Slumber

It's funny to me how much Square shoved the Drakengard/Nier franchise into a corner for the last 15 years, and tried not to acknowledge them. Automata really changed a lot. Eh. I think Star Trek and Star Wars are equally at odds with SC. Star Trek: Semi-grounded space adventure/drama set in the future. Star Wars: Complete fantasy space opera set in a different galaxy. With SC being a historical fantasy, a more "serious" franchise at least set in our world is about as unfitting as a total fantasy set in a different galaxy. There's more fighting/magic in Star Wars, though not everyone in SC uses magic.

Yeah, I know some people who are very happy about this. I don't think 2B thematically fits Soulcalibur that well, her move-set seems to fit well. She fits better than any of the Star Wars characters, at least.

B u t i t ' s l i b e r a l s w h o a r e v i o l e n t a n d r a d i c a l.

Most people familiar with Donkey Kong are probably aware of the connection. This isn't some weird Donkey Kong Jr. situation. More people probably know about the Donkey Kong->Cranky Kong connection than people knew Captain Falcon was even a thing before SSB. Considering you're the only person saying this, I am. Arguing that he's as iconic as Dixie or slightly less is one thing, but saying he's "certainly lesser-known and lesser-loved" is going to need some backing up.

So, question: Why does this not matter to you? It's not like he literally became a different character. He's the same dude Mario squared off against 35 years ago and is still being referenced in mainline Mario. Citation needed. So Cranky being the hint giver in DKC1, the person you trade coins to in DKC2, the dude you play mini-games against in 3, the guy who upgrades your abilities in 64, and sets off the events of several games, including narrating DKCR and being playable in Tropical Freeze is barely more iconic than a character who manages your save data in two games and then dies off-screen and takes up Cranky's original role as hint giver for 64, and then only as a cameo in every game afterward?

I feel like we're going to have to define "Iconic". Cranky is the original Donkey Kong, and has been in every single Donkey Kong game to my knowledge, even the non-main titles that were made by third parties. He hasn't been in the Mario crossovers nearly as much as K. Rool or Dixie, but he's been in more Donkey Kong games than either of them, even since they were introduced. He's arguably more of a staple for the franchise than either Dixie Kong or K. Rool.

"He loves soccer! He's a Eurotrash, commie-sympathizing liberal!" - Fox News, probably

Yeah. He's in his 50s, and I'd be surprised if he saw life outside of a jail cell ever again before the end of his life. Supposing he actually did it, obviously.

The world's most dangerous super villain, Florida Man, has been arrested in connection with the mail bombs. They should just put Florida Man away for good, he's done so much harm.

If you go back, I've been strictly sticking with mainline releases. I referenced K. Rool's last appearance as DK64, even though he's been in side games much more recently than that. I could have just said Sluggers, which was the last time Dixie AND K. Rool showed up prior to Tropical Freeze where Dixie was playable again, but I didn't, because it's one of the Mario crossover games. The one main game between 64 and Tropical Freeze was DKCR, and I don't recall her appearing at all in that game. If she was, my bad, but she was replaced by Tiny in 64, which is the last time I recall her being mentioned in the main games.

K. Rool has also been playable in those releases(Well, for Sluggers, not the original Mario Baseball). I'm sticking with mainline DK games.

You did. Well, sort of. You shifted from "Why would they choose K. Rool over Dixie when she's so requested" to "Well, why didn't they choose her over K. Rool when she's also requested", so you obviously saw what I said, you just didn't care. She was brought back for one game, after straight up being replaced the last time she was even mentioned before Tropical Freeze. Planning for something doesn't mean following through on it, and your melodramatic conclusion that he "forgot" is laughable. It's even more laughable in the context of this conversation, when, by Brawl, she would have been gone for longer than K. Rool. Priorities have shifted since Brawl, and Sakurai has explicitly stated that he's looking at fan input for choices for Ultimate. It's not exclusively the case, but it was explicitly the case with K. Rool. Sakurai obviously wanted another DK representative, and he went with the one the fanbase has consistently wanted for over 15 years to the point where him getting "confirmed" was a meme in every release since Brawl.

I see you ignored a good chunk of what I said. Cool. Do I need to remind you that Dixie was MIA for longer than K. Rool was prior to Tropical Freeze? Dixie was outright shelved in DK64 for her big sister. "Continues to appear in her series" is very generous for a character who disappeared from the main series for 17 years.

I mean... it's 4chan.

K. Rool has literally been the second most requested character after Ridley since Melee. Dixie was in Tropical Freeze, but K. Rool was the main antagonist for the first 3 games of the Country series and DK64. There's an argument for Dixie in general, but not really one for her over K. Rool aside from "She's been in a game more recently".

Tyranitar. It's a mini-Godzilla that eats entire mountains.

It's worth noting that...

Playing fetch isn't really a sign of high intelligence. Ferrets can play fetch. It does show that the animal enjoys playing and has somewhat developed emotions, but I don't think people deny that.

Hey.

Yeah, Duck Hunt Dog was definitely my first go-to as well. It just makes sense like no other character in the roster does.

If THAT Shadow was in, I'd be 100% cool with it.

I'd actually be disappointed if it's fake, but at least I won't know who's coming, mostly because Isaac and B&K are two I want and kind of expect. Plus Shadow is stupid and deserves to be forgotten.

The only thing that gets me is that most of those put the Smash reveals front and center, while this one wasn't the focus. Which could totally be misdirection, and done to make it seem more authentic. But somebody making a mocked up picture of somebody who works with a company that partners with Bamco, only to then not make the thing most people would focus on something in the background seems... way too elaborate for the typical leak. It's one of the cases where Occam's Razor comes in. A. Do you believe somebody took a real person's name, from a real company that's a real client of Bamco's, who is co-developing Smash, and THEN remade a fake Smash mural only to not make it the focus of the picture purely to fool people online by making it seem more authentic, and then claimed they got this photo from a friend? Or B. Do you believe this person actually got this picture from a friend that made a mistake and is the person whose name is in the photo? B is the simpler explanation by far and requires way less denial, even if it is easier to dismiss it due to the history of Smash leaks.

The Rayman leak is honestly less impressive. It wasn't really "Game footage". It was a few frames on top of an otherwise still character select screen that we mostly already had. It wasn't too far off from the large list of "leaked" character select screens we get with every Smash, it just had the extra flair that you'd expect from a professional graphic designer as opposed to the average Joe who spent an hour in Photoshop to mess with 4chan. If this was faked, they would have effectively recreated the Smash mural. Even as low res and low quality as it may be, it would take time to get the scale and proportions right on it, while also moving characters around(Like Jiggly) slightly to make the new ones fit. It could still be total bunk, but it seems like there was more effort than the Rayman leak.

It's a graphic designer. I think they were taking a picture of their desk, and the mural just happened to be included with what they were showing off. It wasn't supposed to be the focus of the picture.