Rumor: Sony working on Smash Bros-style fighter

Who would win in a fight? PaRappa the Rapper or Sackboy? Sly Cooper or Jak? Sony is apparently working on a Smash Bros-styled mash-up.

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Who would win in a fight? PaRappa the Rapper or Sackboy? Sly Cooper or Jak? Clank or Buzz? Sony has three generations' worth of mascots to call from, making a Smash Bros-styled mash-up entirely feasible. A new rumor suggests that's exactly what Sony is working on.

Developer SuperBot Entertainment is supposedly working on a new PS3 exclusive. Previous job listings confirm that the team is, indeed, working on a fighting game, with calls for a senior combat designer and a lead designer with "strong familiarity with online mode and matchmaking design." In addition, a picture of employees playing with arcade fighting sticks leaked online.

Paul Gale Network claims that the purported fighter is called "Title Fight," and will feature PaRappa, Kratos, Sly Cooper, Nathan Drake, Sweet Tooth, Fat Princess, and more in the Smash Bros-inspired brawler.

A Twitter account for one of the game's senior level designers (now removed) featured a number of images supposedly from the game's development, including a detailed Sweet Tooth character model, and another image referencing Kratos. Thankfully, NeoGAF managed to save the pictures before they were taken down.

Should the rumor be true, "Title Fight" will be remarkably similar to a PlayStation advertisement released earlier this year, which featured quite the assortment of PlayStation mascots:

As expected, Sony offered the standard "we do not comment on rumour or speculation" line to Eurogamer when pressed for confirmation.

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    November 28, 2011 9:30 AM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Rumor: Sony working on Smash Bros-style fighter.

    Who would win in a fight? PaRappa the Rapper or Sackboy? Sly Cooper or Jak? Sony is apparently working on a Smash Bros-styled mash-up.

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      November 28, 2011 9:41 AM

      Smash Bros. works because Nintendo has dozens upon dozens of recognizable names and faces that any gamer, not just Nintendo fans, can recognize. I can't say the same about Sony's characters. Not to take anything away from those characters or their games, but really, who is more recognizable than Mario, Link, and Pikachu?

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        November 28, 2011 9:41 AM

        ronald mcdonald?

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        November 28, 2011 10:12 AM

        Metal Gear Solid
        Devil May Cry
        Crash Bandicoot
        Jak and Dexter
        God of War
        Little Big Planet
        ICO / SOTC
        Infamous
        Pixel Junk
        Uncharted

        Lots of characters from those games are recognizable.

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          November 28, 2011 10:29 AM

          Ico and SotC would be recognizable to maybe 25% of the PS3 audience, and I feel like that's being generous. Same with PixelJunk.

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            November 28, 2011 10:34 AM

            Nintendo used Ness and Captain Falcon, there is room for lesser knowns as well.

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              November 28, 2011 10:46 AM

              Of course, I'm not saying they shouldn't be included. But, I wouldn't put them in the 'widely recognizable' category. Hell, PaRappa is more of an unknown these days, I'd imagine, but he should definitely be in there.

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          November 28, 2011 10:38 AM

          Daxter*

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          November 28, 2011 10:58 AM

          I would probably only recognize two of the main characters from those games, and one of those two is in Smash Bros.

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            November 28, 2011 10:59 AM

            You don't play enough video games then :p (also, they've done a piss poor job capitalizing on their IPs this gen).

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              November 28, 2011 1:00 PM

              I've never bought a Sony console, so that would explain it. But still, Nintendo's characters are more recognizable.

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                November 28, 2011 1:01 PM

                Yeah, I recognized most of those from the original PS and PS2 days, had a lot of friends with Playstations and they were a little heavier on the commercials back then too.

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          November 28, 2011 11:01 AM

          [deleted]

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          November 28, 2011 11:19 AM

          I'm predominantly a PC gamer but I have a 360, a Sega Master System II and Megadrive and every Nintendo console from the SNES. I read Kotaku, Shacknews and Joystiq every day and I have 293 Steam games; I consider myself a hardcore gamer. I've never owned a Sony console but my housemate is a casual gamer who has one. Here's how I see these chars:

          MGS - Not a PS exclusive and Solid Snake is in SSBB.
          DMC - I couldn't tell you who the main character is in this. I assume he's the white haired guy.
          Crash Bandicoot - I agree, this is a well known and recognised character.
          Jak and Daxter - I only know this because I used to play it with a friend and I don't know anyone else who knows who they are.
          Same with Ratchett and Clank, who I'm surprised you missed.
          God of War - I really should know the premise of this game, but having never owned a Sony console I don't.
          LBP - I know Sackboy but I think this is more of a cult hit than a broad casual thing?
          ICO / SOTC - I have no idea what ICO is and I don't know who the characters are in Shadow of the Colossus.
          Infamous - Some guy who's basically Alex Mercer, right?
          Pixel Junk - I've never heard of this. I just looked it up and I can't see how you can include this. There's no character? Just cars or dots or something?
          Uncharted - Male Lara Croft.

          And I'd say other than Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter I only know these games because I'm a gamer.

