Hypothetical Multi-Console "Gaming History" Platform Fighter Discussion

[AlRex]

Very long-winded title, but I was interested in hearing people's thoughts and ideas on a general gaming-based platform fighter that isn't necessarily limited by ties to one console maker. How big would you want it to be in scope, in any aspect? What kind of features do you want it to have? What are absolute must-have inclusions for series representation? How possible is such a thing, even? (Not very possible, I know)

To give you a further idea of what I mean, these Creation Threads provide fun examples of this sort of thing.

Smashboards Creates: The Super Smash Bros of Another Universe!

The year is 2021, in a universe different from ours... Masahiro Sakurai is a game developer known for making the Kirby series, and nothing really else. He’s made a few small projects but they’ve never really gotten popular. So, it surprised everyone when three years ago Sakurai announced he...

smashboards.com

Console Wars: A Multi-Platform Smash game (Current job: Submitting a female character)

There are people who want to think in Smash has a "celebration to gaming history", yet the game itself has a big problem to become that and is their ownership and exclusivity by Nintendo. Being Nintendo exclusive doesn't allow the game to have all gaming history even if they eventually managed...

smashboards.com

Very minor thing: I would personally say 32, 50, or 64 are the best numbers for the roster size, mostly due to 32 and 64 having oddly a lot of video game history, but also being easy tournament bracket numbers, meanwhile 50 is just always a good milestone number. It's decently big, but not totally ludicrous. As for must-haves, probably the obvious Mario, Sonic, Pac-Man, Ryu from Streets, DOOM Slayer and/or Master Chief, someone from Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, and at least some representation in some way of GTA, Tetris, and Minecraft. Also represent every major console maker/video game platform, which would include some of the ones I mentioned, but also Sony/PlayStation, Atari, Valve/Steam, and perhaps lesser thought of ones like SNK/Neo Geo or early micro computers, as well. One could really go on for a while on this subject.

I also think that while Smash would be a good basis, if it were its own individual multi-platform game series, it should have some sort of gameplay features that set it apart. Lots of customization? Mixing in more advanced fighting game mechanics? Simplifying it further, somehow? I don't have all the answers, necessarily. I also think, for a "gaming history" focused game, some type of gallery/museum mode would be incredibly thematic. I dunno about having a bunch of game demos, but a lot of bios on characters and the games they're from, artwork, obvious stuff like a music/sound test, etc. would be a very needed addition, if a less thought about one than the core gameplay and roster themselves, naturally.

What do you all have to say? Anything in response to what I said? Some of your own thoughts? I'm curious, and hopefully, others are, as well.

 

[HyperSomari64]

My only question is:

There will be non-video game characters?

Like: characters that people mostly know for it's games than the original source material (Turok, Sam & Max, The Witcher, most public domain characters or based on a historical figure) and original characters from games based on famous franchises in other media (Kyle Katarn, Pepper Roni, Android 21).

 

[Wario Wario Wario]

I feel like Microsoft and Sony should have an equal amount of characters, while Nintendo would be close if not the same, but not higher either

 

[AlRex]

Dang it all, I forgot about this thread and never saw that it got replies.

My only question is:

Like: characters that people mostly know for it's games than the original source material (Turok, Sam & Max, The Witcher, most public domain characters or based on a historical figure) and original characters from games based on famous franchises in other media (Kyle Katarn, Pepper Roni, Android 21).

I feel like some would sneak in, but would be more the exception than the norm. Sora would the closest to the former, while all of the latter seem pretty likely. Ideally, Sora gets to actually have Donald & Goofy hanging out with him sometimes.

I feel like Microsoft and Sony should have an equal amount of characters, while Nintendo would be close if not the same, but not higher either

It's tricky, off the top of my head, line-ups for all of them could be
-Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus Aran, Kirby, Pikachu, Villager
-Parappa the Rapper, Sweet Tooth, Ratchet & Clank, Kratos, Aloy, Lemmings, Q*Bert [if you want more directly PlayStation ones, swap the last two for Nathan Drake, Cole MacGrath, Sackboy, Kat (Gravity Rush), whoever else you think makes sense from PSASBR, etc.]
-Master Chief, Marcus Fenix, DOOM Slayer, General Thrall, Crash Bandicoot, Vault Boy, the Dovahkiin [they bought too many companies, for real. Also Rare is hard to decide and arguably not as big as the others, for better or worse]

I also think SEGA should have a few, though probably not as many, and Atari needs at least one, since they were the other big console makers in VG history. Though arcades and PCs can be variably added to.

 

[Tankman from Newgrounds]

-Master Chief, Marcus Fenix, DOOM Slayer, General Thrall, Crash Bandicoot, Vault Boy, the Dovahkiin [they bought too many companies, for real. Also Rare is hard to decide and arguably not as big as the others, for better or worse]

I mean, we could add a Rare character to the roster as DLC fighter.
(Maybe Banjo-Kazooie or Rash from Battletoads would work somehow)

 

[AlRex]

Going back to this thread… 1. Could be moved to the Platform Fighter forum. 2. Again, seems impossible, but fun to think about, and I wish I had game development skills to do something like it, Pop Culture Clash, or a public domain fighting game, at least.

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

Random addition seems as it's been bumped - I think I'd personally like to see this as a smaller-scale kind of thing, and I genuinely believe that if you were smart with your choices, you could totally have a fairly unique "gaming history" roster with only like 20 characters. There's quite a few ways you could do this - for instance, if you were to go with repping genres, someone like Reimu would work well to rep both the doujin/indie scene and scrolling schmups - but I think it could easily be done in principle, even if it'd be a massive undertaking in terms of licensing.

