Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[CannonStreak]

I’m right there with you. I actually think he’d have a really fun moveset, I’m just pulling for Dixie over him.

The main thing I think we can all agree on is that Smash could use a lot more David Wise music than it currently has. His music was a big part of why I loved the DKC games so much.

You're pulling Dixie over him?

So am I! I honestly think not only should Dixie be the next DK character playable in Smash Bros., she HAS to be the next playable character in that series.

And if Cranky is revealed as playable in the same game, that is an added bonus!

 

[Guynamednelson]

“What, you need some newfangled meter gimmick to be excited for a character? What’s wrong with some good old buttons, lad?”

He should go beyond not having "some newfangled meter gimmick".

He should play like a Smash 64 character. You kids with your airdodges and side-Bs! Back in my day we barely even had special moves in our fighters!

 

[Perkilator]

Oh yeah…since Episode Aigis released earlier this week, I figured I’d share my Aigis moveset.

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

The main thing I think we can all agree on is that Smash could use a lot more David Wise music than it currently has. His music was a big part of why I loved the DKC games so much.

Say no more:

Spoiler: Get ready for...

Jungle Level Rock Style
Jungle Level Metal Style
Jungle Level Polka Style
Jungle Level Retro Style
Jungle Level...

 

[WeirdChillFever]

He should go beyond not having "some newfangled meter gimmick".

He should play like a Smash 64 character. You kids with your airdodges and side-Bs! Back in my day we barely even had special moves in our fighters!

“Steve Blocks? The only blocks we had was the shield button, and it only worked on the ground!”

 

[HyperSomari64]

Say no more:

Spoiler: Get ready for...

Jungle Level Rock Style
Jungle Level Metal Style
Jungle Level Polka Style
Jungle Level Retro Style
Jungle Level...

Jungle Level Epic/Sad Orchestral Movie Trailer Style

 

[ninjahmos]

“What, you need some newfangled meter gimmick to be excited for a character? What’s wrong with some good old buttons, lad?”

"Oh, you want a Final Smash? I'll give you a Final Smash!"

His Final Smash is literally just the original Donkey Kong arcade game, but with Cranky

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

OK I'm sold now. Gimme a Cranky Kong with a solid toolkit despite having less moves, and a taunt where he roasts everyone's character design with "old man yells at cloud" energy.

EDIT: OOH! No! Even better: Make his Final Smash like Bedman's Instant Kill where he angry rambles about the other fighter until the fall asleep.

"Aura? What you aura do is focus on your fundamentals. Aren't you supposed to be a fighter type? What kind of martial artist focuses their strategy on loosing anyway? Back in my da-HEY! ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?!?"

CANE SMACK

R.I.P. Lucario.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

I'm gonna be honest...

Neither Dixie Kong or Funky Kong really excite me. I like both of them well enough. I think both have lots of merits. If I had to choose I'd go with Funky because he's funny.

But eh.... I'd just like their inclusion. They wouldn't excite me a ton like a lot of other characters.

 

[ninjahmos]

Zero's Allies, Rules of Nature, It Has To Be This Way

I'll do you one better:

Victory Song

 

[Hypercat-Z]

I'm gonna be honest...

Neither Dixie Kong or Funky Kong really excite me. I like both of them well enough. I think both have lots of merits. If I had to choose I'd go with Funky because he's funny.

But eh.... I'd just like their inclusion. They wouldn't excite me a ton like a lot of other characters.

What if Nintendo will give us the middle finger again and put Chunky Kong?

 

[Gengar84]

I'm gonna be honest...

Neither Dixie Kong or Funky Kong really excite me. I like both of them well enough. I think both have lots of merits. If I had to choose I'd go with Funky because he's funny.

But eh.... I'd just like their inclusion. They wouldn't excite me a ton like a lot of other characters.

While Dixie is among my most wanted first party characters, I can respect that. Especially for those that haven’t played the series, I can see why people might not care about them as much. I’d personally be really hyped for an animal buddy or tag moveset but a solo Dixie isn’t necessarily the most exciting moveset wise. There are several third party characters that are above her on my own most wanted list partially due to their moveset potential.

