Playstation All-Stars Character Ideas

As something of a follow-up to my post on PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, (found here) I have been thinking over some ideas on possible characters to add to the roster if there ever was a sequel. Lots of characters came to mind, but for this post I decided to limit the list to just a few. Below are six character ideas (plus one honorable mention) along with how I think they might work in the game.

(Honorable Mention)

Crash/Spyro

I feel compelled to start this list by giving an honorable mention to Crash Banditcoot and Spyro the Dragon, who seem to have been two of the most requested characters that were missing from the All-Stars roster. With the rights to both characters belonging to Activision and not Sony, I understand why they weren’t in the game, though I’d be willing to bet that Sony did at least try to make a deal with Activision but it never worked out. While Crash and Spyro are not a big deal for me, they were major characters from the PS1 days and I’m willing to give them a spot on this list.

Nathan Hale 

 

Nathan Hale being MIA from All-Stars was the biggest surprise for me when I saw the final roster. The main character from Resistance 1 and Resistance 2 on the PS3, Hale seemed like an obvious choice and the inclusion of a Resistance stage in the game along with a few other Resistance-related things left me scratching my head as to why he was missing. If he were added to the roster, I’m thinking Hale would play somewhat similar to Ratchet in that he would use a variety of outlandish weapons, which is fitting since Insomniac Studios created both characters. Hale would also be a much more fitting rival for Radec than Sir Daniel and there could be some interesting interplay between Hale and Radec as they are both soldiers fighting against the invasion of their worlds.

Sora

As a fan of the Kingdom Hearts games, I immediately concede that nominating Sora for the All-Stars roster is a biased choice. That said, I still think he’d be a good addition. Sora’s Keyblades would be his primary weapons and he could change them up to modify his attacks, somewhat like how current All-Stars character Toro can change his costumes mid-fight and alter his attacks. One Keyblade could be for casting magic attacks while another could be for close range melee attacks. Sora could maybe even call in his friends Donald and Goofy to help him, but that would probably require a lot of legal wrangling to secure permission from Disney to use them. As his weapon is a Keyblade (quite literally, a large key that he uses like a sword) Sora could perhaps have the ability to unlock or manipulate various things in the stage, such as opening a teleport portal or repositioning a platform. This ability would have to be very carefully managed to keep it from being overpowered, but could really make Sora a truly unique character on the roster.

Joel and Ellie

The Last of Us is widely regarded as one of the best games on PlayStation 3 and one of the best games of the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360/Wii era, so having main characters Joel and Ellie added to the All-Stars roster strikes me as a no-brainer. In terms of gameplay, Joel and Ellie could either work like either of two characters from the Smash Bros games. They could possibly work like the Ice Climbers, who are a tandem pair that fights as one. In this way Joel and Ellie would be on the screen at the same time and attack simultaneously or independently. The other character they could emulate would be the Pokemon trainer, who deploys one of three Pokemon and switches between them on the fly. Joel or Ellie would be on the screen by themselves and have their own movesets, however the player could switch back and forth between them at will.

Faith

Faith has been on my mind from the moment I first started thinking of this list. Faith would a lightweight character whose playstyle would focus on speed and maneuverability to even the playing field with bigger, stronger characters. Ideally her Parkour movement from Mirror’s Edge would somehow be translated into the game, though that would take some work to figure out. The main thing that I think could be used to set Faith apart from other characters in the game is that she could be given the ability to perform disarms like she does in Mirror’s Edge and then use other character’s weapons against them. Disarms would not be easy and require a bit of finesses from the person using Faith, but if done correctly, I think this gameplay mechanic could make Faith a good high risk, high reward character. Seriously, can you imagine the horror of a player who is using a character like Ratchet or Radec having one of their guns taken away and turned on them?

A Final Fantasy Character

The Final Fantasy games have had so many characters in them that just selecting one for this list proved to be insurmountable task for me. Main characters like Cloud would make the shortlist, but I can’t see any one character being the clear-cut choice. Because there are characters that could fit any conceivable role, I’m thinking that this character would probably be the last one picked for the final All-Stars roster. After all the other characters have been selected, the developer of the next All-Stars game could look to see if there are any gaps that need to be filled and pick an appropriate Final Fantasy character for that gap. Be it mages, warriors, rangers, rouges or talking animals, there’s a Final Fantasy character for whatever is needed.

