So...let’s talk about the Blue Bipedal Elephant Genie in the room.
This King K. Rool costume was announced Thursday as paid DLC for the current generation of Super Smash Bros. Rather surprisingly, it takes design cues from both his recent PAON-introduced look, as well as his classic Rare design. This announcement comes as the Smash Ballot, the public poll in which fans can vote for which characters they’d like to see added to the playable Smash Bros roster, is still ongoing. As King K. Rool has had a large push by fans and been perceived to be a front-runner of the public-opinion poll, many have seen the reveal of this costume as a cop-out (or “King Kop-Out”, coined by DK Vine Staffer Matt): this Mii costume DLC is seen as being created to placate those who wanted K. Rool to be a full-fledged fighter, because there is no developer interest in adding K. Rool as a playable character otherwise, regardless of the number of votes he receives in the poll. ...Buuuut it could also, well, not mean that. Smash Bros pre-release periods have demonstrated time and time again that they are often unpredictable, which means now, more than ever, is the time to keep letting the voices that want a playable King K. Rool in Smash Bros be heard.
If up until now, you’ve been voting for King K. Rool to be in Smash Bros. For Wii U and 3DS as part of the Smash Ballot, or encouraging others to do so, don’t let reading into this announcement discourage you: The Smash Ballot is open until October. Whether you’re enjoying this DLC costume or see it as a bad omen, if your goal was to see King K. Rool topping the charts because you want to see him as a playable character in Smash Bros, don’t abandon it; continue to #KroctheVote at https://cp.nintendo.co.jp/us/ and let it be known that the Kremling monarch has an audience.
Of course, if you haven’t been pulling for K. Rool because you were already (or also) rooting for the inclusion of also-popular candidates like Banjo-Kazooie (as endorsed by Head-of-Xbox-Division Phil Spencer) or Dixie Kong, keep at it! We at DK Vine would love to see any of Rare’s classic characters show up and go toe-to-toe with Nintendo’s All-Stars.