 

[SharkLord]

The whole concept of Echo Fighters is pretty nebulous, and personally I think they should be allowed to have at few more distinct moves compared to, like, Daisy or Richter being glorified alts. That said, I think it'd pretty concrete that Echoes need to share the same basic skeleton and body type, even if the animations are different. I'm no DK expert, but Dixie's hair looks a fair bit bigger and more involved than Diddy's tail. I dunno, I feel like that would be enough extra rigging that she'd have to be a semiclone at best.

With Funky Kong, he seems like he's decently Donkey Kong-shaped, but maybe the surfboard might give enough extra rigging to throw things off. That said it's not actually part of his body, so I'd assume it's fine. That said, while Diddy and Dixie are most certainly different characters in the games, I don't actually know how Funky Kong plays. From what I remember, he mostly plays like DK in Tropical Freeze, but he also incorporates aspects of the other playable characters to make him the designated Easy Mode character. But I'll have to double-check that, because I've only read a bit about the series and I haven't played any games or watched any videos

 

[Gorgonzales]

Since we're talking about DK stuff, I'll just say if they're gonna add a new character from that series they HAVE to get rid of the animalistic interpretations of these characters. K. Rool felt like he was pushing very hard against that restriction, since he's the character with the most personality out of the DK cast (and Bowser) but still isn't allowed to have a real voice.

We're approaching the point where the pool of DK candidates they could add would feel even more off if they lacked their true voices, or voice acting that gets the idea of their true personalities across. It's hard to picture Cranky Kong with realistic gorilla grunts, assuming they can even find the right kinds of voice clips to convey what an aged primate would sound like to begin with. Dixie would sound very off without her high pitched voice, too.

Undoubtedly though, Funky would be absolutely the worst one affected by this "creative" limitation, as his energetic and distinctive voice is a major part of his character and what many people think of when he's brought up. To replace that with animal noises would be a great disservice to his character, and if they doubled down and gave him a largely animalistic moveset like for DK or (a lot of) Diddy, you'd be missing the point so hard that I'd actually prefer Funky to not even be in the game at that point.

Whoever is enforcing the animal voice garbage at Sora needs to get over the fact that DK's universe is a cartoon world that happens to star (very anthropomorphized) animal characters. It's not a series about realistic-behaving animals that sometimes do cartoon stuff.

 

[Idon]

I'm sorry but in a Post-Ultimate trailer era world, a character whose only notoriety is a 6 year old meme for a Switch port of a Wii U game with some tagline like "Funky gets his mode!" is not gonna excite me.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

Since we're talking about DK stuff, I'll just say if they're gonna add a new character from that series they HAVE to get rid of the animalistic interpretations of these characters. K. Rool felt like he was pushing very hard against that restriction, since he's the character with the most personality out of the DK cast (and Bowser) but still isn't allowed to have a real voice.

We're approaching the point where the pool of DK candidates they could add would feel even more off if they lacked their true voices, or voice acting that gets the idea of their true personalities across. It's hard to picture Cranky Kong with realistic gorilla grunts, assuming they can even find the right kinds of voice clips to convey what an aged primate would sound like to begin with. Dixie would sound very off without her high pitched voice, too.

Undoubtedly though, Funky would be absolutely the worst one affected by this "creative" limitation, as his energetic and distinctive voice is a major part of his character and what many people think of when he's brought up. To replace that with animal noises would be a great disservice to his character, and if they doubled down and gave him a largely animalistic moveset like for DK or (a lot of) Diddy, you'd be missing the point so hard that I'd actually prefer Funky to not even be in the game at that point.

Whoever is enforcing the animal voice garbage at Sora needs to get over the fact that DK's universe is a cartoon world that happens to star (very anthropomorphized) animal characters. It's not a series about realistic-behaving animals that sometimes do cartoon stuff.

I agree with this, though they could also just pull a Bowser Jr. and make them mismatch (even though I hate that Bowser and Bowser Jr. don't both have their voices too lol).

 

[fogbadge]

I'm sorry but in a Post-Ultimate trailer era world, a character whose only notoriety is a 6 year old meme for a Switch port of a Wii U game with some tagline like "Funky gets his mode!" is not gonna excite me.

doesn’t mean it won’t excite other people

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

I'm sorry but in a Post-Ultimate trailer era world, a character whose only notoriety is a 6 year old meme for a Switch port of a Wii U game with some tagline like "Funky gets his mode!" is not gonna excite me.