          Whereas when I saw SSB as a child there were:
          Mario - EVERYONE knows him. He's a household name and every parent, teenager and kid in the western world knows him.
          Link - Every gamer will know who Link is and lots of non-gamers.
          Samus - I would assume most gamers know the basic premise of Metroid.
          Kirby - Okay, I had never seen Kirby before SSB.
          Luigi - Most people who know Mario know Luigi. Granted he was a clone character.
          Pikachu - EVERYONE knows Pokémon.
          Captain Falcon - You probably have to be a NIntendo gamer to know F-Zero.
          Ness - You have to be a hardcore or retro gamer to know Earthbound.
          DK - Any person who knows old arcade games and all nintendo gamers know DK. Probably the fact that DK got a joke in the Simpsons shows it's pretty mainstream.
          Fox - Granted, to know Lylat Wars and Starfox you need to be a gamer.
          Jigglypuff - Anyone who watched the Pokémon anime or played a Pokémon game should know Jigglypuff.

          Sony doesn't have its own characters associated with its name. You hear "Sony" you think "TVs, hardware, music, Playstations". Nintendo you think "Mario, Zelda, Pokémon, Metroid". Even if you named the console PS3 I would still think "Killzone, MAG, Resistance, PSN". 360 I think "Halo, Gears, RARE games", so even there there's more of an identity.

          For a casual gamer, not even Solid Snake would be recognisable.

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            November 28, 2011 11:33 AM

            The difference is pretty massive.

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            November 28, 2011 1:12 PM

            Crash Bandicoot isn't even Sony. Used to be. Activision owns it now. He's been depreciated too. He may have been recognizable enough when the PS1 was on shelves, but he isn't anymore. He's probably as recognizable as Peppy Hare. Actually Peppy probably wins that because of the barrel roll meme.

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          November 28, 2011 11:21 AM

          Oh yeah, and all DMC games are also on 360.

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            November 28, 2011 11:23 AM

            You realize quite a few characters in Smash Brothers are 3rd party characters, right?

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              November 28, 2011 11:25 AM

              By quite a lot I mean two.. HAha :(

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                November 28, 2011 12:46 PM

                And only Nintendo would get the rights to Sega characters in a game like that so it's really more like 1.

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          November 28, 2011 11:44 AM

          But not AS recognizable as Nintendo's characters. That was my point. Characters aren't the end all, be all reason for Smash's success, of course. Sony can create a Smash clone and fill it with characters that, yes, many gamers will recognize. But without the solid gameplay of Smash, the game will fail.

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          November 28, 2011 12:07 PM

          Sly Cooper
          Ape Escape

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          November 28, 2011 12:52 PM

          What about Ratchet and Clank? Isn't that a PS exclusive? Those guys are fucking awesome.

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            November 28, 2011 1:16 PM

            I will rock everyones world with Ratchet.

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          November 28, 2011 1:04 PM

          ya maybe 30% of those are actually mainstream. maybe.

          • Ebu legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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            November 28, 2011 4:03 PM

            What are you on?

            If you're a console gamer with a PS3, you should recognize all of them, even if you aren't A+#1FAN of any given one of them.

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              November 28, 2011 4:15 PM

              Why would owning a PS3 give you knowledge of: Dante, Crash, Jak or Daxter, or Wanderer? The only one of those that is even debatable is Wanderer and that's because he was in one of the best games ever made (and most people don't even know his name).

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        November 28, 2011 10:57 AM

        [deleted]

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        November 28, 2011 10:57 AM

        Smash Bros worked because it was incredibly well made. There were tons of competitions on the GCN version of it. The Wii one though has stupid shit in it like random chance to trip (for no fucking reason).

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          November 28, 2011 11:04 AM

          Brawl+ is your friend in reference to tripping and other stupid shit that was introduced in Brawl.

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            November 28, 2011 11:12 AM

            Pretty much ^this. I don't think Nintendo will do the same thing in the Wii U's Smash but it wouldn't be the first time the stuck with a poor decision.

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          November 28, 2011 11:40 AM

          SSB was totally well made, no disputing that. I'm saying it worked as a CONCEPT first and foremost because its roster was almost universally recognizable.

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        November 28, 2011 11:46 AM

        Considering more than half the people I know (who aren't gamers, obviously) refer to Link as Zelda and have no idea what Pokemon is about, I'd debate those two. But then again, that's a non-gamer crowd, not gamers.

        However, I agree with you. The Smash Brothers formula is geared towards a very casual crowd, and Sony just doesn't have enough casually recognizable figures to fill out a game like that. But who knows, it could turn out decent.

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          November 28, 2011 12:10 PM

          That's the thing about SSB though. You'd think it was just a fighting game designed for casual pick up and play with an accessible roster but it's actually a complete reference in game design for a very tight and fluid hardcore gaming experience. The director behind it, Masahiro Sakurai, is a card carrying game design genius.

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          November 28, 2011 12:50 PM

          They don't know Pokemon? Don't lie.

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            November 28, 2011 1:00 PM

            I can understand if they don't know the Pokemon names, but not recognize Pikachu? I don't believe that.

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        November 28, 2011 12:33 PM

        Kratos vs. Nate Drake plz

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      November 28, 2011 10:34 AM

      [deleted]

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