Sony's Smash Bros wannabe: What went wrong for PlayStation All-Stars?

Ninemsn games writes: It seemed like the right thing to do: gather the best characters PlayStation has to offer — and there are plenty of worthwhile brawlers among the group — and build a fighting game befitting of the same competitive jousting seen in Nintendo's iconic Smash Bros franchise. Yet, PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale never reached the heights of the Mario-led Smash Bros.

It was always going to be an uphill battle for Sony's little brawler that could, and with news that downloadable content would no longer be released for the game, the game's small — sometimes vocal — community may have little incentive to stick around.

So what went wrong for PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale?

[willie32]

Alot.

[crxss]

if they copied smash brothers more it'd be totally fine.

[crillinFLIP337]

personally I liked their unique approach to fighting. I just wish it had more depth to it. Story mode was good just for trophies and fighting online is only fun for so long. Would have loved if they had level editors so people could build and post custom arenas

[ShinMaster]

I played it with friends. It was pretty fun.

Although I can see how people would dislike it if played solo.

Also, I think articles with titles like this and claims of it being either too much like SSB or not enough like SSB might have something to do with it.

[Xer0_SiN]

i guess selling over a million copies is wrong these days.

[Knushwood Butt]

Top tip (not to willie32, but to anyone reading):

If you see spam, hit the report button, and report it as spam.

The mods are good at dealing with it.

[Nik_P757]

They didn't knock it out the park with there first attempt but it is an enjoyable game and a good base to improve from if they decide to give it another shot. It has a lot of potential.

[Zodiac]

Titles like these certainly did not help it's reputation.

[Hicken]

Yea, it's hard to be successful when you get slammed for being like something, and slammed for NOT being like that same thing.

[GameCents]

A great game rises above those sorts of silly criticisms.
Take Saint's Row for instance, cast under GTA's shadow but carved out its own path to success despite the comparisons.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

@GameCents yeah but THQ did have a recognizable franchise that eventually wasn't GTA's Shadow. Saints Row focused on Gang life and respect and Saint fans understood that.

I hated the direction change in 4. Its like they gave up and focused on the crowd of 12 year olds. There was a difference in GTA and Saints.

GTA focused on you making it in a big city, and making a name for yourself. Saints is making a name for you and your gang.

There's no way I'm playing that trash heap they call "Saints Row 4" until they refocus on what its suppose to be about.

As for PSAS, this game had a good premise that just fell short. Not because its a "clone" of an original premise.

[nigelp520]

Great game but here are my flaws

-Lack of Hidden Characters/stages/modes
-Weak Story mode
-Lack of variety in gameplay modes
-Lack of balance
-Not many items
-all characters should of had stages

[Whymii]

I'm sure you have your good points too.

[nigelp520]

Good things about the game

-Acknowledges Polygon Man. Original Ps mascot
-Fun gameplay
-Crossover stages are a great idea
-Cross buy was sweet
-I actually dig the special moves
-Forgotten ps1 characters and even that cat toko i think is a neat touch to have

[Whymii]

That's better, I knew you would find the good in yourself if you stopped looking at the negative.

[MiasmaDodo]

No Crash, Laura, Snake, Croc, Spyro....

kinda a big deal breaker for some.

[Minato-Namikaze]

3rd party characters are hard to get. You're at the mercy of the IP holder.

[colonel179]

Characters was its biggest flaw. There was so much potential and characters to choose form, but when they announced two versions of the same character (Cole), didn't speak well for the game. They also chose to be a commercial for upcoming games (DMC, MG Rising) instead of focusing on characters everybody wanted (Crash, Spyro, etc).

Another thing was that they should have started the project UNTIL they got the licenses for Crash, Spyro, and classic PS characters. Otherwise, the game shouldn't have existed in the first place.

[Minato-Namikaze]

posts like this make me weep for the gaming community

[TheGOODKyle]

Not enoughe dedicated, appropriate, and most wanted characters.

[jakmckratos]

Supers kill system was always going to be unbalanced.

Story mode was absolutely forgetful

Lack of anything to do outside of regular fighting

A short roster list with nonsensical 3rd party additions, lack of critical first party characters and most importantly NO CRASH BANDICOOT OR SPYRO!

Also idk bout you but I thought the levels were quite static and not as frantic as I would have liked it to be.

[Shad0wRunner]

You could have every character in Playstation history in there and it wouldnt have mattered.

The game failed because it tried too hard to copy Nintendo's Smash Bros. Saints row was a decent game for what it was, even tho it was too similiar to GTA...but GTA is still better. It's like comparing Coke to RC Cola. No matter how similiar they taste, coke is still better.

And brawler games are better on a Nintendo platform....where casuals sell more and are more popular.

[christheredhead]

Personally, they didn't try hard enough to copy Smash Bros. I would have loved a Playstation version of SSB, but this was not that kind of game.

