Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale - PlayStation 3

Sony's Heavy Hitters Face Off

Dan Ryckert — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:00:00 GMT

By the time SuperBot officially unveiled PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, rumors had been flying for a while about a Sony-branded Smash Bros. clone. Reducing this new fighter to “clone” status is unfair to the final product, but the argument has a base. At first glance, it looks like a shameless rip-off. But upon playing it further, tweaks of varying significance become apparent.

Most importantly, the method of winning these chaotic bouts is completely different than Nintendo’s franchise. Beating down on your opponents with the three face-button attacks doesn’t weaken them directly. Instead, it builds up a three-tiered super meter that unleashes progressively more devastating attacks. Sweet Tooth may strap a bomb to his opponents with a level one super, but he can turn into a massive mech form if you’re patient enough to save up all the way. Discovering what crazy attacks these characters have up their sleeves is one of the most entertaining elements of the game.

No matter what level the super is at, these attacks are the only way to kill opponents and gain points. You won’t have to worry about falling off platforms or being knocked into the horizon like you would in Smash Bros. This system changes up the experience significantly, but it can also be a hindrance. Considering these supers are the only way to earn points, it is frustrating to save up and miss several times in a row. It also makes stock battles annoyingly lengthy. These usually come down to two characters darting at each other, attempting to hit a super, and missing. In general, timed battles are the way to go with Battle Royale.

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By no fault of Sony, the roster pales in comparison to Nintendo’s fighter. PlayStation has become a massive brand over the last 17 years, but the company doesn’t have the pedigree of its competitor. Pitting Kratos and Nathan Drake against each other is a nice novelty, but it doesn’t have the same feeling as industry icons Mario and Link facing off. Battle Royale’s roster has a few heavy hitters, but it also includes some low-profile competitors like Fat Princess and Colonel Radec (almost certainly to be referred to as “The Killzone Guy” by most).

Each stage is initially based on one particular franchise, but elements from a second franchise invade the area near the halfway mark. It’s a fun little surprise the first couple of times, but I grew tired of the repeating format. Playing on a God of War-inspired stage with Hades thrashing about in the background is awesome, but then it gets invaded by Patapon and changes the entire feel of the stage. A Loco Roco stage features the PSP game’s charming art style until Metal Gear Ray decides to show up and wreak havoc. I like all of these ideas for stages individually, but it seems unnecessary to mash them together.

One feature that sets Battle Royale apart from Smash Bros. is its ranking system. Individual characters level up and unlock new customization parts as you use them. Some of these unlocks come in the form of icons and title cards (similar to Street Fighter), while others tweak your character itself. If you tend to play as one character a lot, you can eventually unlock alternate costumes and new victory poses, taunts, and music for them.

Taking the fight online doesn’t offer anything that isn’t already available in local play. Basic leaderboards and stats are available, but nothing shakes up the gameplay. It may not be a revolutionary online fighting experience, but it ran without a hint of lag for me.

Sony has been pushing PS3/Vita cross play lately, and Battle Royale is one of its most high-profile experiments with the technology. In a success for the feature, the game plays and looks great regardless of which system you play it on. Playing on Vita feels like the exact same experience as the console, and it’s great to be able to play online against those that are playing in their living rooms.

All-Stars is clearly similar to Smash Bros., especially because it’s far more fun to play with friends. Solo, it quickly becomes repetitive and doesn’t give you much reason to continue. If you have company over, however, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale can be a lot of chaotic fun.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale Final Boss Revealed

Jim Reilly — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 17:37:00 GMT

A new trailer showing the intro to the game (see below) reveals the final boss for Sony's upcoming fighter. Remember Polygon Man? Of course you don't. Polygon Man was originally used as the mascot for the original PlayStation pre-launch marketing strategy, but was eventually dropped entirely.

“Polygon Man was going to be this iconic brand that would talk in various media to consumers as this kind of next-gen type spokesman," then president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios Phil Harrison in an interview with Edge in 2009.

Surprised? Think Sony could have found a better end boss? Let us know in the comments below. We also have a complete list of the entire roster available here.

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Latest Dev Diary Dives Into PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale's Stage Design

Kyle Hilliard — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 15:24:00 GMT

All of the announcements and media we've seen for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale have highlighted the diverse cast, but this developer diary takes a look at the game's combat arenas.

In the latest developer diary from SuperBot Entertainment, game director Omar Kendall talks about the process of of creating the assorted stages that will be populating the stage selection screen. Check out the video below.

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[via PlayStation Blog]

PlayStation All-Stars Training Videos Outline Fat Princess And Sly Cooper

Kyle Hilliard — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 21:45:00 GMT

Sony has released a pair of videos offering some training tips and background information on Fat Princess and Sly Cooper.

Neither of the characters necessarily control the way you would assume they would, especially Sly. He is not able to block, roll, or evade. Check out the videos below to hear Omar Kendal, Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale's director, talk about it.

Fat Princess
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Sly Cooper
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[via PlayStation blog]

Examining Jak And Daxter And Cole MacGrath For PlayStation All-Stars

Ben Reeves — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 14:09:00 GMT

Sony just announced Cole MacGrath and Jak and Daxter for its upcoming brawler Playstation All-Stars. SuperBot game designer Omar Kendall walks us through the ins and outs of each new combatant.

Learn how Cole MacGrath's ionic vortex works and how Jak's Dark and Light transformations will alter the course of battle below.

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PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale's New Combatants

Matthew Kato — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 00:39:34 GMT

Sony is slowly revealing details about All-Stars, and we got our hands on Nathan Drake and a Big Daddy in the game, as well as the Vita version.

