I've written my letter to Nintendo of America advocating for K. Rool, and will be sending it off tomorrow.
Here's the text:
Dear Nintendo of America,
I have been an avid fan of the Donkey Kong Country series since I was 6, and of the Smash Bros. series since I was ten. Over a decade later, I'm still adoring the series, but for years now, I've had one question ringing in my mind: where is DK's main villain, K. Rool? As a fellow artist, I completely understand the need to innovate from past games, as well as the desire to stand out from their previous developers. I'm writing to request that my all-time favorite game character be made a part of these innovations and developments, rather than a casualty of them.
In particular, Retro's new DKC games and Namco Bandai's new Smash games offer brilliant opportunities to showcase K. Rool's creative potential in the roles of final boss and playable fighter, respectively. His insanity, his deviousness, his bumbling nature and his dedication to exterminating Kongs sets K. Rool apart as a unique, compelling Nintendo villain, one whose presence could easily drive fans wild with hype in a climactic new DKC. Likewise, his personality and gadgets, including a blunderbuss capable of firing speed-altering and control-reversing clouds, would lend to one of the most stand-out Smash movesets to date, one that would render him a particularly profitable DLC fighter. Of note, the latter could be developed to promote the former, before or after its announcement, or even to promote the upcoming releases of the DKC and Donkey Kong Land trilogies on the Wii U VC.
My first exposure to gaming was playing K. Rool's original boss fight, the Christmas of 1999, and I've grown to love the character more and more with each passing year, despite (and because of, partly) his recent neglect. As of late, I've spoken with hundreds of fans across the Internet who love the character like I do. Sadly, the sense I've gotten is that there is an influential minority at Nintendo of Japan who would prefer that these great characters, K. Rool and his Kremling Krew, gather dust on a shelf, rather than to return them to the glory of their former roles. On behalf of me and every other K. Rool fan out there, please prove me wrong in that assessment of why he's been missing in action. Please, do what you do best, take this great character and use your many creative minds to make him even greater. Please, bring back this missing piece of my childhood, the one that turned me into an unapologetic lifelong Nintendo fan. Be it through a playable Smash DLC or DKC final boss appearance, I want to relive the joy and awe I experienced when a charismatic crocodile crash-landed on the Gangplank Galleon to do battle with my Kongs, at least one more time.
Sincerely, [name]
P.S. If you haven't already done so, check out what other K. Rool fans are saying at kremlingkampaign.wordpress.com and at @BringBackKRool on Twitter.