PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is a lot like a box of chocolates that consists purely of almond-based treats. SuperBot Entertainment’s mascot mash-up cherry picks some of the sweetest moments from PlayStation lore and casts them inside a brawler so self-aware that you can’t help but smile while playing it. From the lackadaisical fighting style of Uncharted’s lovable lothario Nathan Drake, to the genre appropriate stances of wannabe marsupial Toro Inoue, this is a confident, creative, and, perhaps most importantly, comical debut that demands your attention in spite of any lingering sceptic...

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PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale isn’t perfect, and it clearly owes its existence to something very special that came before it. But it’s also special in its own right. PlayStation fans have long had to deal with unfair comparisons to Smash Bros. while eagerly awaiting this game, but the wait is over, and now you can see for yourself that the two games are as different as Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. PlayStation has a proud, nearly two-decade-long legacy, and All-Stars celebrates it. It combines characters, environments and ideas into a tight package that’s worthy of consideration fo...

Anyone who invests in the PS3 game will also score a digital copy of the Vita version for free, making it a worthwhile deal for game-hungry portable aficionados. Superbot Entertainment and Sony have managed to create something that gamers will be playing with friends for quite some time to come, and anyone looking for a fun new fighting game will find just that in this crossover-fueled beat'em up.

If anything, PlayStation All-Stars gets points for trying something new with a well-established formula. The trouble is, some of the ideas here are half-baked, and a more months in the cooker would have made it the next big thing. It won’t bring in any new fans to the genre, but those who know their way around a wavedash will feel right at home smashing it up with Sony’s cast and crew.

I felt SuperBot did a pretty good job unifying the different art styles from all these games while still keeping the original look of each character; nobody ever clashes when standing next to another character or in specific levels. Graphically the game looks solid and all the effects such as when character explode into a cloud of Playstation icons all look really neat. The game also runs pretty damn smoothly even when things start to get a bit chaotic. Besides having stages that are mash-ups of two franchises, they also blended their songs together which transition phenomenally between each o...

You can't play PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale without ever feeling like something crucial is deeply lacking.