Hey
PushDustIn
I just want to say if the leak is right and Shovel Knight gets in.
You can't use the casual market as an argument anymore, because it's harder to go less mainstream than indy.
You know what the funny thing is?
When people unironically say that K. Rool isn't known
enough to be DLC when ROY of all characters is one( implying that because of his
one appearance in a well-selling game he's much better known than K. Rool to an incomparable degree), whilst simultaneously lumping Isaac in him with the implication they are both about as well known as each other (they're obviously not)
Which is pretty stupid, considering that whilst Roy's
only major appearance in something popular was in one game that sold around 7 million copies, K. Rool has the distinction of not only being in DK64, a game that sold around 5 milion copies (and unlike in DKC1, where he only physically appeared at the end as the final boss, K. Rool was in the cover of said game, explicitly shown in the manual for said game and in several cutscenes including the opening one, so the excuse that someone could feasibly buy and play the game without ever seeing K. Rool is strawgrasping) but aslo was a major character in the Donkey Kong Country TV series, which was popular in Japan to the point it got merchandise, merchandise that included K. Rool. Combine that with the amount of exposure he got from multiple well-selling DK games (which, whilst not proportionate to the sales of them, does mean
something when combined) and it's hard to argue that Roy has a meaningful advantage (if any even exists) of K. Rool in terms of how known they are among Nintendo gamers.
And before anyone argue that K. Rool being unkown towards kids is a major disadvantage,
the average age of Nintendo gamers is 31 years old. In other words, the grand majority of people who vote on the ballot and the ones most likely to buy DLC are adults, shown by the fact that Roy, a character who was only recognizable among older Nintendo fans rather than younger ones as Melee was released
14 years ago, ended up being DLC.
In other words, K. Rool certainly may not make it in, but I can assure you it will more likely be because of the reasons
@TheAnvil stated in his article and certainly not because he is not that iconic because Roy was never a major Nintendo icon, no matter how much people act like he was ever
sooo much more well-known than K. Rool. And I know for a fact that
if K. Rool makes it in as DLC, the general reactions outisde of hardcore speculators will not be "Who is he?" but "Yay, K. Rool!", "Yay, another villain and a DK rep!" and "Wow, he looks so unique and awesome!". Trust me, I've been around the Smash fanbase long enough to know that if someone like Roy, a character who was a clone (and to most casuals is still a clone) of a character that already had a clone in the game and who was much more polarizing a character than K. Rool ever was, could get tons of hype when his trailer was released, then K. Rool, who is:
- A villain in a game with few villains
- A character from an "underepped" majroly successful franchise
- A character who is guaranteed to have a unique moveset and gameplay
- Highly requested character among the Smash fanbase world-wide
Is going to generally get positive reactions instead of people scratching their heads.
(PS. Whilst he only really fully appeared in DKC 1 and 3 during the end, that isn't actually the case in DKC2 as he
also appeared in the Eurpoean and US cover of said game. Tecnically, speaking whilst you could argue that people in the west may not have known that was K. Rool in the cover, he appeared in the manual as a silouette with a description that clearlys showed that the K. Rool in the first game and the K. Rool in thesecond game are one and the same, it's easy for anyone to put two and two together and realise that crocodile dressed like a pirate in the cover and the guy in the silouette, which matches well, are one and the same. So there's also that to consider. Nothing that major in comparuison to DK64, but still something to consider)