Playstation All Stars Battle Royale

[kupomogli]

Since it hasn't been posted yet, decided I'd make mention of it. Hearing about it last year I thought it'd be a pretty garbage game. After seeing the first gameplay footage, it looks pretty amazing. Yes it's a Smash Bros clone, and now that that's out of the way, it looks damn good. According to the developer, there is going to be both first and third party characters.

http://www.gametrailers.com/episode/gametrailers-tv/152

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1bQSw7FOUQ

[heybtbm]

Does Sony ever come up with original ideas anymore?

[Ro-J]

I hope they also clone Nintendo's idea of including characters from their earlier days to help make it appeal more to retro gamers. I liked that Parrapa was in there, but I would like to see Crash, Spyro, Jumping Flash ....

[Aussie2B]

It would help if it contained characters that anybody gave a damn about. Too bad Sony lacks any actual "all-stars" for their All-Stars game.

Although seeing Parappa is cool. But he's about as relevant to modern gamers as Mr. Game & Watch. And the Patapon background was cute, but again, not "all-star" worthy.

[RCM]

Man, next thing you know Sony will come out with a controller like the Wiimote, and a handheld with a touch screen... oh, wait.

[markusman64ds]

Oh, so NOW Fat Princess decides she can jump and fight.

I have a feeling Cloud from Final Fantasy will be in this.

[Genesaturn]

I hope they also clone Nintendo's idea of including characters from their earlier days to help make it appeal more to retro gamers. I liked that Parrapa was in there, but I would like to see Crash, Spyro, Jumping Flash ....

Yeah, but would Crash and Spyro be considered Sony All-Stars anymore? They have been on other platforms, all of Super Smash characters are legit Nintendo only. I saw this article and couldn't help, but giggle...it feels like Sony is pissed over the PSVita to 3DS sales and they had a meeting labeled "how can we piss off Nintendo"

[Robocop2]

They might as well call it "Kratos, Sweet Tooth and Nathan Drake punch obscure characters into oblivion"

[j_factor]

Where's the list of characters?

[Tupin]

They might as well call it "Kratos, Sweet Tooth and Nathan Drake punch obscure characters into oblivion"

I don't know, was there much attention paid to the Twisted Metal franchise in recent years? Before the remake, there hadn't been one in seven years.

This game does look fun, though.

[frogofdeath]

Yeah, but would Crash and Spyro be considered Sony All-Stars anymore? They have been on other platforms, all of Super Smash characters are legit Nintendo only.

Uh, not to split hairs here, but Sonic and Snake aren't really Nintendo only.

Game looks okay. I'm more interested to see if it does do anything differently than Smash Bros. As of now, outside of aesthetics, I'm not really seeing how this game is unique.

[kupomogli]

The six characters included and their games are

Sweet Tooth(Twisted Metal)
Kratos(God of War)
Fat Princess
Sly Cooper
Colonel Radec(Killzone 2)
Parappa the Rapper

Games and a character from each that Sony could choose from. Probably missing some.

Cole Macgrath(Infamous)
Nathan Drake(Uncharted)
Jak(Jak and Daxter)
Ratchet(Ratchet and Clank)
Sackboy(Little Big Planet)
Wanderer(Shadow of the Colossus)
Dart(Legend of Dragoon)
Gabe Logan(Syphon Filter)
Sir Daniel(Medievil)
Chimera(Resistance)
Shu(Arc the Lad)
Toro the Sony Cat
Crash(Crash Bandicoot///Used to be first party.)
Spyro(Spyro the Dragon///Used to be first party.)

It would help if it contained characters that anybody gave a damn about. Too bad Sony lacks any actual "all-stars" for their All-Stars game.

