Mike Kayatta said:
j-e-f-f-e-r-s said:
TizzytheTormentor said:
Wow, one of my friends will be picking this up, I am definitely beating him up and stealing his PS3 going to his house to play it!
It is a shameless Super Smash Bros clone, but who cares since it was done well!
I dunno... I think there's far too much of this mentality in the industry, and not enough attempt at actual original creativity. How many games out there are just rehashes of more popular games? Think of all the military shooters that end up being COD-clones, or the MMOs that end up being WOW-clones.
If we want to get actual creativity back in the industry, then we need to send developers the message that we want original ideas, not rehashes of stuff we've already seen.
Originality is great, but I'm not sure it's the only measure by which to judge content. This game is actually a great example of that very idea. They took a beloved concept and tried to rebrand it for both a new audience (PS3) and a more modern one (we haven't had a good Smash game in over ten years, dude). Look, I want to see new stuff too, but I also just want to see good stuff.
The fact of the matter is that from a business perspective, "new idea" is synonymous with "high-risk endeavor", and will always be considered such as long as the people funding development are not the same as the people developing. So, accepting that we live in a world where the majority of creative output, movies and games alike, is going to be shackled to past success, let's at least be happy when something comes along that's actually well-made and enjoyable, "originality" aside.
Thing is, if we use PSA as an example, seemingly everything that's 'good' about it is something lifted straight from Super Smash Bros. From what I've seen at any rate, and reviews haven't exactly done much to argue that point.
Which means that you can't really
credit the game for doing anything good at all, seeing as all the good stuff actually comes from somewhere else.
Imagine it like this: I could get a pencil and some tracing paper, and trace over the Mona Lisa. Hypothetically, anyway. And if I took long enough, I could trace a copy of the painting that has all the detail of the original. That doesn't mean my trace copy has any real greatness, however. All the detail, all the beauty comes from the original. The details I've managed to capture are simply taken from another source, and it is with them that inherent 'quality' lies.
Obviously, a lot of developing games is taking ideas from other games and mashing them together in different ways. But when a game sticks so rigidly and clearly to the template set by another game, then I honestly believe that anything that the former does well is purely reflective of the quality of the latter.
The worst thing that can happen in any creative medium is homogeny. Homogeny is indicative of a lack of free thinking, creativity and inspiration. Even worse, homogeny creates boredom in the eyes of the viewer. If the only things being offered are variations on the same idea, then eventually the viewer will bugger off to find originality somewhere else, in another creative medium. You can argue that homogeny serves the interests of business, but we have seen time and time again that business interests, especially in the gaming industry, are short-term, short-sighted and have almost no concern on quality. Claiming that homogeny makes publishers more money doesn't negate the fact that it's a short term approach which focuses on making a quick buck over engaging the long term of gamers.
We're seeing this already. Game sales, especially console game sales, are heading downwards, and console sales aren't doing too hot either. The reason, partly, is to do with the fact that everything just looks so damn similar now. What's the point of buying a game, however well made it is, if it doesn't do anything different from all the other games out there?
Sorry, but as far as I'm concerned, originality and creativity are the
only things that make great games what they are. You look at any 'Best games of all time' list, and it will be populated by games that were made with fresh, creative ideas. That is what we should be encouraging developers to aim for, not simply making identikit versions of already succesful games.