That's a tad reductive. The meme was a little funny, but most of his appeal comes from his appearances in Mario Kart Wii; ever since then he's been well liked, and is likely why he's playable in the port in the first place.

It's totally fine not to like him though. It's just that his appeal isn't entirely "lulz Playstation All Stars & Knuckles: Battle Royale: The Movie featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry Series and a New Funky Mode!"

 

[ninjahmos]

I really hope that the next game replaces the animalistic grunts and noises for DK and Bowser with their real voices. Because at this point, the "realistic" animal noises don't work anymore and they don't seem to fit their personalities at all.

When I see DK, I wanna hear Takashi Nagasako. When I see Bowser, I wanna hear Kenny James.

 

[Louie G.]

I don't mind the creative vision behind the DK voices in Smash, mostly because they make a point to keep them consistent, but that's really going to start to show further cracks if they add someone like Funky Kong or Cranky Kong who would feel outright bizarre making those noises. Or alternatively they have their real voices juxtaposed with gorilla grunt DK, which would begin to feel just as strange.

On paper I think the decision to distinguish the DKC cast like that up to this point is charming in a way. But yeah, any further evolution of the series in Smash is going to need to adapt one way or the other or risk that thematic consistency being unraveled by a cartoony voiced Kong breaking the believability of DK. Honestly, weird comparison, but I feel a bit similar about adding a new Sonic character. They need to adjust Sonic properly or else the addition of someone like Tails will be kneecapped by his lack of expression / moveset variety or make him stand out that much worse.

 

[Diddy Kong]

Thing with the whole Echo thing and Dixie and Funky simply comes down to the following to me.

Dixie has her hair as a definite character trait, it's her unique ability. Can't do Dixie without it. Grabs, her Helicopter Spin, dash attack, throws. In DKC2 the differences between Diddy and Dixie are as obvious as DK and Diddy in the game prior. Just not their weight. Big deal? She's slower and doesn't jump as high, a more careful character. She'd translate different in Smash because of all this.

Funky Kong in Tropical Freeze is a literal Interchangeable lead character from DK. His abilities are based mostly around DK because of this. But juiced up. He's meant to be all in one. And does walk and run on four like DK does. He doesn't have other mainline playable roles to take from either. Surfboard can indeed cover a lot and is a great idea, and the more unique the better but... Just make it his recovery and let him still spin around like DK's Spinning Kong and it would fit. Now picture Dixie sharing the Up B with Diddy. That's just improper.

Echoes in Ultimate had different run and jump animations with Dark Samus, sometimes different moves altogether with Chrom, unique mechanics or lack of mechanic like the swords of both Lucina and Chrom, and isn't Ken basically more of a semi clone or Melee type of clone than a true Echo Fighter? Isn't he more a Echo Fighter for the status of him being the original one?

I mean... take all this in consideration and the fact Isabelle exists, and Funky can fit into this type of mold a little better than Dixie, even if only for the fact that Funky can fit within the same stats like weight and jumps as DK better than Dixie can do the same with Diddy.

 

[Idon]

That's a tad reductive. The meme was a little funny, but most of his appeal comes from his appearances in Mario Kart Wii; ever since then he's been well liked, and is likely why he's playable in the port in the first place.

It's totally fine not to like him though. It's just that his appeal isn't entirely "lulz Playstation All Stars & Knuckles: Battle Royale: The Movie featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry Series and a New Funky Mode!"

That is the absolute only context I have ever seen him discussed in, here or otherwise. Dixie Kong has shooters willing to talk at length about her hair potential and vital history with the DK series, but Funky Kong almost entirely only exists as this one joke.

I don't doubt there are Wii era MK fans of Funky Kong as a racer, but those are far far outnumbered by the memelords and affection for him as a kart racer speedrunner doesn't translate to hype for him as a smash character.

 

[AreJay25]

I mean, in regards to the DK characters' voices, at the very least you can kinda justify DK and Diddy having realistic monkey noises because, well... that's more or less what they sounded like in the original DKC trilogy.

But even that's kinda funny considering K. Rool DIDN'T sound like a real ass crocodile in those same exact games, and he STILL couldn't get a more cartoonish voice in Ultimate lol.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

That is the absolute only context I have ever seen him discussed in, here or otherwise. Dixie Kong has shooters willing to talk at length about her hair potential and vital history with the DK series, but Funky Kong almost entirely only exists as this one joke.

