PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale

It would be impossible to review All-Stars properly without making a comparison to Super Smash Brothers Melee which dictated the formula for the zany brawler genre.

In much the same way as Nintendo's offering, All-Stars brings in a huge roster of big name PlayStation stars... and a few lesser known stars to boot. It's not as rich as Nintendo's offering which I think is in part due to the more realistic characters depicted in many PlayStation games (as opposed to the cartoony Nintendo legends).
Characters on offer range from Cole (inFamous), Big Daddy (Bioshock) & Kratos (God of War) through to PSN headliners like Fat Princess. Some lend themselves to the up close and personal (such as Raiden's swordplay) while others rely on traps (Sackboy). This gives a nice blend of styles such that there should be something for everyone. Unfortunately some characters are much more powerful than others; this is particularly evident with the special moves.

Special moves come in 3 levels. The first (which takes next to no time to charge) is an instant kill but in a very small area for a small amount of time. Some characters spin on the spot (Raiden), others charge (Kratos) while others still throw projectiles. Those that charge tend to be much easier to aim, and the area of effect varies such that multi kills can be had with some special attacks far more easily than others.
Level two is a longer duration over a slightly wider area. Some characters using projectiles get more control over aiming here which is very welcome. At level three the superpowers are dominating and will almost certainly result in a clean sweep for an able player (and they also result in a cut scene interrupt - it's cool the first ten times. After a few hundred, it gets OLD).

Scoring is either time based or number of knockouts. This leads to a nice balance between charging up a super attack or launching a level one in the hope of scoring an early lead/ victory.

Items then complicate the gameplay further offering swords, guns and explosives as well as freezing and other effects. This isn't as varied as it could be.

The single player campaign is great fun, and gives an intro scene and exit scene to show you why each character is participating in the tournament. It's a nice touch as this sort of game is rarely story driven.

The major problem with the single player is that it's very very easy. The whole arcade campaign takes less than 45 minutes even on maximum difficult (which is called All-Star). There is replay-ability through completing it with every character (which is required for platinum) but in reality this isn't a single player game. There are challenges to complete but again these are exceptionally easy and won't prove to be a match for an experienced player.

The game shines in multi-player, with seamless connections and cross-play between VITA and PS3 owners which works incredibly well. You can level up each character (which is console specific) to earn rewards like outfits, taunts, victory music and minions (who appear briefly to cheer for you when on a kill streak, but have no actual in game effect).

The big win for me with All-Stars was Cross-Buy. If you pick up the playstation version you'll find a second disc icon on the XMB called "Disc Benefits". Load this, and you can add a one use licence to your PSN account to download the VITA edition (including the VITA network pass). This isn't cross-save compatible but acts as a completely separate purchase. This can only be done once of course.
Overall, a fun game but it could do with more items, a bit of tweaking on the balance side and some more characters (the first few are due in January, and will be free for two weeks according to the PSN blog).

Don't buy this if you want to play on your own - if that's your bag then rent it as it can be completed in a weekend (but you need online play for a platinum).

If you want a zany fun brawler which is fast paced, a bit whacky but loveable enough then this is worth buying - particularly if you have both the PS3 and the Vita. It's not as rich as Smash Brothers (no mini games, unlocks are all cosmetic, much easier challenges and less single player replay-ability) but it is a solid game in it's own right and a great title to have for 'same room' multiplayer fun.

I absolutely love this game but I think Sony shot themselves in the foot trying to release this after call of duty/ Halo/ Wii U. Hopefully will get more people in after the Xmas rush.

Graphically and gameplay-wise this game is very solid and has a lot of depth, I'm really enjoying it!

This was a christmas gift for someone. I was really pleased with the delivery service. I can't say anymore about the game only that the receiver loves it.