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Former Rare designer Steve Mayles, who designed King K. Rool in Donkey Kong Country and founded Playtonic, recently shared some thoughts on the King’s inclusion and look in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. (Thanks, Nintendo Life!)
Nintendo owns the Donkey Kong Country characters, including King K. Rool, and the company did not consult Mayles before including the portly king in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. But, while Mayles didn’t know K. Rool would be a newcomer, he was quite confident he would join the fight sooner or later.
“I knew he had a fair chance as he had appeared as a Mii costume previously, and since then he has been at the top, or close to the top, of many votes and ballots. There seemed to be a real groundswell of positivity in K.Rool’s direction that Nintendo would find hard to ignore, I thought. I’d love to have been involved in any capacity of bringing K.Rool back of course. Maybe another time,” said Mayles.
Furthermore, Mayles believes King K. Rool’s design has been updated in the best way it could have—it is a modern interpretation that stays faithful to the original design. It has the correct shade of green and the gold armor that has been omitted from recent versions. Mayles thinks that K.Rool couldn’t have come back with a bigger bang.
Will he be playing as the character in Smash Bros. Ultimate? Mayles reveals that there is an enthusiast group at Playtonic which plays Smash Bros. every lunchtime, and he might just join in sometimes. However, he professes that he’s no expert, saying that he’s too old to have the reflexes needed in the game.
Finally, Mayles ended by saying that he does hope some other Rare-era characters, such as Banjo & Kazooie, get included and receive a full, updated design treatment from the Super Smash Bros. team. “Banjo and Kazooie were created as Nintendo characters,” he said. “It would be great to see them back on a Nintendo console – adding them to the Smash roster seems like the perfect opportunity.”
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be released on the Nintendo Switch on December 7, 2018.
