Will and Kyle have been PlayStation fans for years. They were super-pumped about the release of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale last winter. Kyle even reviewed it!
Now, they’re sad that support for the game has effectively ended. As usual, they discussed the issue on Skype.
This is their series.
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Kyle Prahl: We’ve had some good times playing PlayStation All-Stars; I seriously enjoyed the game during my time reviewing, and then we got to play some online matches and local multiplayer over the holidays together. But I haven’t touched the game in months, and neither (apparently) has SuperBot–according to Sony, there are no plans for more PS All-Stars DLC.
Isaac Clarke and Zeus were added as characters (along with a MediEvil / Unfinished Swan map) back in March, which means this game had a support lifetime of just about five months. Disappointed? Or was this to be expected?
Will Robinson: Both. I love the game and played it A LOT with friends since it came out and wish it would have gotten a better reception numbers-wise. Everyone I’ve heard that’s played it has really enjoyed it, so it’s sad to see Sony more-or-less give up on it. I actually would’ve been really surprised if more DLC was in the works. Maybe if some of the characters that All-Stars was criticized forr not having were to have come out the game might have been more successful, and not have a 5 month life span.
Kyle Prahl: Everyone on my end seemed to love it too. It’s weird thinking back on the experience negatively, because I completely stand by the 9 out of 10 that I gave it. Back at launch, the game was phenomenally fun to play and its unique Super system gave every kind of match a special intensity and hilarity.
I look at its long-term failure in two respects. It failed to capture much of the mainstream crowd because A) it didn’t have the characters it needed–like, really, truly needed–and B) they poorly communicated that it wasn’t a Smash clone.
Because who tried it thinking (and hoping) that it was a Smash clone would’ve been sorely disappointed. I love the game that SuperBot made, but in order to capture a wider audience, I think they had to either be very different, or exactly identical. As a hybrid, it’s kind of tough convincing people that they need to pay attention to it.
Will Robinson: Yeah, the fist point would have, assumedly, been an easy fix. I’m sure there was some copywritght or other behind-the-scenes business issues going on, but just adding characters like Crash, Cloud, or Spyro would have boosted its sales for sure.
As for communicating better, that would have been really difficult because it’s almost impossible to not see All-Stars as a Smash Bros clone until you sit down and play it. I thought it would be just a clone and was glad I was wrong.
Kyle Prahl: You’re so right about the characters. I can’t BELIEVE that we didn’t get a single Final Fantasy character, let alone Cloud, arguably the most important to PlayStation history
It’s mind-boggling to think how disappointing this game’s legacy will ultimately be. Here is a game called ‘PlayStation All-Stars’ that people are going to look back on and say, ‘Ok, it didn’t have Solid Snake. It didn’t have a single Final Fantasy character. It didn’t have Crash. It didn’t have Lara Croft. It didn’t have—and on, and on, and on. That’s sad to think about, all the wasted potential
Will Robinson: It would be ABSOLUTELY AMAZING if next E3 there was a trailer that showed glimpses of all those characters in a big montage and then ended with "PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale 2"
But that’s just wishful thinking I suppose
Kyle Prahl: My wishful thinking was that those characters would show up in this game =/
I suppose the writing was on the wall when the coolest people weren’t available at launch
You have to wonder if Square didn’t want its characters appearing in a game that would figuratively rival its Dissidia series, which WOULD piss me off, except that Square is on a roll in terms of winning back my affection
Will Robinson: I think Dissidia would’ve been fine if only one or two characters were in the game. I doubt that that was the reasoning for not including characters like Cloud, Tifa, Squall, etc… It would’ve been nice to hear why certain characters weren’t included, instead of having people blindly accusing SuperBot of making a poor roster.
It would be unbelievable to think that a team tasked with making a fighting game with PlayStation’s most iconic characters would just forget about some of the biggest names.
Kyle Prahl: It’ll probably be one of those things that ends up getting said in a developer blog on Gamasutra or something, 5+ years from now.
And yeah. The restrictions and relationships that led to ‘No’ answers for some of these characters will be fascinating to hear about. As it stands, I’ll always remember it as the game where Kratos and Raiden were overused, Ratchet was my OP favorite, and Sir Daniel Fortesque was a sad mess of ineffectiveness.
Will Robinson: I pissed off many people by winning with Sir Dan after they said he was terrible. It’s all about timing with him.
Kyle Prahl: I appreciated that Ratchet kept me out of harm’s way. His zoning skills were good against a great deal of characters, including Kratos and his absurd mid-distance reach
Will Robinson: I still love seeing people’s faces when I use Raiden or Bid Daddy. Nobody likes it. haha God, we need to play All-Stars this weekend.
Kyle Prahl: Let’s do it! This game is great.
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