Let's find out whether PSASBR is a rip-off or not.

[Kantor]

happydolphin said:

Kantor said:

A rip-off? No. It just so happens that Brawl's genre has been largely ignored by other companies because they don't have enough mascot characters (Ubisoft or EA might be able to manage it as well).

-They went to great pains to completely change the scoring system
-There are multiple levels of finisher
-I don't believe it has any of the minigames (could be wrong here)

It's certainly inspired and heavily influenced by Smash Bros. But it's no more a Smash Bros clone than Dawn of War is a Starcraft clone or Call of Duty is a Wolfenstein 3D clone.

To those calling it a clone: what could they have done, within the genre, to make it any more different from Smash Bros?

Easy, powerstone was very different.

They could change the aspect ratio of their characters as compared to the level, make some characters taller rather than chibi. Did they need to be Sony mascots? What about whole new characters with unique moves?

Why double-jump, why not some form of temporary gliding? Or a SFIII style high jump?

Could there be some kind of items they could pick up what are integrated in the victory system?

What about smaller levels, and more intricate levels like temple?

Why not full 2D or Stree-fighter IV style graphics?

Is rolling in all fighting games?

Did it have to be 2D, what about isometric? What about 3D?

For every alternative, the choice was in almost every case to go the smash route.

Honestly I have no problem with it, I just have an issue when the debate can't go past a baseline from where more discussion could be made. Here's a follow-up question:

How awesome is Shadow of the Colossus, despite the sense of adventure it shares with the legend of Zelda? How did it get there, was it by basing itself off of another idea? I wouldn't think so. Would we have had SotC if the PABR approach was taken? Probably not. What ideas could have been birthed had the studio taken a different approach, given the caliber of Sony's studios? COULD SONY AFFORD IT? (in caps to show that we are a sales chart and haven't even gotten to that level yet)

I just hope we can all evolve, all of us, and get to topics that are actually interesting when it comes to topics like these. This is constructive criticism.

Fair point. They went with what was known to work rather than taking risks, which is understandable.

Shadow of the Colossus was a very risky game. It was unlike anything else that had been developed. It could have been hated by everyone, but it wasn't, and it ended up being one of the best games on the PS2. We do need people like Team Ico to push boundaries and take risks like that. But not everyone can do it. Hell, look at how much trouble it's giving them with The Last Guardian, and that game isn't even out yet.

Though they did need to be Sony mascots, since that's the central premise of the game. That in itself is not copying.

But it's not a rip-off, and it's not a clone. It's a fairly safe game which is inspired a great deal by Smash Bros. That weird Arab Uncharted ripoff was a ripoff, and looked terrible to boot.