I don't doubt there are Wii era MK fans of Funky Kong as a racer, but those are far far outnumbered by the memelords and affection for him as a kart racer speedrunner doesn't translate to hype for him as a smash character.

I mean Funky was in every classic DKC game and DK64, minor playable roles in King of Swing, Jungle Climber, and Barrel Blast, Mario Sluggers, Mario Kart Wii, Tropical Freeze, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, so it's not like he's lacking appearances, and considering his surfboard, mechanic skills, gun selling, and the like, it's not like he has no potential outside of "lol XD New Funky Mode so funni" nor does he almost entirely only exist as a single meme lol

I don't know that I'd necessarily be hyped for him, but I'd still be like "Oh ****, Funky? Neat"

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

With some DK fans there's always going to be a bit of annoyance at the hypothetical of Funky getting a full blown original moveset with Dixie being an echo given the former was a supporting character that just managed one playable role in a mainline game as the easy mode of a port vs a main character that was in the co-protagonist in two mainline titles and a quasi-one in Tropical Freeze.

It's doesn't necessarily have to do with either having better moveset potential (you could come up with original moves for both with enough creativity) as much as it does potential frustration with the idea of him given a "priority" of sorts over her; doubly so for the cynical fans not thrilled about his popularity believed to be coming more from a Mario Kart role than the DK games proper. Not to mention, this is all happening in the context of Dixie not even getting a Mario Kart role outside Tour (let alone any Mario spin-off) which likely doesn't help.

I'd love both to be in regardless, though I would admit her being an Echo would strike me as more of a waste than the same for him. That's probably the Dixie fanboy mind at work though.

 

[Noipoi]

Current topic current topic current topic

I agree with the consensus. I can appreciate what they were going for with DK and Diddy having realistic primate sounds, but if they add Dixie and/or Funky that **** would not fly. They'd need their game voices, and at that point you gotta go back and change DK, Diddy, and K Rool's voices to match.

So I guess it depends on whether Dixie/Funky shows up next time. Or maybe they just get monkey noises too, I dunno.

Bowser should've always had his game voice, by the way.

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

Monkey's paw moment in the next Smash as Bowser does get his voice back...

...unfortunately it's the speaking one from Mario Sunshine

 

[Noipoi]

Monkey's paw moment in the next Smash as Bowser does get his voice back...

...unfortunately it's the speaking one from Mario Sunshine

You know what? I'd take it.

It'd be more in character. Bowser has always been kinda bumbling. Not to this degree, but still.

It'd fit more than him just...shrieking

 

[SPEN18]

Sorry I haven't been able to read everything that's been said, but my stance on this:

I don't think either Dixie or Funky can realistically be an Echo or Echo-level clone, Dixie because of her hair and Funky because of the stature and all the surfer / airplane shopkeeper stuff, all of which feel essential enough to the character that leaving them out entirely or relegating them to just one or two moves would make for a pretty unsatisfying result, not to mention any changes to the models and/or animations that would have to be made to accommodate the aforementioned hair and stature.

The other aspect that has been potentially overlooked in this is how many resources can we really afford to direct towards DK? If Dixie and Funky would have to be more semicloneish at the least, you consider that Cranky is another candidate at least on a level comparable to Funky's, and you add in that we already have KRool as a frankly more niche addition from the series, it doesn't feel like there is room for everybody.

If we can only get one, in my view it should be Dixie. She's the one with the most history of being an actual playable, primary or secondary character, and I think also that her future within the series is secure because I see them valuing having at least one female-presenting character in the main/playable cast going forward. On top of that she also polls the best both in the ballot era and recently. Moveset-wise she has a distinct quality that can anchor a coherent and original kit, and while she has more than enough to be fully unique, how much she borrows from Diddy might potentially be scalable to some degree with how much time they have to dedicate to her and the DK cast at large. She just makes a lot of sense on a lot of levels.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

Bowser should've always had his game voice, by the way.

I mean I can understand him not having it in Melee, since he basically made those animalistic sort of noises in the N64 era, minus the slowed down Boo laugh for his messages in Mario 64.

Brawl and later should've definitely had Kenny James though, since he was voicing Bowser as early as Strikers in 2005.

