>>24561509>They choose to include Greninja in Smash monthsExcept they didn't. It's been stated countless times that GF had no take in adding Greninja into Smash. Since Gen VI hadn't been released yet, they couldn't rely on the actual fanbase's opinions to choose what pokemon from that Gen would make the cut, so they simply left Sakurai and his coworkers to choose whichever pokemon they thought would be a better fit for the game. In the end, they agreed on Greninja. They could've chosen any other pokemon from the gen to get in the game, but they didn't, and Gamefreak had nothing to do with that choice, so that isn't an official push.
>gave Ash Froakie as a starterI'm going to make this straight. Spotlighting a base form in the anime does not mean they're promoting the last form. Snivy wasn't promoting Serperior. Totodile wasn't promoting Feraligatr. Bulbasaur wasn't promoting Venusaur. Chespin isn't promoting Chesnaught. Hell the anime has TWO of the damn things. Why? Because Chespin is the most liked of its line. That's why you also see a lot of Chespin merch. Each of them were promoting the stage they were in. If they wanted to promote a certain stage, they'd make sure that stage appears often. And in Greninja's case, it took him over 2 years since Froakie was introduced to actually make an appearance. By that time the pokemon in case would've already been either popular or not.
And it's not like it was a monopoly either. The main character in the Manga has a Chespin.
The point is that even before the collateral push that Smash gave him, Greninja was already hailed as the best Gen VI pokemon in every single website that held a poll after only one or two moths from X/Y's release. His popularity wasn't fabricated. Gamefreak just saw an opportunity and decided to ride the gravy train.
