HELL YEAH, now we're talking with the same language! Pardon me as this was straight borrowed from my previous attempt with added stuff, but considering how quotes doesn't work when replied from an another user, I had to write them all there again.
(
sighs in relief) Now that takes many of us back to the 2000's, including myself. There's many nostalgic games in this console we all grew up with as a young kid, like Crash Bandicoot, Kingdom Hearts, Jak & Daxter, Sly Cooper, maybe Grand Theft Auto and God of War when we're old enough. And most of all, the topic of this submission, so it's time to rip ourselves a new one with the two and only...
Sony/PlayStation Newcomer - Ratchet and Clank/Rivet and Kit
Franchise: Ratchet & Clank
First Game: Ratchet & Clank (November 4th, 2002)
Console Debut: PlayStation 2
Companies: Sony Interactive Entertainment (publisher) and
Insomniac Games (developer; also known for Spyro the Dragon and
a Marvel universe with Spider-Man, Miles Morales and Wolverine)
Who are Ratchet and Clank/Rivet and Kit?
Ratchet & Clank is one of Sony's flagship franchises on their PlayStation console brand, created and developed by Insomniac Games since
it's debut on
PlayStation 2 in November 4th, 2002. The series focuses on 3D action platforming gameplay (akin to fellow "collectathon" games, Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie) with third-person shooting elements, following science fiction-based adventures of the eponymous intergalactic adventurer duo,
Ratchet (a young
Lombax mechanic and pilot, who lived in
Veldin) and
Clank (a sentient
Zoni robot, who was deemed "defective" and ran away from
Quartu) as they travel through the
Solana Galaxy, saving it from evil forces that consistently threaten it, such as villains like
Doctor Nefarious (their arch-enemy),
Chairman Alonzo Drek,
Courtney Gears (
her theme),
Gleeman Vox,
Otto Destruct,
Luna (yes, a little girl is evil),
Emperor Percival Tachyon,
Captain Angstrom Darkwater and
Romulus Slag, with the help of various allies like
Captain Qwark,
Big Al,
Angela Cross (in Going Commando),
Sasha Phyronix,
Merc and
Green (in Deadlocked),
Talwyn Apogee,
Cronk &
Zephyr,
Alister Azimuth (in A Crack in Time),
Rusty Pete, etc.
Debuting in the franchise's recent/latest installment which was released exclusively on PlayStation 5 in June 11th, 2021,
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart,
Rivet and
Kit are the alternate dimension counterparts of a titular duo themselves. A Lombax just like Ratchet, Rivet grew up on
Sargasso and joined the
Resistance movement along with
Captain Quantum and
Phantom, going against the tyrannical
Emperor Nefarious until she lost her right arm when a warbot (who is later revealed to be Kit, who went into exile from the army due to her power) blasted it off, later building herself a new robotic arm and since became wary of robots, before meeting Clank when he was separated from Ratchet following the
Dimensionator's destruction by Doctor Nefarious, and later teamed up with a duo to help them stop the dimensional cataclysm, forgiving Kit (upon finding out) for her past actions and the two became partners.
Why They Deserve to be in Smash Over Others?
Thanks to it's charm which is full of over-the-top characters, epic story-telling & gameplay,
catchy & intense music and
wacky,
funnily awkward moments (
this old animated commercial,
some weapons and a
whole TV Tropes page also says it all - even for
us adults), the franchise itself is so popular that it's titular heroes basically became one of Sony's most consistent, longest-enduring and iconic mascots alongside Kratos, Nathan Drake, Sackboy, etc. (Crash was declared one back in the PS1 era while under their ownership), thus appearing in multiple other PlayStation games
and crossovers (yes, an
Among Us one is real and then there's
Fall Guys), even having
a manga released in Japan (
their games sold very big in the country with
"The Best" titles and even has Crash-like changes as demonstrated above,
a exclusive PS3 triple pack,
bizarre anniversary videos and was
the first Western-developed game bundled with a console), a
comic book series by DC Comics in 2010, a theatrical feature film in 2016, etc. Ratchet & Clank would also represent a new company, Sony Interactive Entertainment themselves in this case (Microsoft has a fellow platforming mascot duo Banjo & Kazooie, Minecraft's Steve and now in Infinite, Crash Bandicoot himself, after all), and would complete the trio of main, prominent console developers alongside Microsoft and Nintendo.