 

[superprincess]

Funky Kong can be an echo fighter. His stance literally does not matter, as you can see below, because his height difference with Donkey Kong isn't that big, despite him standing upright:

The comparison isn't perfect, as I don't own the game and got the screenshots from YouTube—but you can still see that the height difference is still very slight.

As for other animations, Funky Kong jumps, runs, rolls, climbs, swims, etc. just like DK does. Meaning he can fight just like DK does, with the different facial expressions and voice clips carrying the spirit of Funky Kong.

The "he would use the surfboard!" argument is very reminiscent of the "B-but Daisy can't float, she has a double jump!" argument that Daisy fans used to justify her being unique. The truth is, characters can miss out on unique abilities if it means that they can be squeezed in as echoes. We've seen that time and time again.

Now, I don't think Dixie's chances of getting in are particularly good, but if she were to get in, she'd have to be at least somewhat distinct. And that includes changes that would veer her far off from echo territory. Sorry, that's just the truth. She technically has a fifth limb, her not using it while having it on her character model would be bad game design.

What's worse game design is Dixie's voice but I digress lol

PS. This is coming from someone who enjoys Funky and doesn't like Dixie at all, so... no bias here xoxo

 

[Kirby Dragons]

Dixie is a character I don't have any connection to, but I think she'd be a good choice and I can acknowledge her popularity. Plus I've always liked hair as a fighting style.

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

Bowser should've always had his game voice, by the way.

Believe it or not he was actually still roaring by the time that Super Smash Bros. Melee came out. He was not voiced until Super Mario Sunshine a year later.

Now, Sakurai could have known that he was getting a voice due to being an insider, and he has said that he based Bowser on his interpretation of the character back in the NES days, the latter of which being what I think is the main cause of his portrayal being kinda weird in Smash, but still, the more you know....

 

[Noipoi]

Believe it or not he was actually still roaring by the time that Super Smash Bros. Melee came out. He was not voiced until Super Mario Sunshine a year later.

Now, Sakurai could have known that he was getting a voice due to being an insider, and he has said that he based Bowser on his interpretation of the character back in the NES days, the latter of which being what I think is the main cause of his portrayal being kinda weird in Smash, but still, the more you know....

Fair enough.

Bowser should've had his normal voice by Brawl. By Smash 4 at the latest. And yet here we are...

 

[fogbadge]

has anyone considered Lanky recently?

 

[Noipoi]

has anyone considered Lanky recently?

I'm always thinking about Lanky

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

has anyone considered Lanky recently?

Some leakers have suggested that Sakurai was willing to feature a Kong with no style or grace, but that on top having a funny face was simply too much for him to consider Lanky for Smash.

But these are just rumors.

 

[pitchfulprocessing]

I'm glad people are finally seeing the light on Cranky Kong, I've always thought he could be a super fun addition. Why would you not want Scrooge McDuck Grandpa Simpson in the game?

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

Believe it or not he was actually still roaring by the time that Super Smash Bros. Melee came out. He was not voiced until Super Mario Sunshine a year later.

Now, Sakurai could have known that he was getting a voice due to being an insider, and he has said that he based Bowser on his interpretation of the character back in the NES days, the latter of which being what I think is the main cause of his portrayal being kinda weird in Smash, but still, the more you know....

I just wish Sakurai would use the Kenny James voice because at this point Kenny's been Bowser consistently for 15 years and 20 years overall so between all the spinoffs and RPGs and stuff Bowser almost certainly has enough clips that you could just reuse those lol

The only roar I'll accept is the Giga Bowser one because Giga Bowser is supposed to be more of a feral beast design anyway.

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

She technically has a fifth limb, her not using it while having it on her character model would be bad game design.

Ignoring the rest because I don't feel like arguing the same bull**** over and over, so I'll just address this specifically.

The whole "DIXIE HAS A FIFTH LIMB" thing is laughable.
Do you know who else has a fifth limb?
Diddy.

x.com

twitter.com

His tail is a fifth limb. The only thing "special" about Dixie is that her limb is on the back of her head instead of her ass.

And lookie here, there's an example of someone with a fifth limb on their model but barely using it (and even LESS in Ultimate). Guess we got some bad game design right here!



Honestly, the more the subject of Dixie comes up and how people are quick to overhype how special she is and downplay anyone else, the more I grow to legit despise her.