I just noticed something after taking a look for what the game Primed and Pumped was considering I've not seen that.... and yeah it seems that SCEE and SCEA have very different ideas for cover art, That primed and pumped game never actually came out here and a fair few of the other games in the series either do not have Spike on the box here or else he is rather small in the background, I guess it's just Sony deciding that the EU countries love monkeys to bits and not a fan of humans! so yeah sorry for coming off dumb saying he wasn't iconic to the series here was just boxart catching me out!

as for dlc characters tho, have Sony said there will be some from launch or does anyone know any solid info on this and would love to see what kinda history section they'll put together, the hall of fame portion of brawl is really something even having 5-10min demos of where some of the characters came from with their original games. albeit lylat wars not having speech due to voice licensing issues I heard but still a hall of fame like that could be amazing to push this game even more for fans.

I didn't mean to come across as aggressive towards you before by the way (so sorry if I did).  I'm just a big Ape Escape fan, and to me he is iconic to the series.  I totally get where you're coming from with the monkey thing, but it just wouldn't make as much sense (to me) playing as a monkey as it would playing as Spike. 

I think there's probably an argument for Specter being the playable character in PSABR, but that's a different story...!

Many games in the series haven't been released outside Japan.  Equally, Spike isn't in every Ape Escape game - there's a different protaganist in 2, and two different protaganists in 3.  He appears in every main-line game in some capacity, though.

i've played nintendo since day 1 and i had no clue who mr. game and watch, meta knight or king dedede (kirby), ness  or lucas (earthbound), marth or ike or roy (fire emblem), ice climbers,  pit (kid icurus), olimar (pikmin), or captain falcon (and i even played f-zero) were before SSB. 

...i still enjoyed the games.

Fearing the wrath of Sony zealots. I think Sony making this game and releasing this roster shows Sony has quite a weak First party as far as memorable games and characters go.

To be honest the 3rd party icons in this game are more memorable than Sony icons except for Kratos. I like Uncharted, but Drake has to be te boringest character ever. So forgettable.

No bothers at all! I completely understand sometimes when trying to explain a series I love to someone who just doesn't follow or does follow it but badly it just feels like you're trying to hammer in a nail with a soggy lettuce :D can get pretty annoying, and yeah I seen that too that some games only appeared in japan and one was even only out here in euroland. but yeah no worries about being agressive! an aggressive love of a series is never a bad thing :D

Oh, and as for Unknown cahracters... that's actually a marketing ploy.

The Super Robot Taisen series in Japan gets pretty good deals on licensing rates in Japan despite the fact that's where Mecha series and Giant Robot series are most popular.

This is because in Japan whenever a Super Robot Taisen game comes out... suddenly the DVD and blu-ray sales of the series included skyrocket.

If you gain an attachment to a character in the game whose game you haven't played before... perhaps you fire up the PSN and buy it.

Sony's First party line up has always been about diversity, that has been followed through with this title. It doesn't help that Sony's biggest exclusive franchise has no characters at all (GT). To be fair, the characters that Sony has complete control over (so first party IP's), they've done a decent job with them (lack of Resistance, two Coles and no Kat being the issues). With third parties, it was always going to be difficult, Square were always unlikely to play nice since they did try to make they're own fighting franchise (Dissidia), which saw good sales for a heavily pirated system.

With have no idea how cooperative Activision were with the Crash or Spyro IP's, for all we know, they flat out rejected Sony's offer straight away. Third parties have hurt the game though, Big Daddy has no place in this game and I think they could've gotten Sega to let them lend Selvaria's character from Valkryia Chronicles, she'd add another female (which are severly lacking!!!) and it wouldn't be too hard to make a move set because of her weapons.

The main problem with the title's roster is Sony's commitment to generating new IPs in order to keep interest in their properties at a heightened level. When Twisted Metal dropped off, they bailed on it and went to something else. Same thing happened to them funding Crash.

The most powerful symbols of the Playstation, at this point, are the PS1 golden age stars - Lara Croft, Solid Snake, Spyro, Crash. Kratos is up there, too, but he's a PS2 holdover, and the only one from that era who really stuck. Drake will probably stick too, just because his following is so devoted and his games are so well-liked.

In the PS1 era, Sony came into the market with the same idea that Sega and Nintendo had been operating under: a brand had to be built around a face, and that face had to have power. Crash was an answer to Mario, and Solid Snake was reframed in a way to overshadow James Bond (as ridiculous as it sounds now, Goldeneye vs. MGS arguments weren't that uncommon back in '98, just because the character filled similar niches). Cloud was held up opposite to Link. That was the image of Playstation, as the fans defined it to fans of other consoles. These faces are old and powerful symbols.

The PS2 era had less of that. One could argue that, as the games got better, the brands actually got weaker, as more and more ideas produced equally genuine but less memorable faces.

The PS3 era has done exactly that again.

It's not that Sony couldn't field really powerful faces - it's that the establishment of brands built around characters hasn't been their aim in over a decade. Their alternative is a good strategy, and it works for them, but it means that the resonance of a cast like this one is necessarily going to be lower than Smash Bros., where the audience has known so much of the cast for over twenty years.

C'mon, if Sega did it, why Sony don't?

ah fighters megamix :D one of the reasons my saturn is still hooked up to my TV haha such an amazingly terrible game, one thing I keep hearing complaints about here and I can't figure it out is the big daddy? like what is the issue with him exactly, I know those games were on the xbox360 for a bit as exclusives before being ported over to the ps3 but I think they're a character who is kinda iconic with a great game of this generation regardless of what system they started on, not too unlike sonic in brawl, the only slight worry I have is his move set, will he be drilling holes through peoples chests and if so will there be a possible issue with the age rating on the game, a fair few of the characters here are in games that have 15s-18s ratings, wonder is there any fear of kids being upset they can use the big daddy in this game but can't play the game he came from for another 10 years :D