Kyo Kusanagi
Since just about everyone so far has been abstaining on him it's clear he's not that well-known here which is completely understandable. I'll use this post to introduce KoF/Kyo briefly while also talking about my chance/want ratings:
So first off, The King of Fighters is one of SNK's most notable fighting game series. It utilizes 3v3 fighting where you switch to the next character if your character is KO'd (basically just squad strike in Smash Ultimate). With the exception of a few games (namely 2001 and XII), the KoF titles are incredibly fun to play through.
If you have a Switch you should check out KoF 98 (regarded as one of the most balanced FGs of all time) and if you have Steam check out 98 UM, 2002 UM, and XIII (they can run on basically any computer). All of those games are amazing and KoF XIII has some of the best sprite animation I have ever seen in a videogame period. XIV is also good though it isn't as populated online.
Kyo is the main protagonist of SNK's long-running series. As a descendant of the Kusanagi clan, he can incorporate flame-based moves into his already impressive melee attacks. He enters every KoF tournament in the hopes of claiming the self-proclaimed title every. Of course each tournament has some shady stuff going on behind the scenes, and starting with KoF 95 Kyo has frequently clashed with his
cooler looking rival Iori.
Oh yeah and there are also a crap ton of Kyo clones in the series, both figuratively (Shingo) and literally due to when he got abducted by NESTS who cloned him in KoF 99. Maybe we can expect them as echos when Kyo becomes playable in the far off future.
Dating back to his debut in the King of Fighters 94, Kyo is easily one of the most popular SNK characters among Terry, Mai, and Geese. He has made many appearances in other games and was brought back into the spotlight with the release of KoF XIV. But how will that popularity help his chances in Smash?
Chance: 1%
Unfortunately, the chances of seeing everyone’s favorite high-school delinquent who can wield fire powers and also enters a 3v3 tournament every year are incredibly low. Some things he does have going for him for whatever they’re worth:
- The King of Fighters games are insanely popular in China and Latin American countries. If you want to get an idea of how big it is in China, the 2014 Dayou Cup Grand Finals of KoF 97 racked over 500,000 views which was a record for fighting game views (source). To compare, Evo's biggest viewership was with FighterZ this August which had roughly 250,000 views. Also KoF 97 recently got a re-release for modern systems since it was so big in China.
- SNK has a fairly strong relationship with Nintendo as many of their games (including many of the KoF games) are available on the Wii/U VC and the Switch. They also released SNK Heroines on the Switch last month and are releasing the Switch exclusive 40th anniversary collection later this year.
- SNK’s recent revival to their glory days with the release of KoF XIV and the new Samurai Shodown game releasing next year has given the company a renewed interest in the west (though it is admittedly slow at the moment).
- SNK has done a ton of crossovers featuring their popular characters in the past, most notably with the Capcom vs SNK games. They’ve also done crossovers featuring individual characters such as Geese in Tekken 7, Mai in Dead or Alive 5, Terry in EX Fighting Layer, and Iori in Arcana Blood. Kyo is one of SNK’s most popular characters so it is odd that he hasn’t made a specific guest appearance yet (maybe they're holding him off for something but that's just a hunch).
- They’ve let Kyo and other SNK characters appear in a ton of popular mobile games (including Brave Frontier) so I think they would be more than happy to allow Kyo into Smash for easy promotion.
- Sakurai has played King of Fighters in the past and apparently was so good at KoF 95 that he would win about 50 matches in a row. He even recalled an incident where he destroyed a non-gamer couple in KoF 95 and felt guilty about it afterwards (source).
- The King of Fighters was the first fighting game to utilize 3v3 fights, albeit switching characters once you are KO’d. Ultimate is introducing squad strike mode which is exactly how KoF plays (yeah I'm really grasping at straws at this point).
Sadly he is not too requested, is third-party, and would have to compete with Terry Bogard in regards to an SNK slot.
Oh, and he'd also have to compete with a little game series known as Tekken who is more likely to have another FG rep due to Bamco's involvement in Smash and Heihachi being considered for SSB4.
Want: 100%
What else would you expect from the guy who owns the Kyo support thread? Kyo is one of my all time favorite fighting game characters due to his rekka moveset and cocky personality. He'd translate into Smash very easily and would be a blast to use. Smash is lacking fighters with rekka-based movesets (the closest thing we have are the variants of Marth's side-B) and I think Kyo could easily bring a new and fun moveset to the table. Below is the concept I made for his rekka side-B to get an idea of how'd it go:
Another reason I would love Kyo in Smash is that means there is an excuse for SNK to add their amazing music into Smash.
Seriously just listen to this stuff. Also if they included CvS2 music then we can get
two of the most jammin' fighting game
tracks of all time.
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I will talk about Balloon Fighter in a separate post since my thoughts on Kyo took up most of it. For now I will say that Villager's up-B doesn't automatically deconfirm him.
Nominations: Kat & Ana x5
