You can help get Shantae in Super Smash Bros. as a DLC!

I emailed WayForward about Shantae being a part of Smash as a DLC. Their reply:

“Thank you for contacting WayForward Support. We would love to see Shantae in Smash Brothers! However, Nintendo is in charge of the characters they put into Smash. So the only way we would be able to see her in game fighting the good fight, would be to let Nintendo know you want her there! Messaging and tweeting Nintendo to let them know who much you’d like to see Shantae in their game would be a good start. And thanks for showing support to our beautiful Purple-Haired Heroine.”

You guys, we can make this happen! Do your part and request to Nintendo! Either through twitter, or even by emailing them. The more of us who chip in, the greater our chances! There's enough people who want Shantae in Smash for us to be relevant, our voices just have to be heard! Our ability to make this a reality is unequivocally real, so let’s work together to make this DLC rock!

I doubt it'd be that easy.

First of all, I don't think Nintendo would just put any character into the game, just because some people want it.
It gotta have some relevance.
And let's be honest, compared to Megaman, Pac-Man or Sonic, Shantae is not exactly the character with the most relevance.

Second issue is the community.
As far as I have seen, The Shantae community, or even the WayForward community in general, doesn't seem to be the most active one around.
Sure they are there. And it's not a small one by far.

However, they are mostly a silent community. And doing something actively on the net, is something they don't seem to do.
Heck, look at these forums or even the WayForums, WayForward's own forum.
Nothing happens!


So yeah, basicly the Shantae community seems to be a really shy community, that is mostly silent and inactive in terms of community activities.
And since Shantae doesn't have so much relevance, as all the other entries in the Smash roster have, I cannot see this happening any time soon.

Shantae just isn't big enough just yet, for Nintendo to bother putting her in.

It only took a few angry messages on Twitter to get Sony to post Vib Ribbon on the PSN, and that's one of the most obscure PSX games in the wild, so it's not always a matter of popularity contests. It's harder for third-party characters in Smash, nonetheless.

I don't see the harm in getting voices heard, at the least, and Shantae does go as far back as the Gameboy Color. The nature of DLC and update patches for games are things the Wii didn't have around Brawl's time. Nintendo does listen, even if they typically do the opposite of what the public begs for. (Project Moonfall being a catastrophic failure. Nintendo's only porting Majora's Mask to the 3DS now because they want to, and it's still not an HD remake.)

.Luke wrote:It only took a few angry messages on Twitter to get Sony to post Vib Ribbon on the PSN, and that's one of the most obscure PSX games in the wild, so it's not always a matter of popularity contests. It's harder for third-party characters in Smash, nonetheless.

I don't see the harm in getting voices heard, at the least, and Shantae does go as far back as the Gameboy Color. The nature of DLC and update patches for games are things the Wii didn't have around Brawl's time. Nintendo does listen, even if they typically do the opposite of what the public begs for. (Project Moonfall being a catastrophic failure. Nintendo's only porting Majora's Mask to the 3DS now because they want to, and it's still not an HD remake.)

Precisely. There's no harm in supporting it

Paragon-Yoshi wrote:compared to Megaman, Pac-Man or Sonic, Shantae is not exactly the character with the most relevance.

Eh... I get your point, and it's very true, but compared to the relevance of Wii Fit Trainer...

If you'd like, I can post about your email on our Tumblr blog. We have tons of followers there, so it'd get their attention.

.Luke wrote:If you'd like, I can post about your email on our Tumblr blog. We have tons of followers there, so it'd get their attention.

That'd be great! I would appreciate that alot. Thank you!

Done! It's in our queue, and should be posted at a time that most people are awake. Maybe it'll make a splash, can't hurt to spread it around.

JoshuaL wrote:

Paragon-Yoshi wrote:compared to Megaman, Pac-Man or Sonic, Shantae is not exactly the character with the most relevance.

Eh... I get your point, and it's very true, but compared to the relevance of Wii Fit Trainer...

Wii Fit Trainer is still a Nintendo character, not a third-party character.
Nintendo uses characters however they feel like it.
Third-Party characters however are a different story...

.Luke wrote:It only took a few angry messages on Twitter to get Sony to post Vib Ribbon on the PSN, and that's one of the most obscure PSX games in the wild, so it's not always a matter of popularity contests.

But more often than not, it is.
In any case, all I wanna say is "Don't get your hopes up."

Compared to giants like Megaman, Sonic or Pac-Man, Shantae is still a dwarf.
So I wouldn't count on Nintendo bothering to put her in.

Trust me, I want it as much as any fan of both Shantae and Smash.
But you gotta keep a realistic mind. Or else the disappointment will get to you.

I think it's obvious that none of us have our hopes up. Nintendo does what they want at the end of the day, with obscure joke characters like Mr. Game and Watch entering the arena. (I'd be amazed if the better half of us knew what Game and Watch LCD games were before Melee.) There's also no harm in trying, either.

On that note, the post on Tumblr got over 70 notes. I'm betting it will spread the rest of the way via word-of-mouth.

.Luke wrote:On that note, the post on Tumblr got over 70 notes. I'm betting it will spread the rest of the way via word-of-mouth.

Nice! That's awesome!

Wow, it rocketed to 159 notes just a while ago. Thanks for sharing this email with us, Joshua, we'll see if a fair chunk of the fanbase triggers a response from Nintendo, if anything.

I'd love it to death. The pirate gear gives Shantae such Smash-esque moves!
A few months back I came up with a moveset for her. Would you mind if I posted it here?

You could create a new topic for that, if you want. While I'm not too big on hypothetical Smash movesets myself, a fair few of the community usually are.

I can't help but feel that the entire fanbase is going tinkerbatty with this now.

.Luke wrote:

I can't help but feel that the entire fanbase is going tinkerbatty with this now.

I'm pretty sure the vast majority are going to either be voting for King K. Rool or Ridley.

Maetch wrote:

.Luke wrote:

I can't help but feel that the entire fanbase is going tinkerbatty with this now.

I'm pretty sure the vast majority are going to either be voting for King K. Rool or Ridley.

Voting is scattered all over the place, from what I can tell. Abe from OddWorld, Tails, Shadow the Hedgehog, Waluigi, Dixie Kong, Lilac from Freedom Planet, and even Banjo, from Banjo Kazooie. (Surprisingly, Phil Spencer has said on Twitter he wouldn't mind seeing that happen, as Microsoft have worked with Nintendo before on Rare's IPs.) You name it, people are voting for them.

It's a good thing this isn't a popularity poll, so Shantae might have a chance of being considered in all this, at the least; my gut feeling is that Nintendo won't want too many third-parties in the roster. I simply hope the Smash Devs have a way of culling the joke submissions so they don't clutter the statistics.

.Luke wrote:

I can't help but feel that the entire fanbase is going tinkerbatty with this now.

Thanks luke! I just voted just now. If you can, maybe you could share this figher ballot thing on your tumblr as well. But that's entirely up to you. But yeah, I voted, and thanks!

The image I linked is from a Tumblr post on the blog, actually. I forgot to see how many notes it has, although rest assured, this fanbase is eager for Shantae to sway and dance her way into the arena. It's all up to the Smash developers at this point.

And a monthly reminder of the poll, until it ends in October, might not be a bad idea either.