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Did Astrobot rip off Mario Sunshine?

Is it?

  • Yes

    Votes: 42 26.9%
  • No

    Votes: 114 73.1%

  • Total voters
    156
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everything in Astrobot is derivative. not only from Mario Sunshine, but generally Mario and similar 3D platformers.

they have the invisible blocks that become visible through a special light, which is something mario and probably other games already did.
it has the balancing on balls, which is prominently featured in Mario Galaxy.
it has WHAT IF CHARACTER BIG?, which is also pretty cliché.

and it does borrow a few Fludd nozzles from Sunshine as well yeah.
Ok, so developers should simply stop doing things that have been done before?
What a miserable world that would be.

And why are you always downplaying anything made or published by Sony? It is becoming a trend. I hope you have actually played it, at least. Regardless there are many games in existence, that borrow heavily from games that have come before. Not many games are truly "unique".
 
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Is this a troll thread? No. They are nothing alike outside of being platformers.
Given that they are platformers, they are going to share certain characteristics. People just love to throw around the word "rip off" freely. Given how it is being used here, you can say many games are "rip offs" but eh, whatever.
 
Ok, so developers should simply stop doing things that have been done before?
What a miserable world that would be.

no, but they didn't put any special spin on anything, and everything they did do was basically the simplest version of that thing.


And why are you always downplaying anything made or published by Sony? It is becoming a trend.

I am not downplaying everything published by Sony, I am a huge fan of the latest Ratchet & Clank, I think Returnal is pretty good, and GT7 is probably the best track based racing game currently on the market.

it just happens that I also dislike a lot of what they do. but that's true for almost any AAA publisher these days. Sony being a first party publisher makes it probably more noticeable when people criticise their games.


Regardless there are many games in existence, that borrow heavily from games that have come before. Not many games are truly "unique".

yes, but very few that are this unremarkable get this much praise usually. and that's what Asteobot is in the end... pretty unremarkable and mostly held up by all the nostalgia bait in it.

it does nothing special, nothing it does do is especially great, and it also has no real challenge.

no innovation,
no depth,
no challenge.

it's just a very polished, very pretty, decently designed, but also very unremarkable platformer.


I hope you have actually played it, at least.

I platinumed it actually.
 
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no, but they didn't put any special spin on anything, and everything they did do was basically the simplest version of that thing.




I am not downplaying everything published by Sony, I am a huge fan of the latest Ratchet & Clank, I think Returnal is pretty good, and GT7 is probably the best track based racing game currently on the market.

it just happens that I also dislike a lot of what they do. but that's true for almost any AAA publisher these days. Sony being a first party publisher makes it probably more noticeable when people criticise their games.




yes, but very few that are this unremarkable get this much praise usually. and that's what Asteobot is in the end... pretty unremarkable and mostly held up by all the nostalgia bait in it.

it does nothing special, nothing it does do is especially great, and it also has no real challenge.

no innovation,
no depth,
no challenge.

it's just a very polished, very pretty, decently designed, but also very unremarkable platformer.




I platinumed it actually.
Hmm, I respectfully disagree with some of the points but don't see a point in arguing it, but appreciate the explanation. I can at least see why you feel that way. I really enjoyed it 🤷‍♂️ as much as I enjoyed Super Mario Odyssey.
 
Please watch the astrobot team accept their game of the year award this isn't the behavior of a group of people who are stealing from existing material imo.



Did they rip it off...no.
Were they heavily influenced by Mario...duh.
 
A rip off? Nah. It's nothing special without the VR element, though. (And even with the VR game my source of fun were the VR mechanics and having to turn my head in all directions looking for the hidden bots, not the platforming itself.)
 
Astro does a few things similar but the game design is completely different from Sunshine, more linear and simpler levels. I wouldn't say it's a rip-off.

You have half the move set and options of even Mario 64, let alone Galaxy 2 or Odyssey.

It's enjoyable and has some good levels (the ones where you change size, the first water level, the big robot) but it lacks depth, is too easy and too short.
 
Did Astrobot rip off Mario Sunshine?
Did Super Mario Bros rip off Pac-Land (the main inspiration according to Miyamoto, we saw ideas of it not only in SMB1 but also in later games in the series) or Kung-Fu Master (Nintendo/Miyamoto did its NES port and later reused its scroll code for SMB1)?

Did Super Mario Bros Wii rip off Little Big Planet (4P, related coop mechanics...)? Did other Nintendo games rip off LBP and Tearaway ussing the patchwork or papercraft aesthetics in multiple Nintendo games like the Yoshi ones in addition to features and ideas from Media Molecule games?

No, Astro Bot just took references and ideas from previous games that worked, in the same way that Nintendo and every single game or developer do in all their games.
 
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Mabye Yes GIF
 
Watch the Asmongold video where he reacts to what Astrobot took from Nintendo games, its entertaining.
Astrobot is great in its own though.
 
This thread… it's the weekend, all right.


Mario 2 is good when you play the GBA remake.

the original was clunky, the SNES remake was ok-ish, and the GBA remake finally made it an actually good game
The incredibly obnoxious voices, and the fact that this is the Nintendo game that started abusing them, automatically makes it the worst version regardless of everything good it does.
I played the first level just last night and my God, Mario says something when he does anything except walking and running.
 
I think they pretty much ripped of every Mario 3D game, which to be honest are pretty decent games to copy. Astrobot did put it's own spin on proceedings as well.
 
