After years and years of mere kameo in Smash Bros, the fearsome Kremling ruler, King K
Rool, is making his grand debut as a playable fighter --and he looks to be everything we
hoped he would be, with a moveset that references pretty much every major appearance he’s
had throughout the Donkey Kong series.
So you know what that means, it’s time to break out the ol analysis machine to see what
secrets his reveal trailer might be hiding.
And pretty much everything about this trailer is a love letter to fans of both K Rool and
Donkey Kong in general!
The trailer of course opens in Donkey Kong’s treehouse--or should I say, groundhouse, because
this time it appears to be on ground level.
But that little discrepancy aside, it otherwise features the usual DK Treehouse amenities,
like an old-fashioned TV, a tire such as from the original DKC, but this time fashioned
into a swing--and of course lots and lots of bananas.
Oh, and it also features a portrait of Donkey Kong in his more classic form--cute.
After some antics by King Dedede in a most unusual crossover, it’s not long before
King K.Rool appears in all his eye-popping glory--which itself is something that happened
often in the original series, starting way back with the original Donkey Kong Country,
or when meeting a boss in Donkey Kong Country 2--such as King K. Rool which is pretty fitting.
Although their eyeballs have never quite shattered glass before, so that’s something!
Visually, King K. Rool himself appears to be a bit of an amalgamation of his various
designs, now returning to his more scaly appearance from the original games, rather than the flatter
look he’s inherited since Donkey Kong 64, in which he also lost his tail--oh and that’s
now back too--just a bit shorter than it used to be.
However, the Blue Gem used as a clamp to hold his cape in place is from his more recent
appearances, starting with DK: King of Swing.
Otherwise, he has the same Bugged-Out Eye and cape he has always had--though that cape
is looking a little worse for the wear these days with it being torn in places--perhaps
a reminder of his past skirmishes with the DK crew?
And that’s not the only noticeable change, because King K. Rool also appears to be more
animalistic than ever before--instead of talking like in the more recent games, he sounds much
more like an actual crocodile, which also fits in with DK & DIddy’s more life-life
sounds throughout the Smash series.
But even more surprising is that when K. Rool runs, he now does so on all 4 legs, as seen
both at the end of the trailer and also in-game--which is something he’s never done before.
It has the effect of making him feeling less goofy and far more intimidating.
And speaking of which, the opening culminates in this spectacular shot that makes K. Rool
look about as menacing as Godzilla himself.
And this might actually be a reference to his own similarly intimidating appearance
in DK Jungle Climber, in which he pretty much became Godzilla sized.
And that menacing appearance seems fitting for a character that appears to pack quite
the punch.
So let’s go ahead and breakdown his moveset and try to figure out exactly how this guy’s
going to play--and let’s start with what are almost certainly his Special attacks-and
you know what, let’s go in chronological order of the games that they reference.
Which means we’re starting with the crown toss baby, that comes from King K. Rool’s
very first appearance in Donkey Kong Country, only now he tosses it with a forceful underhand
as opposed to the overhanded throw of the original.
And like in that game, it functions a little like a boomerang in that it’ll return to
him afterwards, enabling it to potentially hit the same opponent twice in a row.
Oh, and you gotta love the detail of him even putting it back on his head once it returns.
Now as it is a projectile, the Villager can naturally pocket it--which likely means that
King K. Rool won’t be able to use that move again until the Villager is KO’d--no wonder
he goes chasing after him!
As for which special this might be, we’d wager it’s the side special to match Link’s
similar boomerang move.
Next up is K Rool’s blunderbuss, which returns from Donkey Kong Country 2--and fittingly
enough, K Rool even dons the pirate hat for this unique 2-step attack.
Part one fires a Kannonball dead ahead--at which point you can then use the Blunderbuss
again, but this time as a vacuum to suck up anything nearby, whether it be an opponent,
or even your very own Kannonball if it’s returned to you, which K. Rool then fires
at a roughly 45 degree angle--an angle that appears to always be the same based on the
two clips we’ve seen it in.
Once all is said and done, K. Rool instantly puts his gun away as he removes his hat, seemingly
confirming it’s a single 2-step attack, as opposed to something more permanent.
Our guess is it’s the Neutral special, since it not only matches up with not only most
gun-based attacks in the game, like with Fox or Diddy, but also its vacuum function is
also generally the Neutral special as well, like with Kirby and Dedede.
Furthermore, you might have noticed that the kannonball actually oscillates while in the
air, similar to some of his late-stage attacks in DKC2--which is a pretty neat touch.
And makes us wonder if there’s a chance he might fire some other projectiles too like
Spiked Balls, or the balls of jelly from his secret battle--although we think this is a
long shot seeing as Smash Bros. Wii U actively worked to remove similar random elements--but
hey, you never know.
Moving on, we have K Rool’s Recovery--his up Special--in which he deploys the helicopter
pack from his appearance as as Baron K. Roolenstein in Donkey Kong Country 3--and it even deploys
in the exact same fashion, extending from his back before little propellers pop out--neat!
But this time, it’s been turbo charged as we can see a large exhaust pipe extends down
from his back that bellows out steam.
When activated, it instantly starts giving King K Rool lift--while also being fully directional,
as we can see him go forward in the reveal trailer, whereas in his gameplay trailer he
first flies striaght up, before leaning back to move in that direction.
