Gamers following the development of Sony’s Super Smash Bros-inspired title, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, have been (for the most part) split down the middle. Some fans are excited to see their favorite Sony brand characters injected into Nintendo’s extremely popular Smash Bros format – while others have referred to the upcoming brawler as a “clone” from day one.
Apparently, Bayonetta designer, Hideki Kamiya, is in the latter camp – asserting that PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is “just a rip-off” as well as calling out SuperBot Entertainment and Sony for “throw[ing] morals away.” However, given a vocal group of supportive gamers, is it a bad thing for Sony to simply give perspective buyers what they want?
Kamiya kicked-off the debate by responding to a fan who asked if gamers might see Viewtiful Joe in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, the developer said, “Ask Capcom.” Though, when the Twitter user rephrased the question, “Would you like to see him in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale?” Kamiya was more candid with his feelings:
“No. I don’t like that game.”
Pressed by the community to elaborate, Kamiya went on to say that the game is “Just a rip-off” – before freely admitting that he’s never even played PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.
“No way. RT @Jumbadabum Cool, you played it? @PG_kamiya: No. I don’t like that game.”
Developers, just like fans, are entitled to their own opinion on games. There has been, without question, a lot of PlayStation players who wanted to see Sony characters in a similar offering for the PS3 – so, in this case, is it a bad thing to give the people what they want? Unsurprisingly, Kamiya didn’t side with SuperBot’s Super Smash Bros. attempt.
Responding to another Tweet from the same fan, who argued that Sony was merely “listening to fans,” the game designer went on to accuse PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale developers of having no morals.
“And throw morals away. Great. RT @Jumbadabum Fans asked for a PS Smash. Listening to fans + following a successful series sounds good.”
Whether you’re excited for the game or not, there’s reason to wonder if SuperBot and Sony are clinging too close to the Super Smash Bros. format (read our PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale E3 preview) – as, at least in terms of what we’ve played, the game presents a weird mix of (arguably) copy-and-pasted ideas along with new (and less enjoyable) iterations on the format. As a result, the title is stuck in a weird middle ground where it’s too close to Smash Bros. to avoid comparisons – while at the same time not fresh enough to improve upon the format.
Which leads to a much bigger, and more interesting, question: where is the line between giving the people what they want and ripping-off an established franchise? Obviously, Kamiya has a strong opinion and it’s easy to see where he’s coming from (given the game’s obvious similarities) but what if the “rip-off” actually turns out to be just as fun as Smash Bros.? While there’s plenty of innovation in the video game industry, it’s not like the market isn’t full of titles that borrow heavily – albeit not quite as obviously as PlayStation All-Stars.
Many fans will be able to forgive (and maybe even applaud) SuperBot for their no-holds barred iteration of the Super Smash Bros. formula; however, if the gameplay isn’t as fun, then the developers will have set themselves up for heated backlash. Given the amount of ideas that are borrowed coupled with the additional time the developers have been allowed to make improvements (not just swap in their characters and stages), it’d be extremely disappointing if they can’t, at the very least, match the enjoyment of the original concept.
Ultimately, the jury is still out on PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, even if Kamiya has made up his mind, given that there are still a number of characters and modes yet to be revealed by Sony. That said, is giving players what they asked for a bad thing? What if a game developer could “rip-off” a successful series and provide players with an even better experience?
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Follow me on Twitter @benkendrick for further updates on PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale as well as other movie, TV, and gaming news.
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale releases October 23, 2012 for PS3.
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Just like the Move is just a rip-off of the Wii-mote??
Inspired by, because we all know the Move is much better than a Wii-mote.
So then PSASBR is inspired by SSB, not a rip-off? I call it a rip-off. That said, I’m gonna preorder because I still think it will be a good game. Rip-offs can be good.
Not it is not a rip off. A rip off is an exact clone without any changes. PSASBR is inspired fully by Super Smash Bros. and the dev’s aren’t afraid to say it. PSASBR changes things with the Smash Bros formula and try’s to take it in new directions.