Shuhei Yoshida

So, Shuhei Yoshida is not actually a video game character, but he’s become something of a celebrity in the PlayStation universe, and I think it would be hilarious to make him part of the character roster of All-Stars. He’s already making an appearance as a playable character in Super Time Force Ultra, so at this point I see no issue with throwing him into other games. Having no swords, magic, guns or any other traditional weapons, my idea for how to make him work in the game would be for him to somehow wield the power of PlayStation itself. He could hurl squares, triangles, circles and x's at other characters. He could stop them dead in their tracks by making them download the latest firmware update. He could pull out his PlayStation Vita and use it to take control of other characters, or he could beat them over the head with platinum trophies.

Before I close out this post, I feel it would be a crime not to mention a series of hilarious videos you can find on Youtube of character ideas that were put together by the Podcast Beyond! crew back when All-Stars first came out. Below is one of them and if you search for “podcast beyond playstation all-stars dream roster” you’ll find the rest. Enjoy.

UPDATE: As of today (April 30, 2016) I've noticed that several of the Youtube videos for the Podcast Beyond! dream roster have been taken down. I don't know why this is, but I've updated the embedded video above so that it's one of the ones that still can be viewed. A playlist with the four remaining videos can be found here.

My MacArthur Moment

It is decided. Barring unforeseen events, 2015 will be the year I return to Europe. At the end of my trip back in 2012 I made the, perhaps cliché, promise to go back one day. It was my “MacArthur Moment.” In the time that followed the 2012 trip it became clear that it would be a few years before this promise could be realized. In 2013 my income was focused on paying off the last of my student loans and in 2014 I had sufficient life distractions to keep me occupied. But now, in 2015, it looks like circumstances are coming together so that I can make good on my promise. I’ve been saving money, I’m preparing to leave my current job and I’m feeling that same travel itch I had to back in 2012. This past New Years Day I spent much of the day rereading my old journal from the 2012 trip, looking over photos from the journey and viewing travel material online. I’ve got that same excitement I felt back then, even though this will be my second time in Europe and I have a better idea of what to expect. On top of all this, I have a great reason to go this year. A friend of mine is finishing up his PhD this spring and back in 2013 we made a deal that after he graduated we would go on a Europe trip together. That said, even if things fall through and he has to pull out, I’m still going. I am a man of my word, and this is the year I make good on my promise.

A Valiant Effort

Over the past few weeks I’ve had the chance to put a few hours into a game that I’ve been curious to try since it came out: Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale (referred to hereafter as just “All-Stars”). Anyone who sees All-Stars in action will immediate note its similarity to the games of the Super Smash Brothers series (referred to hereafter as just “Smash Bros”). Having playing and enjoyed the games in the Smash Bros series, I was curious to see how All-Stars stacked up by comparison. That said, I have to admit that I came to All-Stars with a fair amount of bias against it. When a particular type of game has been so thoroughly dominated by a single series for so long, there is a tendency to view newcomers with suspicion and sometimes even contempt. Having played the Smash Bros games for so long, I was a bit skeptical when All-Stars was announced and the initial details and gameplay footage came out. It was going to be a mediocre game. It had to be. Only Smash Bros can do this sort of game right. It was with these prejudices that I began my foray into All-Stars, but after several weeks of on and off play I am pleased to say that All-Stars is better than I expected, though it certainly has room for growth.

  

Any discussion of strengths and weakness of All-Stars as compared to Smash Bros will inevitably be dominated by game mechanics, so that is where I’ll begin. All-Stars works in much the same way as Smash Brothers, but with one critical difference.  In Smash Bros you and up to three opponents spawn on a stage and your goal is to knock your opponent(s) off the stage such that they cannot get back on it and go out of bounds. When you strike an opponent you increase their meter, which is visible under their name-card. As the meter increases they are knocked back further with each attack, making it easier for them to be sent flying off the stage. Each time an opponent is knocked off the stage you either add a point to your score (while subtracting a point from their score) or you decrease your opponent’s stock of lives, depending on match rules, and the winner is either the person with the most points or the person who successfully eliminated all other opponents (again, depending on the rules set before the match starts). In All-Stars this formula is adjusted. When you strike an opponent you are building up a meter for yourself and once the meter is full enough you can unleash a super attack that can eliminate one or more opponents. These super attacks have three different power levels and each one requires you to build your meter sufficiently high enough to use it. Eliminating an opponent gains you points (and reduces points for your opponent) and the winner of a match is whoever has the most points at the end. Though seemingly small, this difference scoring is quite significant and is the focal point of much of the debate of the comparative merits of Smash Bros and All-Stars.

Everyone building their meters.

