One the one hand: This is embarrassingly derivative.

One the other hand: Given how many Street Fighter clones there have been over the years, it's kinda incredible that the massively successful Smash Bros. hasn't already been cloned to pieces.

Given that Sports Champions has sold roughly 1/10th the number of units as Wii Sports Resort, I estimate lifetime sales of this game will reach approximately 1 million.

Other gems by Kaz... lovin' it!

I know what you are all thinking, so I'll just say it: yes, "PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale" is a shameless clone of "Rag Doll Kung Fu"

Unfortunately Spyro and Crash aren't in PS All Stars as we no longer own the rights but our legally "new" characters Spyroo and Krash are!

We're making a PS Charcter fighting game! It's called "PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale Ultimate Fight With Sackboy And Friends: Melee"

hehe. In all seriousness though, that's not my intention. I just want to see if there are others who feel like I do, especially Smash Bros. fans, and see if I have reasons to think so, or if I do, going by the game aspects. For that I need more fans of smash to post their views on this.

To set the example, here are some things I noticed were too similar:

1) The same default amount of air-jumps (2). For those who like contention, I know there are chars with more air-jumps (3 and up).
2) The moves look exactly like smash moves... (Grabs, pummels)
3) the drops from the sky are just like the smash drops (lots of little drops at the same time).
4) The special attacks are the same concept and animation style (rip-off), but a different mechanic (that's acceptable), and there's more.
5) The effects in general are almost identical (color, shape)

Protip: it's not the real Kaz Hirai

I see the similarities; I see the four franchise characters on screen at once, I see the 2d plane, I realize that the developer was intentionally making a rival to Super Smash Bros, but I don't think copying these ideas means it is disrespectful to Nintendo, it's commonplace.

Typical fighters all have the same basics; one character on each side of the screen or occasionally more for tag battles/combos, health bar at the top, some sort of power meter that builds over time, a time limit to the round in between the health bars, a character select screen of that franchise's popular characters, a training mode, alternate character outfits, an individual 'smash/power move' for each character etc etc.

But why do we not complain that they're all rip-offs of eachother? Because the characters in each one are different, with different movelists, different 'physics' and fighting on different stages, with different music and different art styles. This all applies to PSASBR. The only difference being that very few other companies have attempted a Smash Bros style game so far, and so many see the genre as somehow being property of Nintendo. I think it is a very unfair ruling; one company should not be allowed to own a particular genre of game simply because they are the only ones making them so far. 

I like SSMB so that makes me even more happy to see Iconic Sony characters involved in the gameplay. I like Sony characters and the growing rosters Sony gains each gen with their healthy amount of new IP's. Can't wait to see more of this at E3. I love the interactivity of the levels which will add more depth to what I played in Super Smash Bros Brawl. This will give me more reason to rape all with Kratos. More than anything I believe this game will shock everyone with the extensive lineup potential Sony has at E3 for sure. Yes, its a Super Smash bros clone, but on Xbox Live Microsoft has a game called small arms that is exactly like SSMB. The way I see it they deserve to have a celebration of characters as long as they have an extensive list of IPs marketable enough to do it. People always ask if Sony will ever find a system seller. Yeah....bundle this game with a PS3.

I have one doubt though

Is there a Nintendo game that got "accused" of committing this same "crime" for you, Happy? (or anyone else who wants to answer)

All in all, I would totally buy a Vita version of the game, looks great. The only two problems with this are 1 - lack of japanese recognition (which can be fixed with 4-5 famous japanese characters) and 2 - it'll always be under SSB shadow.

Sony kept copying my answers back in middle school, only reason he ever kept getting all the good grades.

LMAO @ Kaz

Oh, I'll edit that right away

I understand it's a great thing for Sony either way to showcase their IPs (whether inspired or copied from Smash) and that I'm glad they're doing. It's good for them as a company to show to everybody that they DO have a plethora of IP characters. It's something they've needed to do in a long time so I'm happy about that.

I agree that Nintendo shouldn't have any rule over the Smash genre. What I was expecting as an entry into the genre was something more of Sony's creation, in the style of Smash.

But what we have here is like an artist drawing a portrait of someone. They look at the person and they draw.

If it were done more honestly, I believe we would have seen a different default for number of air jumps, a different animation style for grabs, a different animation style for pummels, different camera dynamics, different camera distances, new settings (water, sand), different aspect ratios, different speeds and dynamics.

But as it is, it's nearly identical to smash and I really have a hard time with that...