I think that earns you a bonus in your next paycheck by Sony…
While Sony is my preferred choice of the big 3 console manufacturers, I am by no means a Sony fanboy. I actually prefer Smash Bros over P. All Stars by a long shot, but that doesn’t keep me from saying that Sony and Superbot are doing new things with the formula, even if they are things I don’t agree with. You don’t even want to know the amount of time I’ve put into the Smash Bros games, they hold a special place in my gamer heart.
rip-off (rpôf, -f)
n. Slang
1. A product or service that is overpriced or of poor quality.
2. Something, such as a film or story, that is clearly imitative of or based on something else.
3. A theft.
4. An act of exploitation.
If you read #2, a rip-off is not an exact clone of something. It’s something that’s clearly imitative of or based on something else. You said it yourself that SuperBot isn’t afraid to say that PSASBR is “inspired fully” by SSB. Is “inspired fully” basically the same thing as imitative? Yes. All you have to do is watch some gameplay of PSASBR and SSB to see that the former is clearly imitative of the latter.
whole lotta sony playstation hate going on around here just saying and no i dont recieve a paycheck from sony just another poor gamer who works at a home improvement store
Except, look at this.
Sony was doing it long before Wii-Mote.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mheOtyWNjV0&feature=g-wl
I was going to point that out, but thanks for doing the job for me lol, [facepalm] to people who dunno wtf they’re talking about xD
@Matt If you take that definition of ‘rip-off literally, then almost every game is practically a rip-off now.
But there’s a line between rip-off and implementing a feature or mechanic that other games happen to have. Take Watch Dogs for example. It’s set in a big city and it’s an open-world game, but would you classify it as a GTA rip-off? No. The gameplay is completely different. In PSASBR’s case, it is VERY similar to SSB. There are many things that it borrows from SSB. It plays very similar to SSB.
From what has been shown of Watch Dogs it has many similarities to GTA, but also features that make it unique. But as you take rip-off literally then by your logic yes, Watch Dogs is a “rip-off” of GTA.
All Stars has a similar style and gameplay as Smash Bros, but it adds different features to it that makes it a different game in its own right with features unique to it.
As I said before, there is a line between rip-off and implementing a feature or mechanic that other games happen to have. Watch Dogs doesn’t cross that line. PSASBR does. The only difference between the actual gameplay of PSASBR and SSB is how you kill people/win. But the fighting mechanics and such are the same. Are Watch Dogs’ mechanics and GTA’s mechanics the same? No, they’re not.
You should really watch the Watch Dogs gameplay again. You can not tell me that it doesn’t look like GTA except with a futuristic theme. It is open world, you do missions, you have weapons to use against people at your disposal, you can interact with others characters. Mechanics = Same. However it has different features than GTA like hacking electronics.
Alright, so maybe I didn’t use the perfect example. How about this example: InFamous is open-world and you do missions and kill people. It’s far from close to GTA. The manner in which you do everything is way different from GTA. InFamous doesn’t just have different features, its mechanics are just different from GTA’s.
@Mattt but then you can say Infamous is alot like the open world Spiderman games and is a “rip-off”. Also, I love both Infamous games.
You haven’t understood anything I’ve been saying. There is a LINE between rip-off and implementing a feature or mechanic that other games happen to have. InFamous doesn’t cross that line. When gameplay from 2 different games look almost exactly alike, one of them is crossing that line, and is a rip-off. In this case, PSASBR’s gameplay looks almost exactly like SSB’s, and PSASBR isn’t even out yet, thus it is the rip-off. Infamous’s gameplay is clearly distinguishable from Spiderman’s gameplay. About the only thing that keeps PSASBR’s gameplay distinguishable from SSB’s is the character roster. But if you didn’t know any Nintendo or Sony characters, you’d say that the PSASBR’s gameplay is nearly indistinguishable from SSB’s gameplay.
@Brine
I actually have seen that before. But there was a reason Sony never actually followed through with it. Then when the Wii came out they pretty much mocked it, and then after they saw that it can be profitable, all of a sudden they decide to come out with it full fledged. You can’t say that Sony just happened to take over 10 years to actually release their product and that the Move has nothing to do with the Wii’s success. But you can keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better, lol.
