S&S; Review: Playstation All Stars Battle Royale

Title: Playstation All Stars Battle Royale
Format: PS3, PS Vita
Release Date: November 20th, 2012
Publisher: SCEA
Developer: SuperBot Entertainment
Price: $59.99
ESRB Rating: T

Playstation All Stars Battle Royale brings in most of Sony's iconic figures and a few notable third party figures like Dante from DmC, and pits them against one another in a fight to the death.  Ever since this game's inception, its been getting called a Smash Bros clone, but after my time with the game, that statement isn't true in the least.  
Story and Presentation:
There isn't a real story included in the game, just a single-player arcade mode  that serves as a long tutorial.  The game could've greatly benefited from some crossover cinematics in between each match, it would've been pretty cool seeing Kratos and Nariko conversing before proceeding to ripping each other apart.  Instead you're just given some slideshow images over dramatic music, one of the big missed opportunities in the game. You still get the same great voice work from the original characters, even though its pretty short.  Its still nice to hear Nolan North and TC Carson reprise their roles as Nathan Drake and Kratos.  The game does a great job of recreating each star and their own universes.  Stages have been intertwined with one another, blending Loco Roco and God of War's Hades underworld creates a pretty cool crossover level.  Metal Gear, Infamous, Hot Shots, and the Dojo from PaRappa are just a few of the backdrops in the game.  The stages themselves all have a great amount of detail in them, and they're fully interactive as well.  The huge leviathan from Killzone 3 will constantly rain down missiles from above while trying to evade the evil Cole.  The character models look really nice as well, Raiden and Fat Princess are pretty much on the opposite end of the spectrum, but they still manage to make each character look solid.  SuperBot has done a wonderful job of keeping all the themes we loved in the characters' original games, even when they combine 2 different franchises in the same stage.  The music is great, you'll hear a lot of the same music from different games, like the terrific orchestral score from Uncharted 3, to the stealthy Sly Cooper theme.  If you are familiar with each of the characters in the game, you'll easily appreciate the amount of work that went into recreating their own unique presentations.  

Core Gameplay and Multiplayer:
If you're watching the game, you can easily make the case that this game is just a blatant ripoff of Smash Bros, but when you actually pick up the controller and play it, you'll soon notice how different these games are. I'm a huge fan of Smash Bros, so I thought I wouldn't have any issues with the controls and the mechanics in Battle Royale. In the first hour I found out the concepts from the different games are completely different. In Smash Bros, your goal is to knock your opponents off the map. Whereas in Battle Royale, your goal is to pull off extensive combos, and using your supers to get kills. I get that people are upset that PASBR uses the same concept of SB, but I was always hoping that I would get the chance to play as all my favorite figures from the current games that I am playing. Who wouldn't wanna play as Kratos and rip apart Sackboy and Nathan Drake. Its a wonderful concept, and i hope that Sony will continue this series. Now as I said before, this game is different, it'll take some time before you learn all the little intricacies of your favorite fighters. Each character moves different than one another, you'll definitely want to find a fighter that suits your play style the best. Every character has their own moves and dodge animations, the tutorials allow you to find your preferred fighter more quickly. The only way to finish off someone is with one of your three leveled supers. You can quickly raise up your level to a level 1 super, or you can continue to raise your gauge to a level 2 or 3 super and cause more havoc. This creates a bit of strategic thinking on your part, go for the less damaging level 1, or wait to unleash your devastating level 3 and rack up the kills. Each character has their own specific super, so your character choice will most likely affect your strategic choices as well. There are a few balancing issues, a few characters are clearly better than others, as they build up their supers a lot faster than others. The 20 characters can make for some interesting outcomes in player choices, people will frequently choose the obvious over-powered fighters. You can play with 3 other players locally, or you can take your game online. You'll be playing against Vita owners as well, the cross play feature works very well, with minimal lag found. Ranked matches offer a lot of options, with public matches not holding back on the options as well. This game was made for multiplayer, and it shows here.

Final Thoughts: Playstation All Stars Battle Royale is the first game to hopefully a lot more titles in the new series, it does a lot of great things with the Sony's first party characters and remains faithful to their respective backgrounds. The fighting mechanics will take some time to get used, and even with some balancing issues, the game is still a great fighter in its own right. S&S Rating: 8/10 @whatsPlay