Sony's Smash Bros.

[FlamingR1ft]

Er...they've only announced six characters.

That is true, but have you seen them? Not a great start.

But, yeah, I guess I'm judging too early. I'm not expecting much though.

[Dice]

Er...they've only announced six characters.

That is true, but have you seen them? Not a great start.

Keep in mind you're saying this while being a writer for an RPG forum, featuring a Nintendo character as your avatar, and writing for quite a few J-games.

Hard to forget the knuckleheads who fuuckiiing loooove Kratos, Football Guy, and SLy and all that shizz.

[Hathen]

last 5 years

(implying PaRappa is 5 years old)

[Yggdrasil]

Those anyone here really cares about this game? Because I don't.

[Agent D.]

If ratchet and clank (and by association, captain quark) make it into the game, I will buy this. After all 4 one and its disappointing everything, I could use a good multiplayer ratchet experience again.

[Hathen]

Those anyone here really cares about this game? Because I don't.

Game looks decent, so "wait and see" attitude.

[Dice]

I'll wait for reviews of course.  If a game is good, even if a rip off, then it's good -- who's to complain?

[Mickeymac92]

Er...they've only announced six characters.

Yeah this. While some of the characters they introduced were kinda lame (That dude from Killzone? Really?), they still have way more to announce, and I'm sure there are plenty of characters that people have a fondness for. Sly Cooper is already in there, so throw in Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, and Kevin Butler and I for one will be sold. ;P

With that said, I was always under the impression the Smash Bros. did well because it was a good game that people enjoyed...

[FlamingR1ft]

Yes, yes. Okay. We all know I made a stupid comment. We can move on now. :P

[Aeolus]

Er...they've only announced six characters.

Yeah this. While some of the characters they introduced were kinda lame (That dude from Killzone? Really?), they still have way more to announce, and I'm sure there are plenty of characters that people have a fondness for. Sly Cooper is already in there, so throw in Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, and Kevin Butler and I for one will be sold. ;P

With that said, I was always under the impression the Smash Bros. did well because it was a good game that people enjoyed...

It also helped that you have A) characters people are familiar with, B) a large and diverse enough pool of resources to borrow from, and C) characters that people aren't so familiar with that open up new aspects of the company that people generally weren't aware of before.

If Sony could bring something obscure to the table rather than just their latest and greatest like a Legacy of Kain or Legend of Dragoon character or two it'd help tremendously in diversifying the roster.

[Kevadu]

Sony actually has quite a few IPs to draw on, but I think their biggest problem is that none of them have the same nostalgia and familiarity as Nintendo's characters.  Part of the problem is that Sony just hasn't been in the business as long, but also they were not initially focused on building persistent franchises and brands (something I think they're trying to change).  I was thinking about what properties they're likely to include and was kind of shocked by how many of them were only from this console generation.  A lot of others didn't start until the PS2.  Here's a list of properties I would be surprised if they weren't in the game (not counting what has already been announced):
Infamous
Jak and Daxter (actually I would almost put this as confirmed since there's a Jak and Daxter stage, but they haven't confirmed any of the characters yet...)
LittleBigPlanet
Ratchet and Clank
Resistance (they did Killzone, so...)
Uncharted

Less likely but still possible:
Ape Escape
Folklore
Gravity Daze (yeah it's super-new and only has one game, but it has a lot of people talking...and gravity-controlling powers would rock in a game like this)
Heavenly Sword
LocoRoco
Syphon Filter
Team Ico's stuff
Warhawk
White Knight Chronicles (yes it's Level-5 but Sony owns the IP)

Long-shots:
Dark Cloud
Demon's Souls
Everquest (not really sure how you would do MMORPG characters...)
Legend of Dragoon
Rogue Galaxy
Wild Arms

(Funny how all the RPGs ended up on that list...I didn't do that on purpose, I swear)

Potentially for stages/items but not necessarily characters:
Gran Turismo (yeah, I don't know how that would work either but it's one of their biggest franchises...)
Hot Shots Golf
Motorstorm
thatgamecompany's stuff (come on, you know a Flower or Journey stage would be awesome)
Wipeout

Sony has also said that there will be third-party franchises in the game.  They haven't said who but presumably they're going to focus on third parties that have traditionally been Playstation-centric.  Even so, this really opens the doors to a lot of potential franchises...

So there's lot's of stuff to drawn on, but it's mostly pretty new stuff.

[Hathen]

Spyro and Crash Bandicoot seem like obvious choices to me.

[Kevadu]

Spyro and Crash are both owned by Activision now (after a series of confusing transactions...), but yeah, if they can get the rights to them then they seem like obvious choices.

[Dice]

I think for this to be a success they'd NEED TO grab characters from Playstation, but necessarily owned by them.  I mean, c'mon, fight as the Killzone guy??  Who gives a fuck?

[Kevadu]

Well, they already said they're working with third parties, just not who.

I was just pointing out that they weren't on my list because I was only listing stuff Sony owns.  And there are no guarantees with licensing deals, since the licensor may or may not be on board with the idea.