The fact of the matter is, Sony shelved the original idea, and never thought about it again. Then they mock Nintendo for going that route, not just toying with the idea, going full-fledge with the idea. Then they saw how much money Nintendo was making off of it, so they decided to come out with the Move. Trust me, the Move has more to do with the Wii-Mote than with that idea they toyed with back in 2000. But again, you can tell yourself otherwise all you want…
This game would have been awesome 12 years ago.
it’s not the ripping off of a great series I don’t like. It’s the characters. they are not as good, to me, as Nintendo’s iconic franchises. I hate Kratos and Nathan Drake as characters. Also, Sweet tooth, the guy from inFAMOUS and even jack and daxter… They are just not enjoyable to me like Link, Mario, Samus and Pikachu. Parappa is maybe the best, even though one of the dumbest ones… Sack Boy might be entertaining as long as he’s in.
Exactly. The problem is, all the Nintendo characters are very cartoony, have lots of variety and are generally fun people.
However, on the other side we have a half-insane supervillain/hero who has had his whole life massacred and watched as an entire city died; A guy who has had his family and precious daughter removed from him so he goes on several bloody rampages across several dimensions, pureeing everything he sees; etc.
You may not like them, but those characters are loved by many and are essential to the game. It seems like you just have a taste for Nintendo’s characters, plain and simple.
Actually, not at all. I find very few Sony games fun, (barring inFAMOUS because I love the whole Spiderman style open city). I just think that Sony’s characters tend to be a lot darker, and a lot, well, like real people. Whereas Kirby is a little pink ball that you get to pound all over a floating island with a flaming hammer.
Whoops, thought you were responding to my comment and not his. Carry on ^_^
Lol I was about to go keyboard warrior on your ass.
“Apparently, Bayonetta designer, Hideki Kamiya, is in the former camp…”
Think you meant the latter.
A game can be a rip-off of another game and still be good. If you liked the original game, then shouldn’t you like the rip-off? I think PSASBR has plenty in store for us in the form of game modes. There was a leak awhile ago and one part of it included a list of supposed game modes. If PSASBR really does have all those game modes, it will be awesome.
Good catch Matt. I must have moved those sentences around. My high school english teacher would have slapped me over the back of the head for that one.
Haha no problem.
And every FPS ripped off wolfenstein 3d. Uncharted ripped off tomb raider. Etc etc.
AND CALL OF DUTY RIPPED OFF… uh… CALL OF DUTY!
*cough* medal of honor
The comparison isn’t as close.
However, you could say that Crash Team Racing ripped off Mario Kart and arguably stands as it’s better.
Kamiya, you ripped off Devil May Cry, so isn’t this like the pot calling the kettle black?
Thing is, and I’ve said this about the new tomb raider, is that it is VERY hard for a game to be original. Every game can resemble another in its genre.
Besides, we need more games of Smash Bros genre. Not everyone owns a Wii, and I sure as hell don’t feel like shelling out for one just to play a few select games.
Ha, DMC was the first thing I thought of too. Nothing wrong with ripoffs as long as they’re done well.
And as long as you didn’t trash talk the people you’re now copying, lol.
He’s in the latter camp, not the former. You mentioned hopeful fans first, cynics second.
Thanks! Matt caught that too. I had moved those sentences around.
That happens to me all the time XD
I just find it hilarious that back when the Wii was first announced and was shown to the world, Sony along with Microsoft, went on a bashing rampage, practically making fun of Nintendo in their casual gaming/motion control direction. Sony was so proud of themselves for not being as silly as Nintendo. Now they have the Move and a SSB clone… Ah, the irony…
A product being inspired by another product happens all of the time. This is just funny because Sony talked so much crap about Nintendo before, now they are inspired by what they made fun of…
Although I don’t quite remember Sony or Superbot talking crap about Smash Bros. :p
Move and Wii are a different subject entirely. Sony saw how foolish they were to shun motion controls and decided a Wii like controller would be the way to go. It’s a real shame the great Move hardware is there but no software :/
Forza sucks because it’s a Gran Turismo rip-off.
GT ftw!