I’ve gone back and forth on what I think of All-Stars scoring mechanic. On one hand I found it to be a novel change-up from the Smash Bros formula, but on the other hand it can be a bit frustrating to build up your meter and unleash a super attack, only for it to fail and then you’re back to square one. After much thought, I’ve come to the conclusion that the Smash Bros scoring formula is better overall. The way you score points in All-Stars is not fundamentally wrong, but in Smash Bros you get a much stronger sense of progression in knocking your opponents back further and further, making your attacks feel meaningful. In spite of this issue, there are a lot of things that I really like about All-Stars.

Sweet Tooth (left) unleashes his level 3 super move.

Let’s start with the stages. Each stage that you battle in is a creative interpretation of locations and events found in the various games that the character roster is drawn from, as well as few that are from games that don’t have a character representing them. Each stage will also at some point either transition to different version of itself or be “invaded” by a background character or event from a different game. For example, the Ratchet and Clank based stage “Metropolis” starts out in a futuristic city but after awhile it starts to rain and then the stage is invaded by the hydra from God of War. The hydra will attack players from time to time and keeps everyone on their toes. For those who don’t like this sort of thing you can turn hazards off and there’s also the flat arena with no objects or platforms for the purists, but I personally prefer the variety and insanity of the regular stages. As I played through All-Stars there naturally were a few stages that I gravitated towards, but there wasn’t a single one that I didn’t like.

Careful of the hydra.

I was also impressed by how faithful each character’s move sets were to the characters. Although I haven’t played the games of every single character on the roster, the characters whose games I have experience with played almost exactly the way I thought they would. Everything from Dante’s stylized sword and gunplay to Ratchet’s wacky gadgets and Heihachi’s hand-to-hand fighting played out as if the characters were directly transplanted from their original games into All-Stars. Even characters like Sir Daniel and Spike, whose games I have never played, somehow felt right. That said, this faithfulness to the characters’ original games may have also caused some of the issues I had with character balancing, since a few of the characters (I’m looking at you, Kratos) seemed a bit too strong compared to others. True, character balancing has also long been a problem with the Smash Bros games as well, but I do wish a bit more effort was put into keeping certain characters from dominating.

As something of an addendum to my thoughts on the characters, I found the character “rivalries” in the arcade mode strangely interesting. If you play arcade mode you’re given the closest thing to an actual story that’s found in All-Stars, though it is bare bones at best. Each character is going somewhere or doing something and battles their way through multiple fights with the other characters along the way. In the second to last battle, you face off with your character’s rival in a one-on-one fight and settle the score between the two of you. Some of these rivalries make sense, some are questionable and some are just odd. Still, I found myself playing through arcade mode with every single character to see how their story played out for each of them. I could have just gone to Youtube and saved some time, but I was enjoying my time with arcade mode and playing through with each character gave me a chance to try all of the characters out and see which ones I liked.

The character roster (pre-dlc)

In terms of music and sound, I knew All-Stars was going to be good from the very beginning of the game. The song that plays during the opening video caught me within the first few seconds and from then on I was loving what my ears were hearing. Every stage in the game has its own music, superbly adapted from the original game that the stage is inspired by. The music even changes during the stage transitions, so, for example, you’ll start in Parappa’s dojo with an upbeat hip-hop tune playing, but after a minute or so the dojo walls break down, revealing that the city in the background is under attack by a MAWLR and the music changes to the dramatic synthetic sounds of the Killzone games. There’s also a number of small but nice audio touches throughout the game that add to the package, from the background menu music to the various things the characters say throughout the match. The characters are even voiced by either the original voice actor from their game or someone doing a very good impression of them. From start to finish, All-Stars is an audio treat.

When the MAWLR in the background shows up, both the stage and the music change.

Having finished my time with All-Stars, I’ve been gathering my thoughts on the game and inevitably I’m brought back to the comparisons between it and the Smash Bros games. In a sense, All-Stars can be compared to the original Smash Bros game in that it shares many of the marks of a first attempt that you see in the original Smash Bros game: an overall solid game that is held back by mechanics that need a little bit of finesse, character balancing issues and a comparatively small selection of characters, stages and items. At the same time, an argument can be made that the comparison doesn’t quite work because of the differing contexts that the two games out in. The original Smash Bros game came out in 1999, when there wasn’t anything quite like it, making a truly original experience. By 2012, when All-Stars came out, we had seen three Smash Bros games and a few similar titles, meaning that the genre had been well defined and we had a good idea of what worked and what didn’t. In the final analysis the Smash Bros games are better, but I have to commend developer Superbot Entertainment for making a valiant effort in creating All-Stars, and trying to put a new twist on the Smash Bros formula. With any luck, we’ll one day get a sequel.