Going back to this thread… 1. Could be moved to the Platform Fighter forum. 2. Again, seems impossible, but fun to think about, and I wish I had game development skills to do something like it, Pop Culture Clash, or a public domain fighting game, at least.

...a public domain fighting game would go incredibly hard.

 

[DragonRobotKing26]

That is a cool idea,i always thought how could be a Real Super Smash Bros who is a crossover fighting game with more characters who are not from Nintendo

Also i miss the thread Console Wars

 

[AlRex]

Random addition seems as it's been bumped - I think I'd personally like to see this as a smaller-scale kind of thing, and I genuinely believe that if you were smart with your choices, you could totally have a fairly unique "gaming history" roster with only like 20 characters. There's quite a few ways you could do this - for instance, if you were to go with repping genres, someone like Reimu would work well to rep both the doujin/indie scene and scrolling schmups - but I think it could easily be done in principle, even if it'd be a massive undertaking in terms of licensing.

I tried and failed to make a shorter roster under your idea, you’d have to cut 20 from this to make it work. :S

Spoiler: Roster and justification

1. Paddle (Pong) [Atari] [1972]
2. Space Invaders [Taito/Square-Enix] [1978]
3. Pac-Man [Namco-Bandai] [1980]
4. Yorgle (Adventure) [Atari] [1980]
5. Centipede [Atari] [1981]
6. Mario [Nintendo] [1981]
7. The Avatar (Ultima) [Origin Systems/EA] [1981]
8. Tetromino (Tetris) [Tetris Company] [1985]
9. Carmen Sandiego [Broderbund] [1985]
10. Link (Legend of Zelda) [Nintendo] [1986]
11. Kunio-Kun (River City) [Technos/ArcSys] [1986]
12. Ryu (Street Fighter) [CAPCOM] [1987]
13. Snake (Metal Gear) [Konami] [1987]
14. Alucard (Castlevania III) [Konami] [1989]
15. Sonic the Hedgehog [SEGA] [1991]
16. Scorpion (Mortal Kombat) [Midway/WB] [1992]
17. Kazuya Mishima (Tekken) [Namco-Bandai] [1994]
18. Hornet (Daytona USA) [SEGA] [1994]
19. Sweet Tooth (Twisted Metal) [Sony] [1995]
20. Pikachu (Pokémon) [Game Freak/Nintendo] [1996]
21. Crash Bandicoot [Activision/Microsoft] [1996]
22. Lara Croft (Tomb Raider) [Eidos/Embracer] [1996]
23. Marco Rossi (Metal Slug) [SNK] [1996]
24. PaRappa the Rapper [Sony] [1996]
25. Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy VII) [Square-Enix] [1997]
26. Reimu Hakurei (Touhou Project) [Team Shanghai Alice] [1997]
27. Nemesis (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis) [CAPCOM] [1999]
28. Bella Goth (The Sims) [Electronic Arts] [2000]
29. Master Chief (Halo) [Bungie/Microsoft] [2001]
30. CJ (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas) [2004] [Rockstar]
31. Quote (Cave Story) [Studio Pixel/NIS] [2004]
32. Saber (Fate) [Type-Moon] [2004]
33. Kratos (God of War) [Sony] [2005]
34. Chel (Portal) [Valve] [2007]
35. Ezio Auditore da Firenze (Assassin’s Creed) [Ubisoft] [2009]
36. Steve (Minecraft) [Mojang/Microsoft] [2009]
37. Red (Angry Birds) [Rovio/SEGA] [2009]
38. Monokuma (Danganronpa) [Spike Chunsoft] [2010]
39. Freddy Fazbear (Five Nights at Freddy’s) [ScottGames] [2014]
40. Jonesy (Fortnite) [Epic Games] [2017]

This is weighed for

• Variety of genres and types within said genres, as well as overall character type variety.
• Some characters/series being way too big not to include.
• Not representing specific companies too much (Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft all get three from being the current console makers, SEGA and Atari three from being the other former big ones, as well.

Carmen Sandiego and Metal Slug are biased picks, but they do at least represent educational games and point-and-click games for Carmen, and side-scrolling shooters and the Neo Geo for Metal Slug. I also admit general Western biases, but I am who I am. I tried for a decent Japanese and European mix, at least a bit.

Edit: Cut this one down

Spoiler: Truncated roster

1. Space Invaders [Taito/Square-Enix] [1978]
2. Pac-Man [Namco-Bandai] [1980]
3. Centipede [Atari] [1981]
4. Mario [Nintendo] [1981]
5. The Avatar (Ultima) [Origin Systems/EA] [1981]
6. Ryu (Street Fighter) [CAPCOM] [1987]
7. Snake (Metal Gear) [Konami] [1987]
8. Sonic the Hedgehog [SEGA] [1991]
9. Pikachu (Pokémon) [Game Freak/Nintendo] [1996]
10. Crash Bandicoot [Activision/Microsoft] [1996]
11. Lara Croft (Tomb Raider) [Eidos/Embracer] [1996]
12. PaRappa the Rapper [Sony] [1996]
13. Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy VII) [Square-Enix] [1997]
14. Nemesis (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis) [CAPCOM] [1999]
15. Master Chief (Halo) [Bungie/Microsoft] [2001]
16. CJ (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas) [2004] [Rockstar]
17. Kratos (God of War) [Sony] [2005]
18. Chel (Portal) [Valve] [2007]
19. Steve (Minecraft) [Mojang/Microsoft] [2009]
20. Red (Angry Birds) [Rovio/SEGA] [2009]

This was painful!