All-Stars Racing Transformed: The Racer Roster Thread

[Wraith]

Wow this has to be one of the worst rosters ever put into a video game. I'm sure the game is fun but Jesus christ. I'm kinda REALLY regretting pre-ordering this now.

Is this STILL about Banjo?

[Hersparkidicus Optimaximus]

Wow this has to be one of the worst rosters ever put into a video game. I'm sure the game is fun but Jesus christ. I'm kinda REALLY regretting pre-ordering this now.

^My sentiments exactly. It looks like SEGA/Sumo went right for the guest characters and forgot all about their own history.

[Carbo]

Oh get off it. The roster is fine. Doesn't mean it couldn't be better or that it's lacking a few key additions that were in the last game but "worst"? That's some pretty big hyperbole to spill just because Banjo or Ryo isn't in it.

[TheAnvil]

Is this STILL about Banjo?

No. This is about the ridiculous amount of clone characters which make the very small roster significantly smaller. They have Nights and Reala but stuck Ristar as a flag holder? WTF were they thinking? They could have easily put Reala as the flag holder and had a DIFFERENT character from a DIFFERENT series. They've cut popular characters like Ryo, The Bonanza Bros, The Chu Chu's for Pudding, Gum and Mee Mee, who are essentially the exact same characters as their counterparts.

A sequel is supposed to have a bigger and better roster. They're not supposed to have less characters and cut popular characters for crappy clones.

I sincerely hope there is some DLC. Although I'm not overly sure how much good that will do. All the good characters have cameos. If I hadn't actually bought and paid for this game already I'd be laughing. Instead I'm crying.

[Crazizzle]

Games like this and Smash Bros suffer from the same problem...the really cool new characters are announced early to build hype. I remember my brother complaining when he bought Brawl, how all the characters he didn't already know about sucked. Well, what about the characters that were hyped early that you've already gotten accustomed to?

In regards to this game...if we were just discovering characters like Nights, Gillius, Shinobi, Vyse and etc now...wouldn't we be thrilled? But we celebrated those announcements before and we're not excited by them anymore. And now when the other characters come out we feel let down. It's a consistent problem with these nostalgia based games. Most of the amazing stuff gets announced early. Actually, Sumo did a better job than Nintendo....

They kept Segabot, Race of Ages, Burning Rangers track and other exciting things secret.

Nevermind the fact that the third guest is a great surprise for PC gamers...

[TheAnvil]

Games like this and Smash Bros suffer from the same problem...the really cool new characters are announced early to build hype. I remember my brother complaining when he bought Brawl, how all the characters he didn't already know about sucked. Well, what about the characters that were hyped early that you've already gotten accustomed to?

In regards to this game...if we were just discovering characters like Nights, Gillius, Shinobi, Vyse and etc now...wouldn't we be thrilled? But we celebrated those announcements before and we're not excited by them anymore. And now when the other characters come out we feel let down. It's a consistent problem with these nostalgia based games. Most of the amazing stuff gets announced early. Actually, Sumo did a better job than Nintendo....

They kept Segabot, Race of Ages, Burning Rangers track and other exciting things secret.

Nevermind the fact that the third guest is a great surprise for PC gamers...

The real difference between Brawl and this is that Brawl had around 40 characters, NONE of them were bad (and only 2 or 3 have clones). This game has 29 characters, little more than 15 of them are unique Sega characters.

IIRC on the last game, the last characters revealed were the Chu Chus, Bonanza Bros and Opa-Opa, all three were popular choices.

Wait..... So is that the full roster? Did they seriously count that PC joke as 3 characters?

Edited November 15, 2012 by TheAnvil

[MykonosFan]

Wait..... So is that the full roster? Did they seriously count that PC joke as 3 characters?

Edited November 15, 2012 by Mykonos

[Solly]

No. This is about the ridiculous amount of clone characters which make the very small roster significantly smaller. They have Nights and Reala but stuck Ristar as a flag holder? WTF were they thinking? They could have easily put Reala as the flag holder and had a DIFFERENT character from a DIFFERENT series. They've cut popular characters like Ryo, The Bonanza Bros, The Chu Chu's for Pudding, Gum and Mee Mee, who are essentially the exact same characters as their counterparts.

A sequel is supposed to have a bigger and better roster. They're not supposed to have less characters and cut popular characters for crappy clones.

I sincerely hope there is some DLC. Although I'm not overly sure how much good that will do. All the good characters have cameos. If I hadn't actually bought and paid for this game already I'd be laughing. Instead I'm crying.

[Jango]

BUT GUYS. The roster is great now, we have:

Alex Kidd, Football Manager and Shogun chars

I mean, it's not like Sumo didn't asked for more characters I believe. The one and ONLY lack I still feeling is Comix Zone and Streets of Rage. Maybe the owner of Comix Zone was asked to lend Sketch Turner, but he didn't accepted, and I believe Sumo didn't even talked to the SoR owner, since he's a huge ass.

