feel he's on the same level of iconicity as the other 3rd parties. Same goes for Shantae. If he (or she) make huge strides in the next couple of years, I'm open to them in the next Smash. But as of now... they just ain't there yet. They need to do some training under waterfalls or whatever. Look at Ike, he clearly stepped up his game, and he was already in the game
. 3rd parties are held to a special standard. But they might meet it one day and if they do, then I say welcome.