Maybe not you to, but to other people that like the characters, sure. How many characters are in Super Smash Bros Melee and Brawl do you think most people cared about before playing? I guarantee not too many. As a Super Smash Bros fan myself, I can say while I knew of many of the characters as I've played the games they've been in, I've never really cared about too many of the characters outside of the main characters in their specific franchise. Super Smash Bros while a great game and easily one of the best fighters out there is nothing more than a big advertisement. People play as characters they've never played as before, happen to like the characters, possibly purchase the games they're based off. Kid Icarus would have never came to be if it wasn't for Super Smash Bros Brawl, and not because the original Kid Icarus is any good, but solely based on their perception of the Brawl character. Earthbound would never be as expensive as it currently is if it wasn't for the original Smash Bros and all subsequent games.

--
The developers have stated that they are going to have characters from third parties in the game as well. If you were to watch the video Michael, maybe this is what it could have been alluding to all along. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdWkKKSckNk

There are plenty of characters that while they're not exclusive to Sony consoles, are those that can easily be likened to Sony consoles despite the games themselves or future games being on other consoles.

A feature of the game is that each character is going to have a level one, two, or three super attack. The basis of the game is that there are no health bars and that doing damage to your opponents builds up the super attack gauge and that the super attacks kill the opponent in a single hit. So a player can't just hide in the corner, wait until there are others low on health, then go out there and clean up. If the player isn't remaining active and isn't hitting the opponent, then their special gauge won't fill up and they won't be able to kill an opponent.

[Genesaturn]

Uh, not to split hairs here, but Sonic and Snake aren't really Nintendo only.

Game looks okay. I'm more interested to see if it does do anything differently than Smash Bros. As of now, outside of aesthetics, I'm not really seeing how this game is unique.

True , true - Sonic doesn't have a specific home anymore, but I guess he does appear more often on Nintendo now a days than anything else. Snake STILL makes no sense to me as to why he ended up in SSB

Sony does have a decent sized backlog to call into play, but It's not like Nintendo. When someone asks me to name Sony mascots or characters - I would have to stop and think. I mean yeah it has its share of platform exclusives like God of War, Syphon Filter - but unlike Kratos, who gives a damn about Gabe Logan?

[kupomogli]

but unlike Kratos, who gives a damn about Gabe Logan?

The 1 2 P

Fans of the Syphon Filter games.

[Genesaturn]

The 1 2 P

Fans of the Syphon Filter games.

I'm not saying he doesn't have his fans, but Gabe Logan holds nothing on even the lowest Nintendo Mascot - I'm sorry to all the Sony Fanboys, but Sony just doesn't have the signature characters to make a fun brawl game like Nintendo has. Just my opinion of course.

[markusman64ds]

True , true - Sonic doesn't have a specific home anymore, but I guess he does appear more often on Nintendo now a days than anything else. Snake STILL makes no sense to me as to why he ended up in SSB

Remember, Metal Gear was on NES back in the 80's. I'm not sure if that's why he was in SSBB, but it counts. He was also in DreamMix TV World Fighters, which is kind of like SSB, only with Transformers.

[j_factor]

I'm not saying he doesn't have his fans, but Gabe Logan holds nothing on even the lowest Nintendo Mascot - I'm sorry to all the Sony Fanboys, but Sony just doesn't have the signature characters to make a fun brawl game like Nintendo has. Just my opinion of course.

By my count, Gabe has starred in 5 great games. I consider him much more worthy than some of the stupid crap characters in the Smash Bros. series. Ice Climbers anyone?

[Genesaturn]

By my count, Gabe has starred in 5 great games. I consider him much more worthy than some of the stupid crap characters in the Smash Bros. series. Ice Climbers anyone?

I didn't like anything past Syphon Filter 2, and Ice Climbers are classic

[Aussie2B]

Maybe not you to, but to other people that like the characters, sure. How many characters are in Super Smash Bros Melee and Brawl do you think most people cared about before playing? I guarantee not too many.

It's not about what characters people like. I like Parappa, but that doesn't make him an "all-star". It's about characters that are well-recognized and significant to the industry. An icon and mascot of gaming.

