PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale has been attracting a lot of attention since it was announced. A lot of that is from people excited for its local multiplayer offerings and range of characters, but some of it stems from how closely it resembles Super Smash Bros.
Director Oman Kendall was asked during a Q&A panel at EVO 2012 why PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is so much like Super Smash Bros., to which he replied:
PlayStation All Stars is it’s own game. I think that’s really the only way I can answer that. I understand that Smash players -some Smash players, not all Smash players do this- will sort of base how successful PlayStation All Stars as a game is on how accurately it recreates the Smash Brother’s experience. But that’s not really our goal.
Then what is your goal? He continued:
Our goal is to create a unique combat experience for PlayStation All Stars that we fully admit borrows from many different kinds of games including Smash, but our goal is not solely replicate the Smash Brother’s experience.
The ideas it borrows are at a very fundamental level. Both games have lots of crossover characters, flashy attacks, weapons to pickup, and tons of butt woopin'. But honestly, what I played at E3 felt nothing like any of the Super Smash Bros. titles, at least from a look and feel standpoint. Relying on supers to earn kills is a radical departure from Super Smash Bros.' damage and KO based system, and the art styles aren't even in the same realm.
Super Smash Bros. is one of only a few fighting games of its kind, so if anything it's good that we'll finally see some competition, and Seth Killian being lead designer of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale means it'll bring plenty of it.