[TheAnvil]

No, they didn't.

I fail to see how this is one of the worst rosters every, when I look at my copy of Mario Kart Wii and I have to remember this.

Say what you want about a SEGA racing roster, but it can never stoop that low.

So there are still 2 or 3 characters left to announce?

The Mario Kart Wii roster was awesome. Funky Kong thank you very much.

I'll agree that there are other characters I really wanted to play as, and that there are choices I didn't like, but you are totally overblowing this.

Sequels should be improved over the originals, but acting like they need to have everything the original had and more is just setting yourself up for diappointment. The fact remains that 'Transformed' is a different game from the original All Stars racing, and should be treated as such. Just because something worked in the last game doesn't mean it'd work in this one, from a design perspective. Ryo could ride a bike on the ground, but what about in the air or water? Just an example, but there's a lot of shit that needs to be considered when including characters.

Again, I don't agree with all the choices either. I would've taken Aika from Skies of Arcadia over Gum or Pudding any day, but that's just me. I realize those characters have fans too, and were chosen because the designers felt that they were a fit for the game.

Also, the roster really isn't small, especially not for a racing game.

They didn't even listen to the fans. The fans made it obvious that they wanted Ristar. Who would be incredibly easy to implement into the game, they'd even already made his character model. So they put a duplicate like Pudding on instead and made Ristar the flag holder.

This game isn't exactly realistic, it's got Danica Patrick in a transforming racing car on it. They could have easily given Ryo a transforming Forklift. I realize that the game is different, but they've cut a whole lot of super popular characters in favor of duplicating already existing characters.

Edited November 15, 2012 by TheAnvil

[Solly]

So there are still 2 or 3 characters left to announce?

The Mario Kart Wii roster was awesome. Funky Kong thank you very much.

It had FOUR Baby versions of other Mario characters- one of which was original; Baby Daisy didn't even EXIST before.

Also Toadette? She's "essentially the exact same character as her counterpart" as you would put it.

Also you complained about the roster for Transformed being small but the MKWii roster is, overall smaller. And more padded.

[MykonosFan]

So there are still 2 or 3 characters left to announce?

The Mario Kart Wii roster was awesome. Funky Kong thank you very much.

Yes.

And ironic that you feel that way, considering that's a secondary character that isn't even in the main Mario universe. Perhaps someone feels the way towards a secondary character in this game the way you feel towards Funky Kong? I'll admit you'll have a hard time finding MeeMee fans, but some were happy about Gum's inclusion, for example.

Edited November 15, 2012 by Mykonos

[TheAnvil]

It had FOUR Baby versions of other Mario characters- one of which was original; Baby Daisy didn't even EXIST before.

Also Toadette? She's "essentially the exact same character as her counterpart" as you would put it.

Also you complained about the roster for Transformed being small but the MKWii roster is, overall smaller. And more padded.

The Wii is also a much less powerful console than the 360/PS3. It's basically a generation behind.

[Jango]

They didn't even listen to the fans. The fans made it obvious that they wanted Ristar. Who would be incredibly easy to implement into the game, they'd even already made his character model. So they put a duplicate like Pudding on instead and made Ristar the flag holder.

Dude you've lost your point. They tried to make Ristar playable, but he wasn't looking good in 3D from the perspective we would see him more often, the backwards... Being the flagman is much better than a cameo in ONE PAID level, so just accept it. EVERYBODY wanted Ristar and EVERYBODY were sure he would be playable, but after Sumo had explained that issue, EVERYBODY drop it, you're the only still complaining lol

Edited November 15, 2012 by Jango

[TheAnvil]

Yes.

And ironic that you feel that way, considering that's a secondary character that isn't even in the main Mario universe. Perhaps someone feels the way towards a secondary character in this game the way you feel towards Funky Kong? I'll admit you'll have a hard time finding MeeMee fans, but some were happy about Gum's inclusion, for example.

Mario Kart is just that though, Mario. It was a good idea to put another DK character on (which is essentially a spin-off of the mario universe anyway). It isn't Nintendo kart so you can't avoid having only Mario characters in the game. I'm not even referring to having one or two clones. It's the volume that they have on there. Pudding and Reala at the very least were completely unnecessary. Imagine how much better the over all roster would look if you replaced even just those two characters with the ever popular RYO and RISTAR. They could have even put Nights driving a Reala vehicle, the game isn't exactly supposed to make sense anyway.

[Solly]

They didn't even listen to the fans. The fans made it obvious that they wanted Ristar. Who would be incredibly easy to implement into the game, they'd even already made his character model. So they put a duplicate like Pudding on instead and made Ristar the flag holder.

This game isn't exactly realistic, it's got Danica Patrick in a transforming racing car on it. They could have easily given Ryo a transforming Forklift. I realize that the game is different, but they've cut a whole lot of super popular characters in favor of duplicating already existing characters.