With Smash Bros., I'd say people care about: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Yoshi, Link, Zelda, Ganondorf, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Fox, Pikachu and the other Pokemon, Samus, Sonic, Snake, and Wario. That's being generous to you because I'm leaving out the characters that are still quite significant but aren't nearly as huge, and I'm leaving out the alternate versions of characters too. All of these characters are incredibly well-known (and the characters themselves are popular, not just the games like with Killzone), in hugely successful series that continue to be made and continue to see huge success, and they've been historically a part of and important to the industry for a very long time. Sure, it's great to include some lesser-known characters like Pit and the Ice Climbers, but that's not the backbone of Smash Bros. Sony's game is the equivalent of nothing but Ice Climbers.

Also, something significant to take note of with Smash Bros. is that it's made in Japan, so it's going to be designed with a Japanese audience in mind. Some of the characters that were totally unknown in the West were included because they are as significant to the Japanese as the other characters I listed off. Just because Fire Emblem is niche in the US (and unknown when Roy and Marth first appeared in Smash Bros.) doesn't mean that Marth isn't right up there with Mario, Link, and company in Japan. Same deal (to a somewhat lesser extent) with characters like Ness and Lucas.

Anyway, if the people involved in this Sony project had a creative hair on their collective heads and actually came up with this concept many years ago, they would've been far better served by it. Most of the characters included or proposed haven't been relevant since the PS2, if not the PS1. This would've worked best as a late PS1 or early PS2 title. Then games like Crash, Spyro, Parappa, Medievil, Twisted Metal, etc. would've still been legitimately popular and well-known. Then they could've just got some good third party characters like Lara Croft and Leon or whoever from Resident Evil, and they'd have a half-decent line-up of somewhat mascot-worthy characters. Why they're making this game when they have essentially zero mascot characters is beyond me.

[kupomogli]

Also, something significant to take note of with Smash Bros. is that it's made in Japan, so it's going to be designed with a Japanese audience in mind. Some of the characters that were totally unknown in the West were included because they are as significant to the Japanese as the other characters I listed off. Just because Fire Emblem is niche in the US (and unknown when Roy and Marth first appeared in Smash Bros.) doesn't mean that Marth isn't right up there with Mario, Link, and company in Japan.

O rly? Marth is up there with Mario and such, huh? Is that why every Fire Emblem game released since, although doing fairly poorly in the US, does much better than they did in Japan? The series had no fanbase in the west, but don't bullshit and say it did so well in Japan when it hasn't and even now it isn't.

In comparison, Arc the Lad actually did well in Japan. Didn't do well in the US though.

Most of the characters included or proposed haven't been relevant since the PS2, if not the PS1.

Really now? Twisted Metal has had both PSP releases and the recently released PS3 title, Sly Cooper 4 was recently announced and along with others was in a PS3 game, Infamous is this gen, Uncharted is this gen, Jak and Daxter was in a PS3 and a PSP game, Ratchet and Clank had several PSP and PS3 games, LBP is this gen, Syphon Filter had two PSP games, Medievil had a PSP game, and Resistance had a few PSP and PS3 games. Most of their character roster is either newer, or has had some somewhat newly released titles.

When Smash Bros was released, how relevant was Samus with Super Metroid as the most previous release? Even now, Metroid hasn't been even remotely as popular as it has been since the SNES. When Melee was released, the last game Marth was in was on the SNES. I agree, these characters as well as others like Game and Watch, Ice Climbers, ROB, Pit, and Ness are all irrelevant based on the time period their Smash Bros title was released.

Why they're making this game when they have essentially zero mascot characters is beyond me.

Maybe because it's based on 17 years of Playstation history and not based around being able to milk the same few characters for nearly 30 years.

Not being a mascot character doesn't make the character any less liked. If you're a fan of the series of games, no matter if the series is dropped off like Arc the Lad, if the character has only been in a single game like with Shadow of the Colossus, or if it's a brand new series with a character like Nathan Drake. If you like the character then you like the character. The game is for Playstation fans then and now. If you don't give a damn about the characters and want to focus on the fact that the game is a ripoff of Smash Bros, then it's quite obvious the game isn't for you, because no matter how great a game it is or not, it wouldn't get the chance to prove it.