Sony Drops PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale Studio

[Sould1n]

Well, this is a shame. I really liked PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. Sure there was a lack of modes to play with, but unlike fighting games such as the recent Soul Calibur games or Marvel vs. Capcom 3, it never felt like a game breaker. Maybe it's because the multiplayer was so enjoyable, that even playing on my own felt satisfying. The gameplay was great, almost all of the characters were enjoyable to play as (my only complaint would be Raiden, all of his attacks feel the same), the rivalry cut scenes were entertaining and made me wish for more, and the stages... the stages were the best part.

On almost level I would argue that Super Smash Bros Brawl is the better game but the stages in PlayStation All-Stars were absolutely astounding. I love the crossover aspect, the stage hazards fit in perfectly, and the way they then used the stage hazards for the fight against Polygon Man made it one of the most enjoyable boss fights I have ever experienced, at least in a fighting game. It provided a fair amount of challenge, but not in an annoyingly overpowered way.

As far as characters go, well, when they included Spike and Sir Dan I was pretty much satisfied. I personally would have preferred them to have avoided using third party characters, even if Heihachi Mishima is my second most frequently played character, but that's not too big of a problem. So my only real complaint to the character selection stands at a lack of Japanese oriented/JRPG characters or stages, I would have loved to have seen anything from Legend of Dragoon appear in the game.

Wow so much hate for this game to be honest I love it. This was my favorite game this year a ton of fun. Anybody I know who actually bothered to play it for more than 2 seconds has comes to greatly enjoy it and most have wanted to go out and buy a copy by the end of the night.

I think wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy to many people blew this game off just for being like smash without giving a chance. Besides if you like smash wouldn't you want another game that is like it, that way you have twice the fun!

It wasn't my favourite game of the year but it was certainly amongst them. When my brothers and I first played this game we did so from seven to way past midnight, a similar thing we've done unintentionally with all the Super Smash Bros games we played.

From reading forums and comments concerning the upcoming release of this game, it really did feel like no one was going to be giving the game a chance. So many people has decided it was a SSB rip-off, rather than thinking of it as an SSB style of game (I like to term them platforming-fighter or just Brawler for short). I've wanted plenty of SSB styled games before, but the likes of Battle Stadium D.O.N and DreamMix TV World Fighters just never came to this country. PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale actually making it to the UK was a real treat.

first off, i watched those videos

they feel...glacial is what i would say compared to ssb

second point i want to make is that nintendo did the "put character in for a game that isn't out yet" thing with pit, but i guess that can be overlooked because it was only one character, and pit's actually a character you can like and also his game was actually fun (complaints about control scheme nonwithstanding)

anyway

even cartoon network's "game" used characters that people liked and recognized even if the voice acting turned out entirely wrong

i think sony could have afforded to put more effort into the first try than they did with this, and trying to make up for it now will be harder

In regards to your "put character in for a game that isn't out yet" point concerning Super Smash Bros, that is true, though it wasn't in regards to Pit. The character that was placed into a Super Smash Bros game before his own game came out was Roy, who was put into Super Smash Bros Melee, released in November 2001, in order to promote Fire Emblem: Fūin no Tsurugi, released in March 2002. It's for this reason I was never bothered by Roy's removal in Brawl, he was only put in as a marketing ploy in the first place.

 

[StriderShinryu]

While I can't say I have any interest at all in the game, I do feel for SuperBot. There's some really talented people in that company that deserve better. Hope they can keep things rolling and come out with another game or two that has better success.

 

[F'Angus]

That's highly disappointing. All Stars was a really good game, and the effort Super Bot put into making every character play with their personal fighting style deserves recognition, will Santa Monica studio continue that for the dlc to come?

 

[Darmy647]

Ok, as sad as i am they are getting this end of the stick, ill be brutally honest. Yes i am one of those people that called it a smash bros rip off. But i did purchase it in full about a week ago to give it a honest gods chance to wow me. It didnt even come close. Lack of items, Lack of stages (the amount was so short because they wanted to fuse them all together for transitional stages. Which works fine, until you realise you put in way too less), Lack of any Types of single player component. Ive made the complaint here and there that CoD wouldn't be what it is now without Relying SOLEY on its multiplayer, but its managed to do that, Just like Unreal Tournament has, but this game literally RELIES on the factor people will play this online constantly. Dont get me wrong, the online was fun, but I enjoy doing a few things on my own. I didnt expect ground breaking arcade/story modes either, since i saw the lack of single player material, i knew they didn't give two fucks about any try for singleplayer.

So yeah. Sad to see them get the boot, but i'll be brutally honest, Super smash bros is well known. Im not saying they should have literally copied hardcore from it, but i really think they should have looked at the source material a little better. Why? Sony honestly has all the resources, characters, items, to do what smash bros does, and if they tried? They could probably do it better. But they didnt. Mean? maybe a little. brutally honest? Yes. I can wager you if they just released a content pack for singleplayer and for items, I'd pick it up again. But games like smash bros PROVED they can be extremely fun and satisfying without the need for online play filling that void. So heres to hoping they realise this and save the remnants of their studio. If not...well...farewell...