Okay, it's cool to not like the roster and all, but saying that they "didn't even listen to the fans" is completely ignorant, and frankly, disprespectful. The game's designers- not even PR people but the guys WORKING on the game, have been coming here in their free time to talk and engage with the fans to hear their input and interact.

Hell, do you have any idea how requested Vyse and Gillius were?

As for Ryo: transforming, flying forklifts that can move on water? Gotcha.

I have no dobut they could've done something, but my point was that designing each character comes with their own challenges, and even if the game's not realistic, the vehicle would need to represent him while still fitting the game. It's not as easy as saying "oh he could just drive this."

The Wii is also a much less powerful console than the 360/PS3. It's basically a generation behind.

That really isn't an excuse. They could've had more if they wanted to, and I highly doubt console limitations were preventing that. Plus, it doesn't excuse the padded character choices.

[TheAnvil]

Dude you've lost your point. They tried to make Ristar playable, but he wasn't looking good in 3D from the perspective we would see him more often, the backwards... Being the flagman is much better than a cameo in ONE PAID level, so just accept it. EVERYBODY wanted Ristar and EVERYBODY were sure he would be playable, but after Sumo had explained that issue, EVERYBODY drop it, you're the only still complaining lol

That sounds like a lame excuse to me. How would a black ball with a star in front of it look any worse than a blue hedgehog from behind?

[MykonosFan]

It's the volume that they have on there. Pudding and Reala at the very least were completely unnecessary. Imagine how much better the over all roster would look if you replaced even just those two characters with the ever popular RYO and RISTAR.

You must have missed the part where S0L told us that extra characters were added in on their own time with no additional budget from SEGA. Those characters would not be there at all if they didn't do that.

The roster could be even worse and even emtpier than what you view it as now. And if you respond with "Well, I'd rather not have those characters anyway!" consider this my final response to you.

Edited November 15, 2012 by Mykonos

[TheAnvil]

You must have missed the part where S0L told us that extra characters were added in on their own time with no additional budget from SEGA. Those characters would not be there at all if they didn't do that.

The roster could be even worse and even emtpier than what you view it as now. And if you respond with "Well, I'd rather not have those characters anyway!" consider this my final response to you.

I didn't know that. They obviously didn't have a very big budget. It doesn't make the roster any better though does it? If they were going to add extra characters in their spare time with no extra budget, there would have been no better characters to put in than the ones from the last game, that would have rounded out the roster more IE Ryo, Bonzanza Bros, Jacky/Akira, Billy Hatcher or Ristar (who also had a model).

[sonfan1984]

I'm kinda REALLY regretting pre-ordering this now.

I'd thought you already canceled your pre-order cause Banjo wasn't in it?

[MykonosFan]

I didn't know that. They obviously didn't have a very big budget. It doesn't make the roster any better though does it? If they were going to add extra characters in their spare time with no extra budget, there would have been no better characters to put in than the ones from the last game, that would have rounded out the roster more IE Ryo, Bonzanza Bros, Jacky/Akira, Billy Hatcher or Ristar (who also had a model).

The budget for this game was akin to a main Sonic title. Which, speaking seriously, is probably about as much money as SEGA can really throw at a game right now. It was likely easier and cheaper for Sumo to secure rights to secondary characters than to go get characters like you listed which could have potentially cost more. Plus, who knows what future DLC prospects for this game will be like. Perhaps it will get more support than the first ASR.

[Toby]

Who the hell are Ryo, Super Bonanza Bros, Opuopu? Chu chu? I thought this was Sonic and Sega Allstars, not weirdos I've never heard of beforestars!

[Barry the Nomad]

The real difference between Brawl and this is that Brawl had around 40 characters, NONE of them were bad (and only 2 or 3 have clones). This game has 29 characters, little more than 15 of them are unique Sega characters.

IIRC on the last game, the last characters revealed were the Chu Chus, Bonanza Bros and Opa-Opa, all three were popular choices.

Wait..... So is that the full roster? Did they seriously count that PC joke as 3 characters?

You do realize that it is MUCH easier designing a character for a fighting game series, on a 2D plane no less, than it is designing characters for a racing game that in and of itself has three transformations per racer and as such three vehicles to design per character. It's not as though Sumo took the first ASR and are simply adding on to it. If that was the case, we'd be sure to see all the previous characters and then some. But since Transformed took the effort to reinvent the game and make it "so much more" than the first, they pretty much started from scratch on every character.

If, say, another Transformed title is made that doesn't reinvent the wheel then it is possible to retain the ASRT roster and expand on it. But Transformed in no way compares to SSBB, which is character only and builds on previous titles, nor does it compare to ASR due to reasons I just mentioned.

[Carbo]

I didn't know that. They obviously didn't have a very big budget.

Character roster solely defines budget?

Shit. Sonic 06 must have had a crazy budget.

[Jango]

Character roster solely defines budget?

Shit. Sonic 06 must have had a crazy budget.

I heard that Princess Elise costed almost 3 billion dollars.