If you remember in my Takamaru post, I noted that most of the characters from the new game had appeared in a game within the last few years. It seems Sakurai picks characters that have appeared in a major roll within the last few years. Here are the Brawl characters and the last game they appeared in before Brawl released (again, sans third party characters)
- Meta-Knight: Kirby and the Amazing Mirror - 2004
- Wario: WarioWare Smooth Moves - 2006
- Pit: Kid Icarus - 1987 (and the Gameboy game)
- Zero Suit Samus: Metroid Zero Mission - 2004
- Ike: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - 2005
- Pokemon Trainer: Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green - 2003
- Diddy Kong: Donkey Konga - 2005 (and in multiple Mario spinoffs)
- King Dedede: Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland 2002
- Lucas:Mother 3 - 2006
- Olimar: Pikmin 2 - 2004
- Lucario - Pokemon Diamond/Pearl - 2006
- ROB - Mario Kart DS - 2006 (and other cameos)
- Wolf: Starfox Command - 2006
With the exception of Pit, every character added to Brawl was in a major role within the six years between Brawl and Melee. The only exception to this rule is Pit who's last game was over 20 years ago. With the exception of classic characters (those picked because they are old), the character roster includes characters who have been in recent games. Many of these characters were in games that released within 2 years of Brawl. I shouldn't have to mention Smash 4's roster where all the characters have been in a game recently.
But why does Sakurai do this. A problem for him is that a lot of people plays these games and not all of them are die hard fans with a lot of knowledge about Nintendo. He has stated that he choices characters that make people want to play the game. At the same time, we tries to spread out the series with characters. Pokemon and Mario characters are the most memorable, but a game with just that would be boring. So how do you make sure people will like the characters you added and have some recollection of who you added. This is even harder when you're pulling characters from already lesser known series. The best bet would be to pick characters who have appeared recently. For instance, take Robin. You may not know Fire Emblem, so you may not know immediately who he is. But his game is fairly new, so it wont take long to find the information or to make the connection. Picking characters that are not as relevant are risky as they may be fading into obscurity due to disinterest. This is why you don't see Tingle despite Nintendo pushing him for a long time.
So how does this affect K. Rool? Well, King K Rool's last roles were the ill fated Donkey Kong Barrel Blast (2007) and and a minor role in Mario Super Sluggers (2008). So it's been over 6 years since King K Rool has been in a game. It seems that Nintendo is de-emphasizing the Kremling. Donkey Kong County Returns and Donkey Kong County Returns Tropical Freeze de-emphasized the bad guys you were fighting and the force changed between the two games. Tropical Freeze focused more on the Dixie and Cranky than the fact that there was a new enemy force. Since Donkey Kong Country Returns are the newest games in the series and were commercial success, it would make sense that the content from those games is promoted as players would better recognize the content from them. In this case, Dixie Kong has a better bet as she is more recognizable. In fact, she has had bigger roles being in all of the Donkey Konga games and Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze. King K Rool, unfortunately, is a character that is becoming less important. I suspect he'll be a boss in the Smash Run mode but not a playable character.
(Hope this one is OK. Was tired when I wrote it)
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