PeterJude
Smash Ace
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2014
- Messages
- 639
Again, that doesn't fit what Sakurai, not Nintendo, have been saying and doing.
They don't want false speculation in terms of characters in the game, they have as much as said this, and backed it up with actions. When they show someone even in the slightest, they state their purpose in the game, clarify elsewhere if the need arises and we all move on, even characters like Takamaru and Waluigi, who were quite high on some people's lists (nowhere near Ridley level though) were given this treatment.
In this case though there is not only speculation generated from what they've shown us, they've kept doing it. Starting with Pyrosphere mentioning "an enemy from Samus' past", mentioning that Smash Bros "doesn't always follow normal scale" (or words to that effect) and of course the near legendary shadow. If they followed what they do in these situations, they'd have ended this already, or in fact, never started it if Ridley wasn't playable.
Think back to Palutena, the closest we get to a parallel here. Not mentioned by name, but she was referenced as "watching over the stage" with her statue shown. Guess what, she was later revealed as a character after such teasing. They have done this with characters that are playable in game, they have never to my knowledge done this (not this development cycle at least) for any other role in the game (boss, assist trophy, stage hazard, etc.). Can you offer an example where they have?
What's more is this seems to be the policy Nintendo follows as a whole. Remember when they showed the trailer for the new Zelda and there was speculation about whether "Link" was a boy or a girl? They cleared that up in the follow days when the discussions boards were booming with false speculation, because of course, it's not good for them to cause that level of disappointment. Remember when there was the "who said that was Link" comment? Guess what, they cleared that right up too, because again, such false speculation is not good for them when it all comes crashing down and those invested as suddenly disenchanted with the game.
Here of course, we don't just have a booming discussion, we have, on this board alone, 1.6 million + view, 1500+ page mega-thread, and has basically become it's own subculture. They would not be fanning the flames just to alienate such a huge chunk of the community, that doesn't fit with what they do, nor with good business sense.
Who knows, he might be a stage hazard, but everything they've done and said in the past suggests they wouldn't do anything like this if he wasn't playable.
