Sales is a much more objective way of measuring interest and popularity than internet screaming contests.
Internet screaming contests?
http://www.eventhubs.com/news/2013/...-time-bring-back-entire-smash-roster-wii-3ds/
"Well first of all, we talk with the Pokemon company. What’s the hot Pokemon? What Pokemon are in the movies right now? And really do a lot of research on that front.
For example, X and Y are coming out – of course, we haven’t done any market research because they’re not out yet, but we look at the animated series or movies and anything like that and again, find out which ones are going to be central to any of conversations in Pokemon going forward.
But it’s not just that – going back to just what we talked about, what’s unique about them? Where do they fit in with the rest of everything else? What do they have? It’s a combination of those things."
There's a mountain of evidence to suggest that Sakurai collaborates with teams before picking characters. IE, an article where he literally describes the conversations and processes he goes through with one team. He probably had a conversation with Retro identical to the conversation he had with the Pokemon team.
To tie this back to my main point - yeah, Dixie being in Tropical Freeze means something. I can promise you there's almost no way that Sakurai didn't consult a single person about what was happening with the DK series. Again, it doesn't mean he's definitely picking Dixie, since he factors in a lot of other things too. I just think it's unfair to dismiss anyone who mentions that.
See, I'm not the hugest Bowser Jr. fan in the world, but I think a tiny Bowser would be pretty awesome. It'd be like the reverse of Falcon/Ganondorf where they took a speedy character and completely flipped him on his head. Waluigi is also super rad, but I can't even begin to fathom who he'd take after.
Haha, I was going to let this one go, but since you requested it:
Dixie is simply awful and nothing more of a sidekicks sidekick and should remain as such. She never should have gotten to star in her own game, DK shouldn't have been kidnapped, Kiddy shouldn't even exist, and Dixie should have worked as DK's temporary sidekick to save Diddy. The trilogy would have been well balanced, with each character being featured in 2 games. It's simply absurd that Dixie would ever be promoted to player 1 from a game design prospective as well. In DKC2 she was slower than Diddy but had more control. Her hair twirl was clearly meant to act as a crutch for less experienced player which is why she was player 2. Whoever is using the secondary controller is far more likely to be a guest who doesn't know the game as well as the host. In DKC3, on the other hand, player 1 gets all the hand holding and player 2 gets to skip on water, a fairly complex technique which is used all of one time in the entire game. She didn't make the cut for DK64, she follows the insultingly lazy design philosophy of gender bending an existing male character, she isn't an interesting character, and she doesn't deserve to be remembered as anything but the 2nd half of Diddy Kong. Donkey Kong Country 2 is my favorite game of all time but I can't stand Dixie. I can't even fathom why anyone would like her. Hell, I'd rather a 2nd Sonic rep make it in to Smash Bros (Project M or otherwise) than Dixie as a standalone character.
That's what I like about you, haha. Most people who hate Dixie also don't play DK games at all, and just think she's dumb. But if DKC2 is one of your favorite games, that's legit - and your PoV is really interesting.
I think it also explains why I love Dixie so much. I played DKC2 with my little brother. He was really, really young at the time - maybe 4 or 5? And we played that games off and on for years, haha, it was always part of our Saturday morning routine. I was always Diddy and he was always Dixie, so in a way I kind of began to see Dixie as an extension of him, the same way I see him in Yoshi and all that stuff. I'd never been aware of the fact that Dixie is actually easier for other people to play, but that makes a ton of sense in hindsight, and it also probably helped the game remain enjoyable even as it got harder, since my little bro had that extra wiggle room. (Although I won't lie, by the point we got to the bramble parts the level pretty much ended whenever it was his turn, haha. Poor kid, that stuff got way too hard for him.)
But yeah, of all the anti-Dixie things I've read, this one actually seems really fair. I still love her, but I totally get why you don't.
