Okay, so people have done this before, and I know I'm not the first to dip my toes into this but here goes: PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale 2. Bear in mind these are in no particular order, however. Let's go!
01.
Ratchet and Clank.
02.
Kratos.
03.
Sly Cooper.
04.
Sackboy.
05.
Sweet Tooth.
06.
Nariko. (I think she could work well with a unique moveset.)
07.
Kat.
08.
Parappa the Rapper.
09.
Sir Daniel Fortesque.
10.
Jak and Daxter.
11.
Dante. (In his classic design, but the DMC look will be an alternate costume.)
12.
Nathan Drake.
13.
Spike.
14.
Cole McGrath. (See below.)
15.
Colonel Radec.
16.
Heihachi.
17.
Toro Inoue.
18.
Raiden. (I think he's unique enough, and popular enough today, to warrant inclusion. Snake's coming though, don't worry.)
19.
Big Daddy. (I think Bioshock is popular enough to be represented somehow, and to be honest, he's just a good pick.)
20.
Fat Princess. (She's a solid WTF?? pick for a title like this. She's always referred to in PSASBR videos. It's perfect.)
In this case, it's easier to talk about who isn't returning than who is. Let's go through them:
Evil Cole McGrath: I'm going to add him as an Evil Ryu-type addition onto Cole himself. Yes, they have slightly different abilities, but a sort of fusion of a stance change and "morality" mechanic would work well here.
Emmett Graves: I feel the whole "shooting gun person" is handled better by Radec than Graves. It pretty much comes down to gameplay.
Isaac Clarke: Look, I genuinely considered him. Dead Space is a very important title. But somehow, he has a similar problem to Graves.
Zeus: Zeus is cool... but I just didn't really think I could actually justify his inclusion. Yes, there's some odd picks here, but he didn't feel right to me.
21.
Crash Bandicoot. (No duh.)
22.
Dr. Neo Cortex. (He feels... important enough to get here, plus he's unique enough too.)
23.
Spyro. (No duh.)
24.
Abe. (Oddworld is such a fun and weird series that Abe would be amazingly fun to see. Or he could just be
meat the Sandbag equivalent.)
25.
Cloud Strife. (I genuinely wanted to add both him and maybe Squall but Cloud is just. Obvious.)
26.
Solid Snake. (
The Metal Gear character.)
27.
Lara Croft. (A perfect rival for Nathan - plus, an iconic part of the PS1 library.)
28.
Dart Feld. (Actively considered for the first game's DLC cycle! He feels pretty reasonable too.)
29.
Yu Narukami. (I couldn't justify more than one Persona/SMT character, so Yu it was.)
30.
Wander. (It was between him and Ico, but I chose Wander due to the various remakes and rereleases making
Shadow of the Colossus a sort of game for all consoles?)
31.
Tomba. (Funny caveman, but also a really fun pick.)
32.
Knack. (Yes there's the memes, but he'd also have a very unique moveset.)
33.
Alucard. (Symphony of the Night is one of the most beloved PS1 titles out there.)
34.
Klonoa. (Big fan-favourite character for the Smash fans, also a wonderful rep for Namco as a whole.)
35.
Aloy. (More modern pick that would balance out a lot of retro choices.)
36.
Jin Sakai. (Lots of moveset potential and from a particularly well-recieved recent title.)
37.
Pyramid Head. (FINALLY A HORROR CHARACTER)
38.
The Hunter. (Again, a more recent title with a unique character with lots of potential.)
39.
Astro Bot. (Tech-demo character? Hell yeah! Fight Toro. Now)
40.
Sub-Zero. (Felt more logical to me than Scorpion, mostly because of the Sub-Zero game on PS1.)
41.
Chun-Li. (Controversial? I felt she'd be a cooler choice than Ryu. She'd give the game a unique vibe.)
42.
Rayman. (His titles on the PS1 were beloved, and he's still relevant today!)
43.
Lemmings. (A very classic title, but with connections to Sony. It'd be really funny.)
44.
Vibri. (An underrated but massively unique classic. Also, another rhythm game rep to act as a rival to Parappa!)
45.
Linen. (100% personal bias. I think Osamu Sato's works would be amazingly fun to represent.
Is 45 characters too many?... maybe. But I think this could be feasible
enough to work on a modern system (ie, the PS5) as well as being able to really reflect all aspects of the history of PlayStation, and just a little bit of Sony as a whole.
Also I did really, really want to add Pepsiman but I couldn't really justify it so maybe he's like a unique costume for someone or something I don't know byeeee