Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale - New Game of the Day #57

What? A celebration of all things Playstation through the medium of face punching. Aka – Sony Smash Bros.

When? 'Holiday' 2012

Where? PS3 (fingers crossed for Vita)

Let's dispense with the obvious things first. Yes, Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale is a rubbish mouthful of a name. Yes, PaRappa the Rapper is the best inclusion, while Fat Princess is the worst. And yes, this game looks an awful lot like Nintendo's Super Smash Bros series.

From the camera to the jumping to the stages to the knockback to the items to the falling animation to the block and roll, it all reeks of Masahiro Sakurai's party fighter. Heck, the developers of Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale with cheese even say that their game is about the spontaneity of combos in this video here, something Smash's daddy said in this interview with Satoru Iwata. Funny, no?

Anyway, as similar as the concept and initial appearance is Playstation All-Stars is different in one key area; how you win. In Smash Bros. vistory is attained through building an opponent's damage meter and blasting them out of the arena like some high flying sumo match. Playstation All-Stars is more like boxing - it's all about the haymaker.

Take a nose at the screens below. See the blue bar? That's the super meter, the most important part of All-Stars. Simply put the only way to 'KO' someone, and thus score a point, is to hit them with a super move. Get KO'd yourself and you lose a point. Hitting people earns meter, some attacks cause enemies to drop little blue balls that build meter, and hitting someone with an item will deplete their meter. But how you build it doesn't matter, it's all about landing those special attacks.

To compound things further every character has three levels of super ranging from simple but effective to cataclysmic-ally excessive, and effective. One thing that raises concern right now is their balance. Kratos' Ares armour seems much trickier to use than Sly Racoon's screen shattering camera, for instance.

It's certainly not as simple to explain as Smash, and the lack of any escalating effects from taking damage does seem to remove an element of fear from taking a few smacks. That said the developers are hoping it will facilitate high level play due to its offensive focus, and it's undoubtedly been scrutinised over for years.

So while we may question Fat Princess' validity as a top tier Playstation character, and cross our fingers for some classic Crash Bandicoot, we remain tentatively interested in what SuperBot can bring to a table that Nintendo have dominated for quite some time.

Developer Legacy: Superbot were founded specifically to create this game, and includes some fighting tournament alumni in its ranks. In other words, this should be pretty good.

What They Say: “Fat Princess, who you've never seen before, we made sure we captured the essence of her love of cake” - Omar Kendell, Game Director

What We Say: While initially taken aback by the game's staggering similarities to Nintendo's own mascot mash-up, Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale with cheese but hold the gerkin does seem to be blazing its own trail when it comes to the mechanics. And while the fight mechanics do sound a bit pish on paper, we're willing to reserve judgement until we get hands-on with the game.

Can't wait? Play This: Super Smash Bros. has been a clear influence on Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale with cheese but hold the gherkin and have you got any of those little onions? An influence so clear that we saw several pigeons flew straight into the window. So assuming you're not allergic to Mario and company, track down a copy of Super Smash Bros Brawl and enjoy.

Website: http://playstationallstarsbattleroyale.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SuperBotEntertainment

Twitter: http://twitter.com/SuperBotEnt

Words by James Bowden (Twitter: @Dalagonash)

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