It's ok to be a rip off (as long as you're good at it)

Seriously? This isn't Sony's only offence... It has TWO ripoffs of Mario Kart in the form of Mod Nation Racers and Little Big Kart, they ripped off Zelda almost pixel for pixel in 3D Dot Heroes, heck you could even copy Link if you had the time. Wii Sports was ripped off by Move Sports and well the Move... yeah, that doesn't look like a Wii Remote at all /sarcasm THIS game is just a step further in Sony's sorry tradition for blind rip offs.

And GR, I'm sorry but I think you are confusing "inspiration" for "ripoff" in some of those examples you gave...

I'd never walk in on someone playing Okami or Darksiders and say "oh are you playing the new Zelda?" or if someone was playing Sleeping Dogs and not going to say," oh cool is this the new Batman or GTA" Lol But if I walked in on some people playing Sony Smash Bros with out knowing it was a Sony made game I'd assume it was a modded version of Brawl or like with 3D Dot heroes or Move Sports... I'd think "Hey! Your playing Zelda" or "Hey isn't that Wii Sports?" Lol

i agree with ya man smash bros is one of my all time favorite games, screw it 1st rank on my personal list but i had to pay quite a bit of attention to tell them apart from the comparison video

MNR was inspired by Mario Kart. It wasn't a ripoff. The mechanics are a lot different. MNR is more like Diddy Kong Racing than it is like Mario Kart.

Look up more video of PSASBR if it was hard for you to tell them apart. The game handles completely differently from SSB, according to quite literally 99% of those who've played it, although it looks similar to the novice eye. GiantBomb was the first to say this, and pretty much every other major review site has followed suit; whether they do so professionally or not is a different story. Many sites are handling PSASBR as if it's a SSB clone, and then complaining when it's not exactly the same (ironic because they called it a clone). This game's not getting a fair shot just like many "copied" games. IGN, surprisingly, has handled the game very well, so far judging it as its own game, and NOT making comparisons to SSB when judging the game's quality. Reviewers shouldn't be the ones comparing two games; that's the fans' jobs. The reviewers should be judging the game by its own successes and failures. TL;DR Reviewer bias could screw this game even if it turns out to be very good.

Please, remind me when in any Mario Kart game you could create your own kart from scratch or your own level from scratch, then share them with the world. oh you cant do that in Mario kart? Then its not a rip off. And remind me again how the rounded, LED lit PS Move remote resembles the polygonal Wii remote... PS move is technologically better by the way. FACT. Sports champions is a rip off too? What about kinect sports? I cant remember Wii Sports being HD, including disc golf, ping pong, or archery... And 3D Dot Game Heroes was SUPPOSED to be like that. It was supposed to be reminiscent of the games that started it all. If you wanna be like this, then Nintendo ripped off Sony by using discs for Gamecube and Wii. Wii U is HD? I guess that means it's a rip off of PS3 and XBOX... Look up the Wii U pro controller, it is a blatant rip off of a 360 controller. If you played PS All stars (Which you clearly have not), then you would realize how different they are. PS All stars is far more complex, as it has many more moves. And as far as I know, Super Smash was never HD, it never had good online support, and never had DLC support. Stop being a fanboy and realize that without inspiration, gaming would never evolve. I guess all shooters should have pretty much stopped after Half Life came out (I'm aware its not the first shooter, but its widely considered the most innovative.). Look up the game "Space Panic" Its the first ever platform game, and Nintendo ripped it off with Donkey kong. They look Identical. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYf-NkRDSrw Games need inspiration, without it, we'd all still be playing the Magnavox Odyssey. Get over the fact that Nintendo doesnt own gaming, and they arent as original as you think.

How come nobody gave a shit about these smash rip offs: DreamMix TV: World Fighters, Battle Stadium D.O.N, Digimon Rumble Arena 1 & 2, Digimon Battle Spirit 1 & 2, and Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion XL, Viewtiful Joe Red Hot Rumble, Jump Superstars and Jump Ultimate Stars. So you guys are saying its okay to be a rip off, unless sony does it?