Really? Play Forza 4, then Gran Turismo 5 and tell me which one you like better ;P
I’ve never played a Forza game, but I’ve heard that GT is better than Forza. Plus, GT is the original racing sim.
Forza games have a lot more than GT. They have hundreds of cars from every manufacturer, and the big thing is that players can design cars with custom specs and decals (some even make logos representing other video games, i.e. Sonic or Halo) and they can auction their creations to other players on Xbox Live for in-game credits. That, in addition to the physics engine used by Turn 10, makes Forza much better than Gran Turismo. Also, I’ve never played GT 5, but a couple of my friends have it, and they said it’s terrible compared to GT 4, and I actually owned GT 3 and 4, and I loved them, but they’re nowhere as good as Forza. Just because a game is the “original” does NOT make it the best
I do like being able to customize my cars like that and I also like the idea of auctioning off cars to other players. Hundreds of cars from every manufacturer? I hope you mean that there are hundreds of cars in the game and that each manufacturer is represented, and not that each manufacturer has hundreds of cars in the game. I looked it up, and Forza 4 has somewhere around 500 cars without buying any DLC. How many cars are in GT5 without buying any DLC? Over 1,000. And yes, almost every manufacturer is represented. I bet there are actually more manufacturers in GT5 than Forza 4.
I have GT4 and GT5. I like GT5 better. The menus are much improved and there are more cars. It’s easier to find and look through cars. There’s multiplayer and Seasonal Events, in addition to Special Events. There is also an Online Dealership. Plus, there are Trophies. I really don’t see why anyone would think that GT4 is better than GT5 because GT5 kept all of the major stuff from GT4, improved it all, and added some more features. If you don’t like those extra features, then you don’t have to use them and you can enjoy what you enjoyed about GT4.
As for Forza’s physics engine, I can’t say anything because, like I said, I haven’t played Forza.
Yes, I know that being the original doesn’t make a game the best, but it gets the game brownie points and keeps it from being called a copycat.
@Kamille
Yah… Nice try, but not exactly the same thing at all. Auto racing is a real-life sport. Of course there will be multiple companies making games based on a real-life event. It’s not like Gran Tourismo is the first racing game ever made, or that Forza would not have been made if Gran Tourismo was not made. They didn’t base the idea of Forza on GT, they based it on real-world auto racing…
Not to mention, Forza is 100 times better than Gran Tourismo anyway…
coughwehavefivehundredmorecarsthanyoucough
Coughnocarsthatiactuallycaretodrivecough
Seriously though, there isn’t a single car that GT has that Forza doesn’t that is really worth driving. When you have the Saleen S7, Ford GT, and cars like that, do you really want to drive like a Honda mini van or a Toyota Tercel?? Lol, ok, not saying those specific cars are in GT, but there are plenty of these crappy 4-bangers that any idiot teenager can afford. We don’t fantasize about driving these cars or need to play a game in order to drive these, they really have no reason to be in a racing game. Also, GT has like 10 versions of the same car many times, and often times it is of cars that are not really worth it. Like I think it has like 2 Shelby’s and like 10 versions of like a Subaru or something. Seems backwards to me… But it’s all personal preference I guess. I am pretty satisfied with the cars in Forza and do not miss the cars that only GT has… But that’s me, if you like those cars, then good for you, enjoy the game.
You know, I don’t really know why crappy cars are in the game either. When there are multiple versions of a car, it’s because they’re different. Maybe there’s a road version, a race version, and then newer versions of both. It’s a good thing because the races require certain things, so it’s always good to have lots of cars.
The Citroen GT is a fun car to look at and drive/race. I’m pretty sure Forza doesn’t have it. The Red Bull X1 Prototype is a challenging car to use, but it’s the fastest, best handling car ever. You can have a lot of fun with that thing. Those are a couple examples of GT5-only cars that, if you like racing fast cars in games, you should want to drive.