The Big Daddy from BioShock is the slowest character among those playable in the demo, but he's punishing to anyone around him. When he fills his power meter at the bottom of the screen, three levels of super attacks are available in successive tiers. The first is a Little Sister he can release at a nearby enemy. The second is an area attack that kills everyone instantly, and the third is a giant flood that consumes the whole level.

Uncharted's Nathan Drake is much more nimble of a fighter, and his super attacks are a propane tank he can detonate, a concrete pillar he can topple (for a long-range attack), and a sarcophagus that unleashes a horde of zombies on the level (in that order).

SuperBot says it still has other details about the game that it hasn't revealed like the different multiplayer modes, single-player, and the complete roster of fighters. A hedgehog grenade from the Resistance series is one of the items you can pick up in levels, so it's a good bet that a character from the franchise will be among the final list.

I also played the Vita version of the game (which features cross-save and cross-play functionality with the PS3 version), and it plays just as well as the console edition. Super attacks can be initiated either by swiping the back touchscreen or by hitting L1 and R1 at the same time.

As good as the Vita version looks, the one criticism I have is that it can be a little hard to see the items you can pick up in the environment.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale comes out for the PS3 and Vita this winter.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale Likely Coming to Vita

Ali Rapp — Wed, 30 May 2012 00:02:00 GMT

Sony Computer Entertainment of America has registered several domain names referencing its upcoming title PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale and the Vita, implying the Super Smash Bros.-style fighting game may be released on the handheld.

The domain names include PlaystationAllStarsVita.com, PS-AllStarsVita.com, and PSAllStarsBattleRoyaleVita.com. Sony has so far not commented on the possible Vita version, other than to say they "don't comment on rumor or speculation."

Street Fighter X Tekken supports cross-platform play across the PS3 and Vita versions, so here's hoping something similar is in the works for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

[Source: Joystiq]

Sony's Heavy Hitters Clash In PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale

Dan Ryckert — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Rumors of a Sony fighter in the style of Smash Bros. have been swirling for quite some time now, and the publisher finally let the cat out of the bag at a recent showcase event. PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale will feature a cast of characters from the brand's 18 years in the gaming industry, and I played it using a restricted selection of combatants.

Sony unveiled Kratos, Sly Cooper, Parappa the Rapper, Fat Princess, Sweet Tooth, and Killzone's Colonel Radec as playable characters. Four stages were available, including Hades (God of War), Sandover Village (Jak & Daxter), Dreamscape (LittleBigPlanet), and Metropolis (Ratchet & Clank). Unlike the singularly focused stages of Super Smash Bros., most of these stages eventually morph to showcase trademarks from another PlayStation series.

Hades is set in the Underworld, with the namesake god performing shockwave attacks on the playing field. The background eventually shifts to a Patapon stage, and the dancing creatures begin throwing spears at players. The grassy islands of Sandover Village are visited by golfers from Hot Shots at certain points in the round, and they begin showering golf balls from the sky. Metropolis is a futuristic city that features an appearance from Captain Qwark. His visit is cut short thanks to the Hydra from God of War, who bursts up through the stage and sends the bumbling superhero flying. Dreamscape feels different than the other stages, as it's set in the level editor of LittleBigPlanet. You see Pop-It bubbles and creation elements spring up throughout the fight, which creates different platforms to battle on. Keeping with the hybrid stage theme, it eventually turns into an impromptu game of Buzz! Quiz. A PlayStation-related question appears on the screen, and the fighters have to stand on the platform that corresponds with the correct answer to avoid taking damage.

Like Smash Bros., each character has a variety of moves accessed via a directional input in conjunction with an attack button (square, circle, or triangle). Every character has approximately two dozen attacks in their arsenal, and they vary wildly. Kratos has his trademark blades, Radec stays at range with his sniper rifle and other guns, Sweet Tooth controls space with land mines, and Parappa relies on the karate moves he picked up from Chop Chop Master Onion.

None of this really strays from the Smash Bros. formula, but the scoring method has notable differences. Attacking foes fills an AP bar at the bottom of the screen, which grants three levels of a super attack once filled. You can attack an opponent all day, but the only way you'll actually score a point is if you KO them with a super attack. Level one attacks are usually limited, such as Parappa's spin kick. Once you get to level three, however, you're almost guaranteed a couple of points with screen-clearing attacks. Parappa breaks into a rap performance that annihilates nearby opponents, while Sweet Tooth transforms into his robot form for an insane damage boost.

Considering the importance of super attacks, managing your AP becomes the focus. Items like rocket launchers and the Spear of Destiny from God of War will occasionally drop onto the battlefield, and they can be used to reduce the super meter of opponents. AP orbs can be granted by certain moves, such as Parappa's Boxy Boy boombox ability.

There's no denying where the inspiration for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale comes from, but I had fun during my time with it. Sony's characters may not fit the colorful, family-friendly mold of Nintendo's creations, but their differences make for some entertaining and varied attacks and play styles. While plenty of roster reveals are inevitable before Battle Royale is released, I can't help but wonder if it'll compare to the variety in Nintendo's fighter. That said, we wouldn't be surprised to see big names like Nathan Drake, Sackboy, Jak, and Ratchet join the fray (Crash Bandicoot is likely excluded thanks to the fact that he isn't Sony-exclusive anymore). It's far from a novel idea, but All-Stars Battle Royale made for a fast-paced and fun four-player experience in my time with it.

Check out footage of the game in action below.

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