Look the offense is bigger when you do it, from a competitor´s point of view, third party companies aren´t competing with each other, capcom, konami, etc. But when it comes to firs party companies. Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft. It seems as if one of them is desperate to win some fans over the other.

I wouldn't say 3D Dot Heroes was a bad rip-off. I thought it was a pretty interesting and fun game, and even right after beating the original LoZ, I never felt like I was just playing more of it in 3D Dot Heroes. Not being top-down 2D alone was refreshing enough for me. I would certainly agree that they used a ton of content from the LoZ though. Still, to me the game has its own spirit.

The test isn't if you walk into a room and mistake the game for another - it's the intention of the programming and development and the overall resulting product that matters. The visual measures are only surface deep.

Which is exactly what Nintendo is doing with the Wii U. It wants the core market, and it's making a console entirely for that (and to catch up a bit graphically). None of the Big Three are exempt from ripping off each other these past three gens. People only pointing the finger at Sony is childish (Sony's admittedly done it a bit more from Nintendo, but that doesn't mean it's entirely Sony's doing).

Seriously stop mentioning HD, online support and DLC support as marks of originality. Youve got a couple of decent points there but its buried under a pile of condescending nonsense.

Why shouldn't it be compared to SSBB? Isn't one of the best ways to judge a game's quality comparing it against the competition? The fact is, rip-off or not; the games look very similar and have similar gameplay mechanics in many ways. Of course PSASBR should be judged against and compared to the competition benchmarks. Perhaps not as a "clone", but certainly if it wants to be considered among the best, it should be compared to and judged against the best.

You do know that the move was in development before the Wii right? And that Dr. Richard Marx had shown off the Prototype publicly during the PS2 era right? so that would make the Wii mote a Rip off of Sony. Just like the Eye toy for PS2 was developed and utilized before Kinect, but no one crying foul about Microsoft Ripping off Sony

I agree, but NOT by reviewers. Reviewers judge games by themselves. Fans judge them by comparison.

I couldn't agree more with this, Henry. I prefer a well-executed homage/rip-off than I do an original and crappy game. I bought Sleeping Dogs from Steam just yesterday, and man, I love it way more than GTA. Probably because I like playing an undercover, Asian-American officer in the beautifully lit Hong Kong rather than a gangster in the crummy New York. Also: love these editorials. More please!

Thanks for the article, Henry. I couldn't possibly agree more. I've had this same argument with a few people, lately. Yes, PS All-Star BR (wow, that's a goofy one to try to abbreviate!) is clearly drawing from the SSB series' formula. I say, "GREAT!" I love the SSB series of games! If I were gonna make a super crossover fight game, I'd TOTALLY copy the SSB formula. So far, it seems that they've made enough changes in the actual game play that sound really intriguing. I like the idea of charging up your super move(or whatever they call it) in order to get a bunch of kills. The transforming stages look truly inspired to me, and lest we forget, It's got GREAT characters that SSB doesn't. I am looking forward to this game in a huge way. Not in spite of the "rip-off" allegations...BECAUSE of them! Love of the source material is what's key, here. Now I have no way of knowing, but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that the developers working on this game are just as much fans of Smash Bros. as young H-E-N-E-R-E-Y-G himself! And that, suits me just fine.

I have no problem with rip-offs. Many turn out to actually be great games. However, pointing out the upcoming PlayStation All-Stars featured in the article, I don't have a problem with them ripping off Super Smash Bros. In fact, I wish they had gone the extra mile and completely cloned the damn thing. To me, the game isn't worthwhile. Yes, it hasn't come out yet, but I've had enough years of gaming experience to know when I won't like a game. The fact that it's a rip-off doesn't bother me in the slightest. The fact that they created an unrewarding point system that didn't need to be implemented in the first place is what I have a problem with. The point system is one of the best features of SSB and they replaced it with a lackluster system that I'm positive I would grow tired of after a few games. This is all just my opinion, but having looked at the feedback from the gaming community for the past several months, I'm not the only one that feels this way.

I don't know, I think the combat in Sleeping Dogs is pretty awful compared to Arkham City, although the environmental kills are pretty cool, and sometimes shockingly brutal...