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Ok so you get it but you have to keep in mind that if a company doesn't want to lend their characters or superbot doesn't have the budget to meet the costs (especially from low sales) they won't be able to use those characters. It isn't like they ask and all the studios come running. Just because those characters games are exclusives doesn't mean those studios are sonys partners or they have some kind of standing deal or anything.

Here's the thing with your point. It assumes that Sony even bothered asking companies for characters. Clearly that's not the case. They chose the characters they chose to try and sell a bunch of new titles and old Sony titles.

Think about it for a second. We haven't seen a bunch of characters grace a Sony console in, with some cases, years. A lot of the games they could get characters from are from small developers/publishers. It would be pretty cheap for Sony as the publisher to get some characters to bolster the nostalgia factor of the "x" vs. "x" crossover game. Hell, look at Smash Bros Melee. Everywhere that wasn't Japan had not seen a Fire Emblem game since the SNES. The SBM came out and showed us Marth and Roy. Next thing you know a bunch of Fire Emblem games are becoming constantly decent sellers. Look at how Lucas from Mother 3 showed up in SBB. Look at how the fans were frothing at the mouth for Nintendo to localize Mother 3.

Look, I understand the point you're trying to make, but at the end of the day Sony came at this not to unseat Nintendo's crossover fighter, but to rip it off and sell some games. And it didn't work. Everyone's biggest gripe with the game is the characters.

 

[BooTsPs3]

Wow so much hate for this game to be honest I love it. This was my favorite game this year a ton of fun. Anybody I know who actually bothered to play it for more than 2 seconds has comes to greatly enjoy it and most have wanted to go out and buy a copy by the end of the night.

I think wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy to many people blew this game off just for being like smash without giving a chance. Besides if you like smash wouldn't you want another game that is like it, that way you have twice the fun!

I agree.

I took a chance with it and I fell in love with it after I got used to how the game was doing things. I liked what they did with the character moves, and how the stage will attack you. Besides, if you're gonna 'rip off' something then why not a game that does things well. Last time I checked games have been ripping each other off for years, so I don't get why this one gets a special mention.

Loads of fun and really crazy when you get four people/characters all together.

Umm sweet tooths level 1 is one of the best in the game. You get it extremely quickly, it's telegraph is short and doesn't draw attention and it's explosion can pull some extra kills by catching people off guard and you can time it when people are getting up to make it unblockable. Someone hasn't played the game and just watched game grumps...

 

[glyngaris]

I'm so glad that they laid off that shit dev. I was so pissed when All stars turned out like it did.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Wow so much hate for this game to be honest I love it. This was my favorite game this year a ton of fun. Anybody I know who actually bothered to play it for more than 2 seconds has comes to greatly enjoy it and most have wanted to go out and buy a copy by the end of the night.

I think wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy to many people blew this game off just for being like smash without giving a chance. Besides if you like smash wouldn't you want another game that is like it, that way you have twice the fun!

I agree.

I took a chance with it and I fell in love with it after I got used to how the game was doing things. I liked what they did with the character moves, and how the stage will attack you. Besides, if you're gonna 'rip off' something then why not a game that does things well. Last time I checked games have been ripping each other off for years, so I don't get why this one gets a special mention.

Loads of fun and really crazy when you get four people/characters all together.

Umm sweet tooths level 1 is one of the best in the game. You get it extremely quickly, it's telegraph is short and doesn't draw attention and it's explosion can pull some extra kills by catching people off guard and you can time it when people are getting up to make it unblockable. Someone hasn't played the game and just watched game grumps...

I've never played Sweet Tooth because his character doesn't interest me at all. That and I don't like Twisted Metal. I play mainly as Sly and Kratos, so I wouldn't know about Sweet Tooth.

Also, I think you are quoting the wrong person because I'm a little lost at your comment.

 

[songnar]

Totally needs Gex; Lara Croft; Crash Bandicoot; Max Payne; Old Snake; The Prince (Katamari); Cloud Strife; Wander; Spyro... the list goes on!!!

 

[PxDn Ninja]

Wow, lots of hate for All Stars on here.

Personally I think All Stars is miles above Smash Bros in terms of quality, gameplay, and entertainment value. I would have liked to see more characters, or at least different characters, but I am certain the sequel will fix that.

Well, I was with SuperBot. I assume SSM can handle the project as well. Time will tell.

 

[Beautiful End]

I was actually rooting for this game because I thought they would add more Sony exclusive characters. Yeah, I know that as much as we'd love to see Crash and Spyro join in, they won't do it because they belong to someone else now. But characters like Tomba, maybe someone from The Legend of Dragoon, yes, someone from Final Fantasy...I don't know; it seems they were going the right direction with Sir Daniel being in the game but then they pussied out at the very last secnd and we got two Coles, lame Dante, Raiden and so on.