I (almost) went to PSX

Earlier today, the PlayStation Experience wrapped up in Las Vegas. I nearly went to this event, and there's actually a somewhat interesting story to this, so I thought I'd write it down and share it.

The PlayStation Experience (PSX) is a video game expo that is focused on games coming to the PlayStation platforms (PS4, PS3 and PS Vita). It was announced back in October and tickets went on sale toward the end of that month. Over the following weeks information on what would be at the expo trickled out and it became clear that PSX was going to be a significant event. I read various articles posted on the major gaming websites and was interested in the event but had no intention of actually going. Then, about two weeks before PSX, I was listening to Podcast Beyond!, the weekly PlayStation podcast put out by IGN, and the hosts mentioned that they were giving away free tickets. To be entered into the drawing you would send them an email and they would select winners from their inbox. I was listening to Podcast Beyond! the day after it went up on IGN, and I decided to send them an email. The thought never occurred to me that I might actually be one of the persons selected. I figured that because it had been a day since they announced the giveaway they were already inundated with emails and probably had even chosen the winners. This was reinforced by a tweet I saw later that day from one of the podcast hosts that he had sent out codes to persons selected in the giveaway.

You can imagine my surprise then, when on the following Monday I got an email from Podcast Beyond! with a code for a free pass to PSX. Maybe they had gotten some more codes from the people at PlayStation since the last podcast, but whatever the case, I was now a winner. At first I was excited. I have never been to any sort of gaming expo but closely followed the coverage of ones like E3, PAX, TGS and Gamescom. Thoughts came rushing through my head of how cool it would be to finally attend a gaming expo and also see Las Vegas while i was at it. Those thoughts were quickly greeted by the realization that PSX was the following weekend and I would have to make a decision very soon on whether or not to go. The next day I sat down with a friend of mine who has been to Las Vegas several times and got his input on traveling there. I looked up airfares and possible lodging online and found that this would not be a cheap foray. Round-trip plane tickets would cost be a bit over $400, even on the low-cost carriers, and combined with lodging and expected expenses for food and cab rides, it would probably cost me about $550 total, maybe more. That Tuesday night I was sitting at my computer, staring at the screen. I was all the way to the page where you enter your credit card info to book my flight and hotel, but I still wasn't sure whether or not to go through with it. There was an internal debating raging inside of me, with one part of me arguing for the coolness of going and another part arguing that the expense was too much. After awhile I decided to go to the gym and sweat it out for a short bit. I find this sometimes helps me get away from the heat of the moment and better process information so that I can make a decision that I can stand by. Over the course of 50 or so minutes, the arguments against going won out. As cool as it would be, the funds that I would spend on the trip could be better applied elsewhere (such as, actually getting a PS4 and some games to go with it). PSX just wasn't worth $550 to me.

On Wednesday I was thinking over what could have been. I knew I had made a good decision, but I was still thinking over what it would have been like to attend PSX. Logging into my email inbox, I printed out my entrance ticket to PSX and made a pledge to myself that I would attend next year's PSX or another gaming expo. In a box in my garage I found an old picture frame and I put my ticket in that frame as a reminder of my pledge. This recent "almost happened" with PSX is catalyzing me to get serious on something I've wanted to do for years now. PSX 2015, here I come.

“It’s your eyes”

About a week ago, I was talking to another guy, and, seemingly out of nowhere, the conversation turned to my facial appearance. He told me that I look like I could be in a biker gang, except for one thing. “It’s your eyes” he told me. He said that my eyes were way too warm and friendly looking for him to believe that I was any sort of rough individual. It would seem that my face is trying to look like a badass, but my eyes tell a different story. With my Mohawk and slowly lengthening goatee, I guess I can understand why someone might think I’m some sort of hard man, though, at only 5’7’’, I think the only people that I intimidate are small children. I also don’t have any tattoos, which I’m pretty sure are a prerequisite for actually being a part of a biker gang or any group of tough guys.

Eyes are something I haven’t thought about much until the last year or so. Mine are brown, which seems to be toward the bottom end of popular eye colors in our society. That said, a few weeks ago a coworker of mine told me that I had the most beautiful brown eyes she had ever seen, so I suppose this is one of those “eye of the beholder” sorts of things (no pun intended). From what I hear, there is some level of credibility to the old saying about your eyes being the window of your soul. I guess a week ago that guy took a look inside, and I can't deny that I want his impression to be right.

