PlayStation All-Stars

Okay, hold on. Come back. What if I told you Sony’s attempt at a Smash Bros. crossover fighter ruled, actually? Yes, it didn’t take off the way Nintendo’s brawler has, but it had some cool ideas, and in between the characters clearly added to advertise an upcoming project, the roster is pretty fucking solid. But even if you think PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale was a garbage copycat, we’re not here to retread the mistakes of the past. We’re envisioning a better future.

In the 12 years since PlayStation All-Stars launched on PS3 and Vita, Sony has gathered a lot of new, much-loved characters like Astro, Ellie, and Aloy to add to the roster, and has more cultural cache than they did during the PS3 generation to negotiate better guest characters. What if we got actual Dante instead of the DmC: Devil May Cry one because Capcom was clearly trying to make the game an ad for its upcoming game? Sony could secure egregious omissions like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro to properly represent the PlayStation brand’s history. I just want them to get a second chance to do it right, and PlayStation’s certainly in a better place to do that now than they were when the PlayStation 3 was in last place. — Kenneth Shepard