@Matt
Eh, nope, not interested in either of those. Looking at their car list for Forza 4, here are the cars I would like to drive:
Buick GNX (duh)
(RIP)
Chevy Camaro’s and Corvettes, old and new. Especially the old Stingray Corvette and the new ZR1
SS Chevelle
Pantera
Old and new Dodge Challengers
Racing Vipers
Older Ferraris
Ferrari F40 and F50
Old Mustang Boss 429
Taurus SHO (driven one in real life, other than a bit of torque steer, this thing is a beast considering it’s a 4-door sedan, lol)
1966 GT40
2005 Ford GT
Racing Falcons
Racing Ford GT
Hennessey Venom GT (ugly as sin, but holy crap look at the specs…)
Hummer H1 (just because, the only way it’ll be better is if it had a M2 machine gun on top…)
Jaguar XJ220 (once was supposed to be the fastest car in the world and it only had a V6…)
Jaguar XKR
All of the Koenigseggs
Lamborghini Aventador and maybe the old-school Diablo, but everything in between, bleh…
Lexus… lol, j/k, none of them, not even the LF-A…
McLaren F1 and MP4-12C (blah look, stupid name, but awesome specs)
Mercury Cougar Eliminator
Racing Panoz’s
Plymouth Cuda
Old school Pontiac GTO
Most of the Porsche’s
Most of the Saleen’s, but especially the Racing S7R…
All of the Shelby’s will get plenty of attention from me
The “Smart” car just so I can wreck it, lol.
SSC Ultimate Aero, an American-made car with a V8 that for a little while beat the overpriced and overhyped Bugatti Veyron…
Toyota MR2′s
And that’s pretty much it. Don’t think my need to drive fast will be starving much with that. You can keep the Citroen… Forza has four Citroens in it, but not planning on ever using them, adding another will not change that…
GT5 has the majority of those cars. The Citroen GT isn’t like other crappy Citroens. The GT is a fast, unique, awesome-looking car. The crazy part is, it only has one gear: Drive. No shifting necessary. And you can go over 100 mph in reverse!
But I don’t see how you don’t wanna race the X1. I think you’re just being stubborn. That car is better (in terms of performance) than anything you can find in a racing sim. It’s just a blast.
P.S. You want to drive a Taurus SHO? Why? I thought you didn’t like driving crappy cars.
@Matt
Um, I know they have most of those cars, we’re talking about what they have that Forza DOESN’T have that makes the difference. Not to mention, Forza has more real-life tracks than GT5, and I think more tracks overall. And having worked in the auto industry, I’m a little less impressed with “wow, that’s so cool” gimmicks some cars employ and know how to appreciate certain cars for achieving things well within their respective categories. For example, you call the Taurus SHO a “crappy car” because you read magazines and you don’t see that car featured racing along-side some fancy Europee-on sports car that you’ll never be able to afford. The Taurus SHO is a 4-door sedan with decent gas mileage that also happens to have about 365hp and 350 lb-ft of torque. Not to mention good braking with very little fading for a heavy 4-door full-size sedan and very good control in turns. Sure it’s not going to beat a Ferrari Enzo, but to have a car that you can drive your wife and kids comfortably around with enough trunk space to hide about 6 bodies if you also happen to be in the mafia that can do 0-60 in just a blink over 5 seconds (which is better than the Audi A6 and Mercedes E-Class BTW) for around $40k? Yah, that’s pretty crappy alright…
And my comment about having multiple versions of cars, you misunderstood my point. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to have multiple versions of cars. I understand that certain cars change from year to year and that there are different versions of them. Forza does the same thing. My point is that GT5 is obviously geared more toward the younger “tuner” crowd and it shows because they’ll have 13 versions of the Honda Civic and only 1 version of a REAL man’s race car like a Shelby Cobra… Kind of ass-backward to me. I would have a large variety of different versions of the REAL cars like the Cobra, Corvette, GNX, Mustangs, 911′s, etc. and maybe one or two of things like the Honda Civic, probably just the “fastest” version and that’s it…
People have wanted this game for a long time.It’s not a rip-off,It’s a member of the genre and it’s going to be better than casual smash bros.
So, lemme get this straight.
This game plays almost exactly the same as Smash Bros, yet it’s the “hardcore” one?
I love the logic taking place here, it’s hilarious.
PSASBR is arguably less casual and more hardcore than SSB mostly due to the characters. PSASBR’s characters mostly come from mature games and most of them aren’t really kid-friendly characters, whereas pretty much all of SSB’s characters come from kid-friendly games.
