12-20-2015, 11:01 PM
It was pretty bad timing on Sakurai's part honestly. Donkey Kong sort of went though a reboot during the Wii generations with DKC Returns, that only featured the leading two Kongs. By the time the roster was finalized, Tropical Freeze itself hadn't been released or announced. And since Tropical Freeze was developed by Retro Studios, a company in America that's pretty secretive of its projects, Sakurai likely had no idea about Dixie or Cranky being playable characters.
The roster of Smash 4 focused heavily on pulling characters from newer games released on Wii, DS, and 3DS. So older characters like K. Rool really didn't have any chance on joining the roster. And since Returns only featured DK and Diddy, the roster sort of stayed that way.
Kind of sucks that a new Donkey Kong character never made it to Smash Bros. I'm a huge DK fan, even enjoying DK64 despite it being sort of lame. I think Dixie Kong and Cranky Kong could easily be crafted into new fighters. The franchise currently has no Assist Trophies either, despite being a character-dominated franchise. No exclusive items from the Country part of the franchise, except the banana peel. At least the franchise has four stages across both the 3DS and WiiU game...
The roster of Smash 4 focused heavily on pulling characters from newer games released on Wii, DS, and 3DS. So older characters like K. Rool really didn't have any chance on joining the roster. And since Returns only featured DK and Diddy, the roster sort of stayed that way.
Kind of sucks that a new Donkey Kong character never made it to Smash Bros. I'm a huge DK fan, even enjoying DK64 despite it being sort of lame. I think Dixie Kong and Cranky Kong could easily be crafted into new fighters. The franchise currently has no Assist Trophies either, despite being a character-dominated franchise. No exclusive items from the Country part of the franchise, except the banana peel. At least the franchise has four stages across both the 3DS and WiiU game...