But it doesn’t seem particularly fast, and with King.
K Rool being so big, it might make him especially vulnerable.
So that’s 3 Specials down, leaving just one left: A counter, in which his belly hardens,
absorbing any attack that connects, before King K Rool automatically unleashes one of
his own, by thrusting is chest forward.
Now as far as we can tell, this isn’t based on any specific attack from any of the Donkey
Kong games--but it might be a reference to the fact that K. Rool’s golden belly was
originally designed as gold-plated Body Armor--and not his actual chest, unlike his more recent
appearances in which it appears more flesh toned.
So it’s neat that the arnir now serves an actual purpose --and that’s not the only
one.
Because we can see K Rool go from a sprint right into this Belly Flop, which means it’s
almost certainly his Dash attack.
And it seems to be pretty strong, in that it completely cancels Little Mac’s Jolt
Haymaker, before sending him flying.
But, he’ll be left vulnerable immediately afterward, as he flops helplessly to the ground.
And this move appears to be a reference to the relatively obscure Donkey Kong Land on
the Game Boy, in which King K. Rool gained a new bellyflop move.
Neat!
Another cool reference involves K. Rool’s gloved punch--which is a direct homage to
his boxing ring appearance in Donkey Kong 64.
And this appears to be a smash attack--most likely his side one--based on the sparkle
indicator that appears--and the reason there’s two of them is because Bowser’s performing
his own Smash at the same time.
Unfortunately, this is the only Smash Attack of King K Rool’s shown in any of the gameplay.
So that’s it for all of his moves that explicitly reference his past appearances, but there
are still a few more attacks for us to cover!
Such as this dropkick that’s almost certainly King K Rool’s forward aerial
Then in this scene, we see King K Rool performing what is almost certainly a missed grab, because
its pose seems to match this scene, which begins in a similar fashion.
But this time, we get to see the follow-through, which is almost definitely K Rool’s Up Throw,
as he launches into the the air with Mewtwo, then slams back to the ground with him resting
on his shoulders, which then sends him flying back upwards afterward.
Brutal.
So yeah, this is almost definitely his Up Throw,
Now at the very end of the trailer, there’s an extra bonus scene in which we see K. Rool
downward kick DK & Diddy, burying them both at the same time!
Yikes!
And since we don’t see him crouch before the maneuver, that means this is likely either
his forward or up tilt.
And that’s all of the standard attacks we’ve seen so far, but there’s still a few more
things to talk about, such as the fact that we see K Rool crouch, as well as confirmation
that he can crawl
Oh, and what about his stage entrance?
No, not the very first gameplay scene in the trailer--but this one is instead, in which
King K Rool drops in and immediately starts laughing, before getting into a battle-ready
stance.
That other scene, though similar, appears to be just a standard jump as his pose matches
up with him falling in the gameplay trailer.
He then goes into what appears to be a distinct foot slamming animation, which we’re reasonably
confident is actually one of his taunts--and hey, the trailer reveals the other two as
well.
His second taunt has him slamming his stomach, and his third has him taking bites out of
the air.
Finally, we have to talk about King K. Rool’s amazing Final Smash, where he zips off to
helm his ship and aims its weapon, the Blast-o-matic, at DK Island, before blowing it to smithereens.
This it’s fantastic because it’s a direct callback to the Game Over sequence of Donkey
Kong 64, where King K. Rool would charge up the Blast-o-matic as it takes aim at DK Isle.
Unfortunately, that’s where the original cutscene ended, so Smash Bros. Ultimate is
finally delivering the payoff we’ve been waiting nearly 20 years to see.
Oh yeeeeah.
Beyond his moveset, the official Smash Bros. website also revealed two alternate colors
for King K Rool--and yep, they’re actually references too, but this time to other members
of the Kremling crew.
The blue one is evocative Krusha from the original game, and the pink one looks like
any number of enemies from DKC3, such as Skidda.
Now unfortunately, one thing King K. Rool doesn’t seem to have s his own stage--but
that didn’t stop the trailer from cleverly subbing in similar locations--and I don’t
just mean existing DK stages like Jungle Falls or Jungle Japes.
The Boxing Ring here, for instance, is an obvious reference to the final Boss Fight
in DK64.
And then the Pirate Ship stage, which is also seen in the character trailer, is too perfect
a fit given the pirate theme of the DKC2--and the fact that an amazing new remix of Gangplank
Galleon plays throughout the trailer.
And finally, the Wrecking Crew stage might be a reference to the setting of the final
boss in Donkey Kong Land, which took place in Big Ape City.
AKA
Alright, we’re just about done here, but there’s one final thing I wanted to point
out.
At the end of the trailer, when King K. Rool and Donkey Kong launch toward each other,
you might have noticed that not only does K. Rool have his boxing, but so does DK--and
they’re even branded with his initials.
Which is direct reference to the boxing gloves he’s worn before, such as in Mario Superstar
Baseball, and Punch-Out on Nintendo Wii.
Smashing!
And with that, we’re finally done covering everything we could dig up on King K. Rool
in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
But make sure to let us know if we missed anything by posting in the comments below.
And with that, thanks for watching and make sure to subscribe to GameXplain for tons more
on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and all things gaming!