Have you even seen gameplay?It’s nothing like Smash bros other than the base mechanic.I bet you’re buying a Wii U,Huh?
Are you kidding me? The gameplay is extremely similar to SSB’s.
No one cares about originality in gaming. If the game is good, it will shut people up. I haven’t played an “original” game in years.
The issue is that it’s difficult to be original nowadays. The idea of originality is skewed to a very fine line. So it’s very rare to even have anything original really. The only thing that matters is the amount of fun you have with those ideas.
There may be some pieces of originality that can break the mold, but usually those sparks of origin come far and few between.
Kamiya is a fool…he’d be hard pressed to find someone that could honestly tell him that Bayonetta wasn’t “fully inspired” by Devil May Cry.
This is how culture goes.. I think people calling games like these a “rip-off” is one of the biggest threats to culture because well, every video game had copied ideas. This is just another entrance to a new fighting like game.
No ideas are property and there is completely no such thing as originality.
But you can use ideas and build something new from them.
Yet, this game has new stages, new story I think, etc. If the levels were too much the same, then it might be a rip-off. But no, this is just like any other games. I would view this game as a new addition connected to Smash Bros. Just like Adventure games, Puzzle games, RPG, and other.
If we keep using “Oh no, a rip-off!” in the past, we probably wouldn’t have any good games like SoTC, Banjo, Zelda, GTA, etc.
But anyway, this is how inspired goes also I think. You copy ideas every time. You can’t get inspired without doing that and copying other things.
Of course they are “ripping-off” SSB. It’s not like “Darksiders is a Zelda rip-off” or “Dante’s Inferno is a GoW rip-off” either. It’s take SSB, replace with PS characters, put in a blender and Voila! PSASBR! It’s pretty obvious.
HOWEVER, does that make it not a good game? No, not necessarily. Developers have been ripping each other off since…well…since there were video games. It’s not new. Asteroids and Space Invaders had a TON of imitations, some of which were actually better than the original.
To say Sony is copying SSB is not necessary a bad thing, but to say it is not a “rip-off” is just plain wrong. But, I think as long as they try to bring something new to the table and are able to differentiate themselves in some aspects then it is OK. After all imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Exactly. It’s a rip-off, but it could be (and I think it will) good.
Oh I see it is okay for him to basically take DMC and ride on it’s shoulders to fame but any attempt to follow a genre that existed long before SSB is blasphemy and must be attacked from all sides right? So I suppose I should take down every company that followed every rhythm game that existed before it all teh way from Singstar? Or every game that took Battle Arena Tosinden’s formula and used it? Or every Street Fighter or MK ‘clone’? Or everyone who followed GTA’s open world formula? Or Darksiders ‘copying’ Zelda or Dante’s Inferno copying GOW almost to the letter?
I could go on but I realize that is all people will be thinking about when they play PASBR how much it is or isn’t like SSB. It can’t exist along side it like so many games have existed along each other in the past. Everyone played Tekken and Soul Edge and Battle Arena Toshiden without blinking an eye. and please spare me the crap about Nintendo’s characters being more lovable and blah blah blah.Just because Sony’s characters speak in full sentences are fully formed and don’t squeak and make funny noise or look like blobs of bubble gum doesn’t make them any less likeable.Parappa was always one of my favorite characters
“and please spare me the crap about Nintendo’s characters being more lovable and blah blah blah.Just because Sony’s characters speak in full sentences are fully formed and don’t squeak and make funny noise or look like blobs of bubble gum doesn’t make them any less likeable.Parappa was always one of my favorite characters”
Lol I’m glad you agree. I actually prefer Sony’s mature, dynamic characters to Nintendo’s cartoony, static characters.
I am almost excited for this game, as there are many characters in this game I actually like. Copying the formula or not, it’s a formula that works. Here’s hoping for an Xbox SSB! :3
Who cares? Why can’t we have a dangerously similar game with characters we prefer? Variety is the spice of life, ignorant gamers asking the wrong questions…. smh
The question is Has Nintendo set Sony up to fail?