The origin of DK's forward aerial

Princess Céline

It's teatime!
I've always wondered where DK's forward aerial originated from. It bears a great resemblance to his aerial attack in DK64 but if we are going by release date, Smash 64 was released in January 1999, while DK64 was released in November later that year. However, Wikipedia states that SSB64 started development in 1998, while DK64 started in 1997.

RelaxAlax, famous for his Smash videos of "Know Your Moves" talks about this here, at 11:03. Personally, I believe Sakurai got inspiration for DK's f-air from DK64, as almost everything in his moveset originates from DKC which was a huge worldwide hit in 1994. I also find it hard to believe that Rare got inspiration from Sakurai, let alone this being a coincidence.

What do you guys think?
 
I've always wondered what the hell DK's up-special is from. It's so dumb-looking.
 
LeftyGreenMario said:
I've always wondered what the hell DK's up-special is from. It's so dumb-looking.

Some believe (and also SmashWiki), that it might be loosely based off of Dixie Kong's Helicopter Spin.
 
I think a lot of those are leftovers from Smash 64's low budget so some movesets sorted to them making stuff up.

Like, why the hell does Link use the spin attack as a recovery? Did Samus ever use her spinning Up + B in Metroid games? Did Ness ever hit himself with a PK Thunder (he can't even use PK Thunder)?
 
What is Donkey Kong's neutral special or side special from, anyway?
 
LeftyGreenMario said:
What is Donkey Kong's neutral special or side special from, anyway?

Sakurai mentioned on a Melee website translated by Source Gaming, which was shown in the video I posted from RelaxAlax at 10:10, that Sakurai added the move to give a cartoony, slapstick kind of feeling to DK.

RelaxAlax had two theories about the Giant Punch:

1. It was based on his punch from the DKC Cartoon, but he wasn't convinced.

2. Since DK's arms are among the largest parts of his model, he based it around a similar reason why Peach has quite a few attacks using her hips. It is among the largest parts of a character's model, so Sakurai made some moves based on that.
 
Anything from Smash 64 probably has the largest liberties within each character's movesets. Captain Falcon, for one, is a completely made-up set because he was a racer all that while.

Speaking of "deep lore", why is the Great Ape War, or whatever the title of the (likely) made up world-building story a popular backstory for the DK universe?

Thanks for reading.
 
winstein said:
Speaking of "deep lore", why is the Great Ape War, or whatever the title of the (likely) made up world-building story a popular backstory for the DK universe?

Because it's hilarious!

It doesn't even get less funny when you learn it was just a troll article by a tiny message board and not some kid sincerely writing about Funky Kong's recessive genes.
 
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