Jubenhimer
Member
For almost than 25 years, Sony Interactive's PlayStation brand has ammassed an array of iconic gaming icons. From Crash Bandicoot, to Nathan Drake, to Ratchet and Clank, to Kratos, and Joel and Ellie. Plus a line of third party characters heavily associated with the brand like Sora, Dante, and Lara Croft. With such a rich history, you'd think putting them in a crossover would be a no-brainer, but the first attempt had less than stellar results.
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale was both Sony's answer to Nintendo's wildly popular Super Smash Bros. series, as well as their first foray into the fighting game genre. The game received mixed reviews and controversy from the PlayStation audience. Many felt the game was too similar to Nintendo's offering and the system of using Supers to kill and a divisive roster led to developer Super-Bot Entertainment shutting down due to poor sales.
It's safe to say it was a flop, but the idea of a PlayStation cross-over fighter is one that still has some potential. Here's what it needs to succeed this time though.
1.) Create a different system for KOs - I get that you wanted to differentiate yourself from Smash's Ring out system, but the Super mechanic felt broken and made the game a camp-fest. Just run away for as long as possible, find and opening, and farm your netter like a Cow. Come up with some more original way to get kills instead. Something that's fun, but also feels like a balanced mechanic
2.) Get a better roster - PABR's roster wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. Some nice choices made it in like Ratchet and Clank and Kratos, but some glaring ommisions like Crash and Spyro, and the baffling decision to choose DmC Dante over the real Dante. Get some better choices this time. Get Crash and Spyro. Get Sora, Lara Croft, Alloy, Joel and Ellie, 2B, Noctis, Big Boss, even Fucking Knack.
3.) Make it tournament friendly - in an age of Twitch streaming and eSports going mainstream, giving your fighter some depth for tournament play is more important than ever. Nintendo learned this with Smash Bros. Wii U and especially Ultimate. If Sony wants their game to succeed in a competitive environment, they need to give their game some depth. A big reason why Smash Bros. Is so popular is because it's easy to pick up and enjoy for those who don't play fighting games, but also has a lot of intracacies and depth for those who take it more seriously. Sony's game needs a similar kind of depth of it want to thrive in the tournament scene.
4.) More stuff to do - A big problem with the original game was the lack of content. There were only 20 characters and a handful of stages, with some basic modes. Cool, but for $60, people want more. Give them more modes, more single player stuff. Keep the game updated with DLC characters and free content. Make it you flagship Service multiplayer game.
I think Sony can do a Smash clone pretty well, but they have to get it right this time.
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale was both Sony's answer to Nintendo's wildly popular Super Smash Bros. series, as well as their first foray into the fighting game genre. The game received mixed reviews and controversy from the PlayStation audience. Many felt the game was too similar to Nintendo's offering and the system of using Supers to kill and a divisive roster led to developer Super-Bot Entertainment shutting down due to poor sales.
It's safe to say it was a flop, but the idea of a PlayStation cross-over fighter is one that still has some potential. Here's what it needs to succeed this time though.
1.) Create a different system for KOs - I get that you wanted to differentiate yourself from Smash's Ring out system, but the Super mechanic felt broken and made the game a camp-fest. Just run away for as long as possible, find and opening, and farm your netter like a Cow. Come up with some more original way to get kills instead. Something that's fun, but also feels like a balanced mechanic
2.) Get a better roster - PABR's roster wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. Some nice choices made it in like Ratchet and Clank and Kratos, but some glaring ommisions like Crash and Spyro, and the baffling decision to choose DmC Dante over the real Dante. Get some better choices this time. Get Crash and Spyro. Get Sora, Lara Croft, Alloy, Joel and Ellie, 2B, Noctis, Big Boss, even Fucking Knack.
3.) Make it tournament friendly - in an age of Twitch streaming and eSports going mainstream, giving your fighter some depth for tournament play is more important than ever. Nintendo learned this with Smash Bros. Wii U and especially Ultimate. If Sony wants their game to succeed in a competitive environment, they need to give their game some depth. A big reason why Smash Bros. Is so popular is because it's easy to pick up and enjoy for those who don't play fighting games, but also has a lot of intracacies and depth for those who take it more seriously. Sony's game needs a similar kind of depth of it want to thrive in the tournament scene.
4.) More stuff to do - A big problem with the original game was the lack of content. There were only 20 characters and a handful of stages, with some basic modes. Cool, but for $60, people want more. Give them more modes, more single player stuff. Keep the game updated with DLC characters and free content. Make it you flagship Service multiplayer game.
I think Sony can do a Smash clone pretty well, but they have to get it right this time.