A Nation of Lefties

Awhile back I got the chance to play through a game called Ryse: Son of Rome. Officially, Ryse is the story of Marius, a roman soldier on a blood-soaked quest for revenge against those who murdered his family. As I progressed through the game, however, I realized that the true story of Ryse is actually that of Marius, the world's most zealous field surgeon. Everywhere Marius goes he sees infected limbs that require amputation and he is only too willing to help. As a professional surgeon, Marius makes the operations quick, usually with a single slice of his sword, though he seems to leave the job of closing the wound for others, so I can only assume he is followed around by a team of medics who stop the bleeding and patch up all the men lying of the ground. Interestingly enough, it seems that it is predominantly the barbarians' right arms that have come down with incurable infections. I would think that the proportion of left-handed individuals in a society suddenly shot up whenever Marius passed through. It is unfortunate the Marius lived during roman times, as he would have made a great business partner for Ned Flanders.

Sorry bro, that arm's infected.

"It's 2014"

Sometimes things aren't great, but good enough. Back in February of this year, a friend of mine came out to visit and while he was here he and I and another friend went to Denny's. I hadn't gone to Denny's in years, so there was something kind of nostalgic about being there. Back in my college days I would go to Denny's from time to time, and I have a few notable memories from that place. In particular, I think of an infamous hot chocolate drinking contest that was held there, but that's a story for another post. While talking about times gone by, I took out my phone and used the camera on it to take a picture of my two friends. When asked how good the camera was on my phone, I replied that it wasn't great but it got the job done and worked for most cases where I wasn't carrying my regular camera and needed to take a photo. It was good enough. From there the conversation pivoted to a discussion of the year ahead and we agreed that 2014 would be the year of "good enough." Not great, but good enough. From that point on, whenever I saw, heard, thought about something was not great but good enough, I would think to myself that "it's 2014."

Saying goodbye to your castle

A man's home is his castle, or, so the saying goes. At the end of this month I will be moving. I've lived in my current residence for nearly nine years, which is nothing to brag about, but it feels like a long time now that I think about it. Over those years all of my friends have moved, oftentimes repeatedly, but I've been the one staying put and watching the community morph around me.

When you live long enough in one place, you start to feel like you've always been there and you'll never leave. To be uprooting now and moving to a different part of town seems so foreign. The move is only a few days away, but I almost feel like I'm in denial about this. Change is a naturally scary thing, and I can't deny that I'm a bit nervous about everything that will change with this. But change will come. It must come. I will gather my things, close one door and open another.

It's time to leave. It's time to go. Goodbye, my castle.

Sprite soda

I have a strange affinity for Sprite soda. It's not my favorite soda, and there's plenty of other sodas I would pick over it, given the choice, but I'm ok having a Sprite if there's nothing better to choose from. The problem is, even though I sort of like the taste of Sprite, it leaves a terrible aftertaste in my mouth. The nefarious thing is, the quickest way to get rid of that aftertaste is to have another sip of the same Sprite soda I just sipped a minute ago. I believe there's a name for this sort of thing; whereby the consumption of something gives a benefit but also causes a problem that can only be solved by more usage of said thing. I don't know what that's called, but whoever invented Sprite has done exactly that. I feel like I should be upset, but I just can't deny the evil genius of Sprite. Congratulations, whoever invented Sprite. You have created the perfect commercial product.

Homefront Sequel Announced

Earlier this week it was announced that a sequel is being developed to 2011's video game Homefront. The game is titled Homefront: The Revolution and is being developed by the UK division of Crytek, who acquired the rights to Homefront after developer Kaos Studios went under in 2011. The original Homefront told the story of a future where a unified Korea invaded and conquered much of the United States and you played the role of a resistance member who helped fight the occupation. Although Homefront's premise was wildly implausible, it was still interesting and made the final product all the more disappointing in its failure to fully capitalize on its potential. At about only four hours long, the singleplayer campaign was woefully too short and felt like it needed another year in development. There was a small multiplayer suite that played well enough, but it could not make up for the half-baked singleplayer experience. I had originally planned on doing a post on Homefront in my Games Deserving Sequels series, as I thought the concept behind the game was worthy enough of having another studio take a stab at it. Instead, Homefront will at some point in the future make an appearance in my Gaming Disappointments series, where I'll give a little more depth to how it demonstrated that a good concept means nothing if the execution is flawed. (UPDATE: No it won't. I discontinued that series, as you can read about here)

As for the sequel, I'm hopeful that Homefront: The Revolution will learn from Homefront's shortcomings and deliver a stronger experience than what we got in the original game. I am a bit concerned that it is being developed by Crytek, a company that has a mixed record with storytelling in their games. Granted, this is Crytek UK, which is not the same team that made the Crysis and Ryse games, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and remain cautiously optimistic. At the very least we know it will be a good looking game; if there's anything the Crytek guys are good at, it's graphics.