While there are other Sony characters to pick up from their first-party exclusive library, Ratchet and Clank seems like a strong, logical contender and front-runner because of their popularity even in Japan (as just explained above), Nintendo-like cartoony aesthetics (alongside LittleBigPlanet; considering that most of Sony's still-living IPs, such as God of War, Uncharted and The Last of Us, are more realistic-looking and dark/mature in resemblance & theme/rating respectively; despite Deadlocked's dark tone) and would allow a development team to think ideas from
"outside the box" due to how interesting a franchise is and should unironically fit in Smash very well, as explained below. I mean, Sony gave Epic Games permission to use
Kratos and Aloy in Fortnite, even
Nathan Drake to promote the Uncharted film, with all skins being usable in other consoles such as Nintendo Switch itself, so they're open to share their IPs to other companies if they want to. In fact, same could even be said with MLB: The Show 22 which was
recently revealed for Nintendo Switch, developed by Sony's San Diego Studio from usually a
PlayStation-exclusive franchise.
These facts alone, especially the last part, would be worth for a potentially very huge and strong hype-inducing reveal, which may even exceed Joker's reveal back in 2018 (at least in the level of him, Banjo & Kazooie, Steve, Sephiroth, Sora or even a Sans costume), considering that all three companies teamed up a few times before with executives showing up together the same year (a legendary moment for our lord, Reggie) and working on
making social/online gaming more responsible and safer. And let's not forget how both Sony and Nintendo started the
development of the original PlayStation console together, back when it was planned as a CD-ROM add-on for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. You may think at this point: "Console wars are over."
Even Masahiro Sakurai himself likes PlayStation itself, having a
PS1 Classic Mini and & six PS3 and PS4s, one of them being the latter's Pro model on
his console collection and
played over 240 games in 2019. He even
shared his thoughts of their newest console, PlayStation 5 and also highly recommended Astro's Playroom, which is a huge, all-encompassing love letter/tribute to it's history (which also include Ratchet & Clank as a easter egg/cameo in Turbo Trail, the first stage of SSD Speedway, a world based on PlayStation 2). After all, Sakurai said a few times before that Smash is
more of a "
celebration of gaming" rather than being just about Nintendo's IPs themselves.
In case anyone's still questioning all of this, let me tell you about rivals promoting each other's consoles:
Two years back before Banjo-Kazooie was ported to Nintendo Switch as part of a Nintendo 64 line-up for Nintendo Switch Online's expansion pack, during a duo's presentation stream in September 2019,
Sakurai told watchers/Nintendo fans that if they want to play the original game itself, they should try it with Xbox One, which made Xbox
trending on Twitter in Japan after a stream.
How They Would Work?
Of course, this isn't their first time in a platform fighting game, since they once appeared in
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, which was released on PlayStation 3 and Vita in 2012, so they can be easily translated to Smash. They also have a VERY HUGE moveset potential thanks to LOTS OF
crazy, unique weapons and
gadgets besides Ratchet's signature
OmniWrench, which he uses as a melee/boomerang-like weapon, wall-jumping, floating in the air with Clank's
Heli-Pack, using
Swingshot for a tether recovery-grab,
Hoverboots in their full dash animation akin to Banjo & Kazooie's Talon Trot,
Phantom Dash via Omniglove as a dodge and using either their most powerful and badassest weapon,
R.Y.N.O. (especially it's upgrade,
R.Y.N.O. Xtreme from the 2016 reboot, complete with
1812 Overture from A Crack in Time playing in the background - pretty much their own counterpart of
Doomguy/Doom Slayer's BFG 9000), their spaceship (
Aphelion in the R&C Future trilogy released on PlayStation 3) or Clank's
giant form in their Final Smash, allowing for multiple playstyle/
mechanic possibilities (check
@BirthNote's
sketches of
both) with a
weapon switch/
upgrade gimmick and maybe even the
Groovitron (maybe a special victory pose with teammates also dancing as
a random disco song plays in the background?) and
Mr. Zurkon (with
unique quotes towards other fighters) as their taunts.
Besides, we need more duo fighters since there's only like four of them (Ice Climbers, Rosalina & Luma, Duck Hunt Duo and Banjo & Kazooie themselves). And also, who wants to bring a wrench to a gunfight? (
intentional reference)
Considering their identical controls/movesets in Rift Apart, Rivet and Kit themselves (using a hammer instead of OmniWrench,
Glide Boots for hovering and
a warbot mode in place of Giant Clank) would also possibly join in as their alternate costumes alongside slightly altered animations and different taunts/victory poses (such as
dance moves; besides various
armors and
skins normally instead of palettes). And speaking of content representation, there's dozens of materials to pick up for stage (like
Kerwan, which appeared in a few games), music (a soundtrack is so GODDAMN good, so take both a good listen and advice from videos below! - imagine
a banger remix of Metropolis in a reveal trailer and
this as their victory theme over the results screen similarly to Cloud's), assist trophy, item, boss and spirit possibilties in forthcoming jobs/prompts. Maybe even bring up other Sony-owned PlayStation franchises for additional content like Mii costumes and spirits?
And congratulations to everyone, who managed to read this whole post (hopefully every part of this long-written research with passion and emotions paid off), so remember
this! (
fans revived the online multiplayer support itself with
even a Discord server -
Epic stole from us)
