PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale seems like your typical Super Smash Bros clone. But thankfully, I am here to say while it borrows heavily from its predecessor it stands on its own two feet as a viable party fighting game that can even be played at a very competitive level.
When you decide to purchase PlayStation All-Stars, you’re quickly informed that this game has Cross Play integration. What that means is if you have the PlayStation 3 copy and a friend has the PS Vita copy, the two of you can play over the internet. Luckily, if you get the PS3 copy of the game, it comes with the PS Vita version for free. While I have played the Vita version, my review is solely based on my time spent with the PS3 version.
Once you load the game and you get past the boring text, you’re greeted with an awesome opening cinematic that sets up the mood for what will entail. PlayStation All-Stars is a fighting game that takes some of Sony’s biggest names and pits them in an all out battle. Unfortunately, the roster is a good size but seems to be missing some pretty obvious omissions while including weird ones. For example, why is the Big Daddy from Bioshock in the game while Crash Bandicoot isn’t?
Nonetheless, every character feels as if they were ripped from their game and put into this taking all of their key aspects with them. Superbot nailed the feel of every character along with making the game quite fun and simple yet deep and engrossing.
The goal of the game is to rack up kills. The only way to do so is to hit your opponent with your super attack which you earn in the game by doing normal attacks on your opponent. This mechanic can make for some pretty awesome fights which can sadly last for a very long time. But, the more you learn the better you get with the supers and how to get them to come out without any problems. There are three levels you can fill your super meter up to. Each comes with its own risk and reward.
Playing this game is a real treat to the ears as characters sound exactly as they should along with the awesome sound of every punishing blow being laid upon someone. Plus the soundtrack isn’t too bad either, even though there are a few less than stellar pieces of music in the game.
The visuals are great giving every character an awesome look that makes them seem fitting in the universe. The stages are mash-ups of previous Sony titles such as Little Big Planet and Buzz! It doesn’t hurt that everything is colorful as really draws attention to the player. Too bad the stages can be a bit distracting because you want to know what is happening in the background.
The story isn’t really in the game. Each character has their own beginning and ending while encountering a unique rival to fight but nothing really to gloat over. Even the final boss is forgettable and apparently he was a Sony mascot at some point in the company’s lifespan.
But the real treat is the very fun and addictive multiplayer. It supports local and online versus for up to four players. While there aren’t many game types you can customize practically every bit you choose.
The online is fairly well with very minimal to no lag. The best part is that you can either choose to play by yourself or bring a local friend with you to partake in the fun.
The game is pretty stacked with features overall. It has challenge mode for each character along with and awesome character customization suite that you can use the more you level up every individual character. There is also a pretty sweet combo trial mode to help you understand the game better and a move list trial to assist in familiarizing yourself with a character.
All in all the game is just pure fun. Sony & Superbot Entertainment plan on updating the game with free items, characters and stages in the near future for free and it’s definitely worth it. Sadly it is missing some characters one would hope to see and the lack of a better story is a bit depressing but it’s still a great game that any Sony fan should own.
8/10