See, the thing with SSB is that they included "obscure" characters without the intention of selling their games. Characters like Ice Climbers, Mr. Game and Watch, even Kid Icarus (back then) were old school. Some people might go back and play their original games but that's about it. It was just a nod to the characters that made Nintendo what it is today. And like I said, as much I want to love this game, it's obvious it was meant to be a giant ad disguised as a game.

But I still think it has potential. I'd love to see a sequel with all its current problems fixed. And I'll probably still buy this game when it goes down in price.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Ok so you get it but you have to keep in mind that if a company doesn't want to lend their characters or superbot doesn't have the budget to meet the costs (especially from low sales) they won't be able to use those characters. It isn't like they ask and all the studios come running. Just because those characters games are exclusives doesn't mean those studios are sonys partners or they have some kind of standing deal or anything.

Here's the thing with your point. It assumes that Sony even bothered asking companies for characters. Clearly that's not the case.

What?

Do you even know how copyright law works? Sony cannot use characters without the express, written permission of the publishers who won the rights to those characters. If Sony had just used a bunch of characters owned by other companies without even asking, they would currently be getting sued into oblivion.

This is basic copyright law. If another company owns a character, you ask for permission and pay them for the rights to use that character. If you don't, you're in breach of copyright law, and they can sue you for everything you're worth. That's how it works.

You must not have all of what I said because you missed the context of what I meant completely. I was commenting on the fact that Sony didn't bother getting the licences to use, in my opinion, much better characters for this game. Go back and read the whole thing.

They chose the characters they chose to try and sell a bunch of new titles and old Sony titles.

Think about it for a second. We haven't seen a bunch of characters grace a Sony console in, with some cases, years. A lot of the games they could get characters from are from small developers/publishers. It would be pretty cheap for Sony as the publisher to get some characters to bolster the nostalgia factor of the "x" vs. "x" crossover game. Hell, look at Smash Bros Melee. Everywhere that wasn't Japan had not seen a Fire Emblem game since the SNES. The SBM came out and showed us Marth and Roy. Next thing you know a bunch of Fire Emblem games are becoming constantly decent sellers. Look at how Lucas from Mother 3 showed up in SBB. Look at how the fans were frothing at the mouth for Nintendo to localize Mother 3.

Yeah, the thing is, Nintendo owns Fire Emblem. It's one of their in-house properties. Also you're wrong on Fire Emblem- they'd been releasing FE games on the GBA in America and Europe years before the Wii came out.

Either way, yes SSBB increased the profile of the FE series. And Nintendo, being the owner of the series, directly profited from it.

Sony doesn't own the Devil May Cry series. They don't own the Bioshock series. They don't own Tekken or Metal Gear. They wouldn't have benefited from including those games in the same way Nintendo did from things like Fire Emblem, so the comparison isn't an apt one.

Which kind of helps my argument significantly jeffers... I mentioned this very fact a couple of posts ago. In fact I used the point that Nintendo doesn't own Solid Snake due got licencing for SSBB, which in turn would prove that Sony could have reached into the nostalgia pit if the PSOne and PS2 to pull some characters from.


You clearly didn't read my point at all, why jump into an already ongoing debate when you don't know what's being argued?

 

[Innegativeion]

second point i want to make is that nintendo did the "put character in for a game that isn't out yet"

Except... not

Pit was put in following the prequel's similar addition of classic characters ice climbers & Game and Watch. He, along with ROB.

And his game wouldn't have gotten made if Pit wasn't put in Brawl. Sakurai decided to make it simply because he adored Pit's redesigned look.


Not that it's relevant or anything. Just felt I should point that out.

Also you're wrong on Fire Emblem- they'd been releasing FE games on the GBA in America and Europe years before the Wii came out.

Uh, yes, because of Marth and Roy's appearance in melee, which was for the GAMECUBE.

See, the thing with SSB is that they included "obscure" characters without the intention of selling their games. Characters like Ice Climbers, Mr. Game and Watch, even Kid Icarus (back then) were old school. Some people might go back and play their original games but that's about it. It was just a nod to the characters that made Nintendo what it is today. And like I said, as much I want to love this game, it's obvious it was meant to be a giant ad disguised as a game.

Agreed. Smash Bros. has always felt like a love letter to its fans, and a work of nostalgic passion for its development team. The existence of the Smash Bros. Dojo website, the existence of Kid Icarus: Uprising, Sakurai's commitment to make a 4th game despite prior saying he was done with the series, just goes to show how excited he and his team are about Nintendo and its history.

All Stars was not handled with the same kind of passion, it seems. Either due to the developer's disinterest, or Sony mandating certain characters on a limited budget.

Also having the core failure condition of super moves was a super (idiotic) move.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Also you're wrong on Fire Emblem- they'd been releasing FE games on the GBA in America and Europe years before the Wii came out.

Uh, yes, because of Marth and Roy's appearance in melee, which was for the GAMECUBE.

You seemed to have quoted me for something I didn't say here. May wanna edit that.