I have never seriously considered K. Rool to be a notable contender. I originally thought Dixie Kong had the best chance as the DKC newcomer, even though I felt her chances were very small at best because of Sakurai
originally not planning clones in the beginning for Smash 4’s roster. I did play through the Rare SNES Trilogy for the first time to get an appreciation of the character and his insane personality, but I have remained in a skeptical mindset, up until the Smash Ultimate reveal. This was when my approach to Smash speculation had changed. King K. Rool has been wandering in my mind since then.
Previously, I tried digger deeper beyond the basic character criteria, looking into Sakurai interviews and other resources related to DKC that could possibly benefit K. Rool’s inclusion. I tried researching the reasons Diddy Kong was included in Brawl, and found nothing. I tried researching about K. Rool and Dixie’s creator, Steve Mayles, to see if he was involved in helping out with Brawl’s planning phase, with Dixie being originally a part of Diddy via tag-team in Brawl. I found nothing but Steve encouraging and wanting his characters to be in Smash, likely having little involvement in Ultimate due to his role in Playtonic Games, working on Yooka Laylee at the time. I tried to find other Nintendo staff members that would have helped realize Diddy’s Brawl moveset by looking into the new DK IP team mentioned in a Gamexplain Rabbids DLC interview, Paon (Developers responsible for the DKC games after Rare), and Miyamoto (Who had the closest involvement during the production of the Rare DKC trilogy). I still have found nothing concrete, researching a second time for several hours.
The only things I found that could possibly help K. Rool is the mysterious Mii costume that was added via Smash 4 DLC and that this Smash will likely focus on including popular ballot newcomers. The reasons the costume was included is unknown and was never clarified by Sakurai, unlike
Geno. But, the level of detail given to the K. Rool costume to match Rare’s redesign is a bit eyebrow raising. The only thing I can confidently say really helps K. Rool is the immense ballot demand. Whether or not this demand is enough to overshadow the big negative of not playing a major role in the new mainline Donkey Kong Country titles has yet to be seen.
But, given that Sakurai seriously considered Geno for Brawl and Smash 4, despite being from a very old title, he might see K. Rool’s high ballot demand to be enough to think critically about his inclusion. The moveset potential and unique characteristics K. Rool could also help Sakurai view him as a stand-out character, being a heavyweight with an crazy cruel personality that would utilize many projectile weapons like the boomerang crown and blunderbuss for a distinct ranged play-style. With K. Rool being a character that would also attract a large Western audience like Ridley, I believe these are the positives I feel could suffice Sakurai enough to include the character.
In my personal perspective, King K. Rool, while having a good shot because of high ballot demand, is a bit of a shot in the dark. I say this only because I know so little of how Sakurai approached Donkey Kong Country newcomers back in Brawl, with little resources about DKC to be able to have very firm confidence on his inclusion. I can only speculate that Diddy Kong was included in Brawl due to his high demand, but the reasons were not specified by Sakurai, unlike
Pit and Meta Knight. Regardless of him being somewhat risky choice, I am willing to predict that King K. Rool will finally be playable in this new Smash. I hope if K. Rool is included, Sakurai will characterize his insanity to the full extent in every part of his moveset.
