He's right, I don't get why there's such backlash. Sony could have done a 4 player mascot brawler with their own characters and its own unique feel but they just decided to make a Smash Bros with their own characters. It's pretty sad to see all those familiar elements, altered or not. The platforms, the moves knocking characters off the levels with players trying to get them back on, etc, it's quite a distinct feel, whether they alter it or not, as the various sequels do that themselves anyway, it's not that major. Of course it happens all the time in this industry, that's not going to suddenly make people in the know who realize it praise it and it's not exactly as prominent and hard hitting when some nobody indie rips off a flash game on iOS.
Most of the time you can tell when something is merely inspired by another product versus ripping it off then changing things here and there. Cave Story doesn't look or play like a mere Super Metroid reskin with deliberate changes done just to avoid trouble, while The Great Giana Sisters (the original, obviously) does seem like a rather dodgy Super Mario Bros. reskin which was rightfully banned from sale. I'm not saying this game is as bad as the latter, but yeah, all the backlash reminds me of the people saying Move is so very different. There have been other 4 player brawlers that, good or bad, didn't look anything like Smash, like Power Stone and Thrill Kill. There have also been other rip offs like that TMNT one but I guess some people expect better from Sony than Ubisoft's low budget licensed shovelware (even if they hired devs involved with Smash, iirc) while others are fine with that.
PS: I'm not even a fan of Super Smash Bros., I only actually own Brawl yet have barely played it, nothing makes Sony's efforts look more appealing either (naturally, since not even the strength of Nintendo's IP could get me to like this sort of game).
Trollol.