- Why he deserves to be in Smash Bros?
He'd be one of the new and popular franchises to get representated by Nintendom mostly from the GBA era. Think it like Olimar back in Brawl: his games have been longrunning and famous in Japan. The series are only Nintendo's marine platformer, and most longest running series of that. Besides, the sheer number of quirky characters and explorations makes the series very enjoyable.
Starfy has also become quite popular and famous for rest of the world thanks to his newest game being released worldwide, so now heäs being more looked forward to be included as one of the Nintendo All-Stars in Smash Bros.
There's not much that can get on his way: he's not unpopular, obscure (anymore), hated, or such. His games were also well received by the world, and reviews for it were positive.
What new would he bring on the table?
Smash Bros could get an underwater treatment in some form as to representate or get close to the theme of Starfy-series. Also, Starfy's series are quirky and full of characters which are all different and are all unique and quirky themselves enough to make you smile. It would be fun to see them be shown in a stage and give some brighness and humor to the usually serious and competitive theme of Smash Bros.
Starfy himself would base his attacks on his abilities to spin (mostly), slide, use his gadgets, glide, even borrow moves from her sister Starly, and so on. He'd be unique all himself if put effort and love on him when making him playable.
-But Sakurai's seemingly biased at Starfy: he made him quite weak Assist Trophy in Brawl, don't you remember?
Of course we know that. But he can be upgraded into a fighter, though. He's had very great reception through his years, in Japan, and now in the whole world. Also, Charizard was once a Pokeball summon, but then came Brawl which made him playable ala PKMN Trainer.
-It's kinda hard to implement him- his shape's kinda obscure, being star and all. So how can he hit his opponents with his small limbs?
He might bring his spinning attack into huge use, but also we could try to incorporate these factors:
- Let him have great aerial play similar to movement in water in a way, as to reflect on his marine platformer movement.
- He could sometimes borrow his clam friend Moe (Kyorosuke) to help him, maybe as a Forward Smash- he'd take him from nowhere and swings it at his opponents hard. Bunston could also lend a hand with his animal friends.
- Starfy had A LOTS OF gadgets used throughout his series- ranging from hot air balloon to cute animals with abilities to scare enemies, and so on. They could try to corporate some of these offensively attacking gadgets on one of his standard moves.
These are though few examples- we could come with more later on.
-I think Starfy's too similar to Kirby.
This has been discussed and proved wrong many times.
MANY TIMES.
Let's see first what's their similarities:
1: They both have oval-like eyes.
2: They both end in "y".
3: They both have blush marks to make them cute.
4. The world they live in is depicted cute but has it's own dark atmosphere at sometimes, mostly near end game.
5. Both can be related at stars in some way.
6. Most of the both series' games are on easy side (though there's been known to be hard Kirby-games out there)
It ends here. It's mostly cosmetic and theme similarities. But what about the games themselves?
1. Kirby-games are mostly traditional platformers with it's own unique gimmick.
Starfy-games are again marine platformers, where the most of the gameplay takes place underwater.
2. Kirby inhales enemies and copies their powers.
Starfy again spins on his enemies, and sometimes dons some useful costumes and uses gadgets to progress on.
3. Kirby doesn't usually have a friend accompany him at his adventure (expect for ones in "Dark Matter" Saga, which are the games featuring Dark Matter and it's stronger forms as the antagonist- these are Kirby's Dreamland 2 and 3 and Kirby 64)
Starfy's always having Moe join him for some reason- the clam's very helpful and also sometimes great comic relief in the adventure.
4. Kirby-games usually are simple "Go from Point A to Point B"-platformers.
Starfy-games again uses lots of exploration and makes you help others to progress on the levels.
Starfy also has much more emphasis on story, character development and perhaps exploration. Kirby-series don't do much that.
At the end, we could also say they both are produced by Nintendo and being developed by their own companies.
So there ya have it. Don't say he's a ripoff by cosmetic reasons. Play the games. A good example of a ripoff is one making the game in any means of trying to be as good as the one ripping it off: for example, there's the infamous Awesome Possum Kicks Dr.Machino's Butt. No really, it's a real game, trying to rip off Sonic. Bubsy's a notorious example too.