I think they pretty much ripped of every Mario 3D game, which to be honest are pretty decent games to copy. Astrobot did put it's own spin on proceedings as well.
Exactly. It's not hard to admit. I mean, the only Astrobot I've watched was a kid trying a demo at a games convention, and possibly a minute or two of someone speedrunning it at GDQ. And in those few minutes I caught so many little things that made me go "aha, just like in Mario (insert pretty much any 3D Mario title)".

It's not like even Nintendo doesn't follow trends, especially with Zelda (Twilight Princess was so painfully a trend follower).
So I don't see the problem acknowledging that Astrobot takes a lot of ideas from 3D Mario. After all, they'd be foolish to not borrow ideas from the best in the business. And I bet Astrobot is better than Sunshine in particular, because Sunshine is not a great game and it's by far the worst 3D Mario.
 
Astrobot's hover is an evolution of Fludd, not a copy. The game borrows a bit more from Galaxy and it's sequel than from Sunshine or 64.
This is all you can really do in platformers. It's really hard to add something unique to a genre that gave us our first real take on 3D gaming. Borrowing bits of gameplay that worked, tweaking them to make them your own and dressing it all up in style is the way to go. The game was heavily influenced by the Marios and that is fine and it also innovates in presentation and to some extent with the powers. One thing I hope it doesn't copy from Mario is trying to reinvent itself every iteration and taking nearly a decade to do so because I want more of these games. It's literally the only reason for me to buy a PS platform, because my kids love it and I like playing through the same games with them like we are doing with Pokopia.

We also played through Bananza together and that clearly ripped off Astro Bot. - Half kidding because the devs developed the smashing mechanics close to when Odyssey launched.
I guess Mario 64 is a rip off of Jumping Flash due to the triple jump mechanic. Sunshine wasn't even the first to do the hover mechanic, Spyro came before it.
Are you sure about Spyro? Nintendo works on these games from concept to "perfection" for a long time until they get the mechanics right and make it fun. Any game releasing before it could have started development well after Nintendo came up with the concept themselves.
 
Please watch the astrobot team accept their game of the year award this isn't the behavior of a group of people who are stealing from existing material imo.



Did they rip it off...no.
Were they heavily influenced by Mario...duh.


Interview just after receiving the 4 awards while he's still in the game awards. Youtube auto translation.
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When he was asked if he gets to take the awards (4x2) to the office the same day, he compares the size of the game award box to:
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Link

Some people here really need to stop their bullshit.
 
Rip-off always sounds so harsh. When I read that Spider-Man is a Batman rip-off or Astro Bot is a Mario rip-off, i immediately think of console wars. You can't reinvent the wheel every single time after more than 40 years of video game history. Certain elements keep showing up and in some games there are more original ideas, while in others there are fewer. Some games borrow a lot of elements from a single game, others take a few elements from several games and yet others build upon existing ideas to develop them further.

Can't we just say "homage to", "inspired by" or "heavily inspired by"? That sounds so much nicer.
 
I mean, it was obviously inspired by Sunshine, Galaxy, etc. 3D Mario in general, really. But then it did its own thing with that, and it turned out awesome. So I wouldn't say ripped off.
 
it's more polished. that's all it has that makes it better.

if Sunshine got a remake with improved controls and camera, it would be the better game

The controls in Sunshine are great, what lets it down compared to other 3D Mario games as well as Astro Bot is the lack of level variety, the blue coin padding, etc. Astro Bot just feels way more varied, inventive and ambitious.

Luckily Nintendo turned that right around and made the most innovative 3D platformer ever with Galaxy (well, I guess SM64 was even more innovative in its time).
 
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Completely different other than being a platformer, and it also shits over every single 3D Mario game outside of SM64.
Astro Bot is great at level design, but the platforming elements are lacking. There's very little replay value as a result, unless you're trying to perfect the hard courses.
 
I love it how some people pretend Astrobot didnt exist since long before the PS5 game and act as if Asobi hadn't made the first TRUE VR plataformer, which is more innovative than anything done in the genre since Mario 64.

The "rip-off" conversation is just gross. Absolutely disgraceful.
 
I love it how some people pretend Astrobot didnt exist since long before the PS5 game and act as if Asobi hadn't made the first TRUE VR plataformer, which is more innovative than anything done in the genre since Mario 64.

The "rip-off" conversation is just gross. Absolutely disgraceful.
That VR game was amazing.
 
Are you sure about Spyro? Nintendo works on these games from concept to "perfection" for a long time until they get the mechanics right and make it fun. Any game releasing before it could have started development well after Nintendo came up with the concept themselves.
I'm sure. Several games had jump hover before sunshine. Jumping Flash had rocket powered jumps too. It worked almost exactly like Astrobot in mechanics but a lot more height.
 
I finished Sunshine with all the shines(?) on gc and I really liked it many years back. I loved the graphic, fluid paint mechanics that later seems like used for splatoon games - Some parts were hard, but the exhilaration after beating was there too. I don't remember what're exactly is so bad - to be disliked by so many folks.

Perhaps it's my nostalgia playing me fool in my head - and maybe I should re-try one of these days to see why it's so bad.

I have not played Astrobot - haven't really bothered the pack in demo that came with PS5 - but maybe I should give a go. I did play pal the ps VR one, but didn't get too far…
 
Gaming, like most modern art and media, is inherently derivative. There's basically no game that hasn't taken any inspiration and elements from existing works.

Does Astrobot take clear inspiration from Sunshine and other notable 3D platformers? Sure
Is it a rip off? Nah.
 
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