It was a good first attempt, but fell way short of expectations. The game was severely lacking in almost every core component.

Maybe a sequel on PS4 can bring it back.

[Kevlar009]

From what I heard (and by your analogy) Nintendo made Coke and Sony made a lesser knock-off of Sprite. They were both Soda's, different styles though Nintendo had a better poduct not matter how you looked at it.

Sony did not have control over every core franchise from their history, nor did they put their full weight behind the game. People were crying out for Crash and Spyro. Why weren't they available? Because Sony didn't own them, Activision did. Why no Final Fantasy or MGS? Most likely because Sony didn't use their influence to get them in the game. HAL Laboratores has full support from Nintendo. When they need Pokemon, or Fire Emblem, or Mario, or any one major Nintendo franchise Sakurai pushes the button and he gets them

Also the sad truth is Smash has more reputation. Legend has it Kojima practically begged for Snake to be in Melee, one Gen later he was in Brawl. Smash is a respectable frachise known for quality and just as importantly fun and variety. When you compare All-Stars to the original Smash one could argue that Smash wasn't perfect and with only 12 characters wasn't much better. To say "All-Stars is doomed because of one game" is a bit silly. There is nothing to compare the game to except for the greatness of Smash.

It was a solid effort but for being the first game in a potential franchise didn't have a whole lot to work with. I'd love to see the franchise develop, to see how can the future Devs and Sony learn from their mistakes and make a great brawler.

[Williamson]

Played nothing like smash imo, the game needed to be placed in the hands of a more capable developer than superbot since it was an important game that needed to celebrate the history of PlayStation. Super bot did a great job on a not so easy task and managed to create an unique fighting game, the kills with only supers was an interesting concept that would of been better off as an additional type of mode in favor of HP.

[Apex13]

It was a clone that's why. It was just like Crash Nitro trying to copy Mario.

I like sony but they need to be original with their mascots.

[memots]

Why is there something wrong with it?

I enjoy it quite a bit and so are the hundreds of thousand of peoples who bought it. Nothing is wrong with this game in in my book.

So if it didn't sell like Halo must mean its "Teh Fails"
I play games not "TehSales"

[Shad0wRunner]

LMAO, stop over exaggerating. The game didnt even sell "hundreds of thousands" of copies, make hundreds of thousands of dollars or even get hundreds of thousands of people to play it.

And yes, that IS the general standard. Not just MY standard, either. If a game doesnt sell very well, theres a reason for that. It's because most people who were shopping for games to buy, saw it and passed it up over something better.

I play games too. But even I have my standards as a gamer. If it doesnt fall within those standards...I wont buy it or play it.

You dont have to play everything in the world, good or bad...to be a true gamer.

[memots]

True gamer he?

So if i read you right. It has to sell X amount "your standard" for you to play it?

Wow

[Whymii]

A true gamer plays games, not numbers. According to you standards are linked to sales, well Mac Donald's sells a billion burgers a day but that doesn't make them taste any better.

A smart gamer selects the games that best suits them and does not blindly follow the herd like a sheep. To call yourself a true gamer is an insult to us 'true gamers'.

[jukins]

actually it sold little over a million.

[Y_5150]

I enjoyed the game! I love playing the game to this day although I've been playing it less and less. All the characters were fairly balanced for a fighter and the gameplay was fun. But really the story modes packed potential and there could have been more options to play the game.

[Shad0wRunner]

Yes. Im very picky with my games. Im not one to just "play anything."

[ConsoleHQ]

I made a video sort of like this but I'm a bit more positive and not quick to call it a Smash clone.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...
If anyone is interested.

Thanks!

[breakpad]

what went wrong??? near everything ...no REAL Playstation trademark characters (Crash,Solid Snake,Dante(real dante not the faggot from DMC, Cloud or Sephiroth(instead you put Lightning? who the fuck knows Lightning and come from bad FFgame... Jak and Daxter were good games but not representative and many more. Also the game was given for developement to a non japanese developer ,big mistake ..the only guys in this that know from fighting games and brawlers are japanese....Sony screwing herself again and again with failure games ..it so simple grab some AAA japanese made games Sony ...

[Master-H]

Well i haven't tried the game yet but i plan on buying it soon for cheap, from the criticism i hear, probably what really was wrong with the game is the studio that made it , SuperBot Entertainment with help from SSM, if the whole game was made by SSM i'm sure it would have been better ,but the most ideal team for this would have been Naughty Dog imo, why? because they once made a Mario Kart clone and they knocked it out of the park , CTR. just imagine PS all stars made by the people that made CTR, probably would have been a classic . but oh well, hopefully the sequel will be an improvement.

[Knushwood Butt]

I would have picked it up, but there was too much else on my plate at the time (unplayed games that I own, other new releases) which meant that I had to prioritise other stuff.