PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale

[MadScientist18]

Didn't smash bros use Solid Snake... He's from an M rated game.

I think it will be fine.

Yep...I was thinking the same thing. Should be fine...looking forward to this title.

[WCG.Podcast]

I agree and disagree.

Disagree:
It is fine to copy smash brothers using sony IP, that is how genre's get started.


Agree:
However, I also question using M-rated characters on a game that is geared towards couch co-op fun. I think it will depend on how far they are willing to go with gore and such, I think it would be a shame not to have kratos sans QTE entrail ripping, but sweet tooth doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

As for source material leading kids to stuff, I think there has been some stuff on smash bros with m rated characters but they were cartoonified

Oh no, I'm siure moves and attacks in this game will be sanitized. My concern was for young persons that take an interest in a sanitized Kratos and who then seek out the greusome God of War games.

Solid Snake is a weak straw to grasp at. The overarching theme of Metal Gear games is always "War is bad" and even in the context of Metal Gear games things like Snake smoking do damage to him. Whereas Kratos is just angry and grotesque. Metal Gear cutscenes can be hard to watch because they're over long, not because Snake is trying to remove somebody's head from their neck manually.

[gnordy]

Comic books have had the same issue. They put Wolverine on things for kids of all ages and then put out a comic with him savagely killing people.

That being said, When Wolverine shows up in my 5 yr olds 'All Ages' Spiderman Adventures, I am fine with that.

[WCG.Podcast]

Comic books have had the same issue. They put Wolverine on things for kids of all ages and then put out a comic with him savagely killing people.

That being said, When Wolverine shows up in my 5 yr olds 'All Ages' Spiderman Adventures, I am fine with that.

Ha! I understand what you're saying, but will counter with two things.

This is because Frederick Wertham succeeded in ghettoizing comic books as an entertainment medium in the United States. The entire medium is still stigmatized as "for children", which is why Hollywood, book stores, and savvy nerds now use the marketable term "Graphic Novel".

Unfortunately Marvel and DC are relatively "creatively bankrupt" in terms of ideas and because the medium is still largely viewed as "for children" - this is why we have a Wolverine and Spiderman for all ages. For the aging reader, and for their initiate child. These things didn't exist when I as a young boy reading comics. Wolverine was Wolverine and if you wanted a kids comic you read Planet Terry or Fraggle Rock.

The second point - kids don't read comics. I don't want to name drop, but a certain member of our podcast is a relation to a certain scribe of comics who articulated this point better than I can:

I was at a playground yesterday with Caroline. There was a little boy there, seven years old, named Steven. He was talking to other kids about Spider-Man, and what a big Spider-Man fan he was. He was showing off his Spidey sneakers very proudly.

And I said to him, “Do you read Spider-Man comics?”

He looked at me oddly and said, “No.”

“Why not?”

“I watch the movies,” he said. “And I play the video game. I beat Doc Ock,” he added proudly.

“Okay, but…Spider-Man’s a comic book character. Aren’t you at all interested in reading the comic?”

He shook his head. His ten year old brother said, “Why should he?”

It's an unfortunate truth. They're just not as readily available due to the direct market distribution model that prevents children from walking into a corner store to find a shelf dedicated to comics or a spinner rack of comics. Now you either need to go out of your way to a comic shop or order comics through mail order.

The sad reality is that the comics aren't what's important anymore - it's the video games, toys, and movies. Comic books themselves are the depleted uranium of the much larger entertainment industry.

If the comic industry leaders (Marvel and DC) would start treating creators fairly and stop putting one over on creators, then maybe we'd see more actual comics for kids. With new and original characters.

Sadly that's probably not going to happen.

Smaller publishers try, but Marvel and DC rule the roost so it's hard for Archaia or Image to put up a fight with the existing distribution model.

I'm sorry - we were talking about video games.

P.S. Great Hawkeye avatar!

[saskbob]

Solid Snake is a weak straw to grasp at. The overarching theme of Metal Gear games is always "War is bad" and even in the context of Metal Gear games things like Snake smoking do damage to him. Whereas Kratos is just angry and grotesque. Metal Gear cutscenes can be hard to watch because they're over long, not because Snake is trying to remove somebody's head from their neck manually.

MGS4 had some pretty graphic moments (Guy impaled on octupus arm) as did MGS (Hallway of sliced up dudes) and i'm sure the others as well just can't remember specific instances. I guess in GOW you are the guy doing it but I don't really think little kids care about context, I mean really MGS has only taught me that I wish 90% of the guns in the game weren't restricted permit

But like Gnordy says it happens all the time in other mediums.

[Anim8td_fan]

Solid Snake is a weak straw to grasp at. The overarching theme of Metal Gear games is always "War is bad" and even in the context of Metal Gear games things like Snake smoking do damage to him. Whereas Kratos is just angry and grotesque. Metal Gear cutscenes can be hard to watch because they're over long, not because Snake is trying to remove somebody's head from their neck manually.

I agree with Saskbob. In MGS games you are shooting a ton of guys (and sometimes women), sniping guys in the head, looking at secretly placed photos of Japanese women in bikinis (MGS2), looking or flipping through Playboy magazines (MGS4) so a kid-ified version of Snake makes no references to those adult oriented things. As with Kratos and Sweet Tooth all of the source material (gore) will be severely toned down to fit an audience for all ages.

There's the Marvel Super Hero Squad cartoon that is made for kids makes no references to Iron Man's alcoholism and it never will because that show has a specific demographic. This game will have to be targeted to all demographics.

Finally, if kids want to find out for themselves about the source material for certain characters (Kratos and Sweet Tooth) then they won't be able to because of ESRB ratings.

[gnordy]

So, switching gears a bit, what characters would you like to see in the game? Nathan Drake, Cole, Ratchet and Jak all seem like locks. Crash Bandicoot and Spyro would be nice throwbacks. Nariko would also be a good fit.

[saskbob]

I think the nathan drake would be sort of boring as he doesn't really have a emphatic signature move, but Nathan Hale could be very sweet if they can somehow work the auger and bulleye in there.

Never thought about Nariko but that would be an excellent choice. Ratchet and Clank would be particular favorites for me, but what if you could play as Mr Zoltron!

Kinda funny but I might get my wife to pick up Super Smash Bros on Wii as I've never played that version.

[Mister_Nep]

I'm eager to find out who the final boss will be. I'm, personally, hoping for either Kevin Butler, Aries, the Sony cats, or the Yellow Light of Death.

[Anim8td_fan]

I'm eager to find out who the final boss will be. I'm, personally, hoping for either Kevin Butler, Aries, the Sony cats, or the Yellow Light of Death.

It will either be Kevin Butler, Ken Kutaragi with his signature special "$599USD", or GIANT ENEMY CRAB!!.

Ratchet and Clank has to be playable since Quark is already in the background of one stage and Nathan Hale would be nice if he gets to use a bunch of his Resistance weapons. Also, Nariko would be good too.