PlayStation All Stars: Battle Royale is a party arena fighter in the same vein as Super Smash Brothers. It was released November 20th, 2012 for both PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Vita. It is the first of the retail "cross-buy" games released by Sony. The "cross-buy" feature allows you to purchase the specified game for your PS3 and receive a free version of the same game for your PSVita.
Battle Royale features a good cast of Sony exclusive characters, like Kratos, Nathan Drake, Sly Cooper, and Sweet Tooth. However, unlike Nintendo's Super Smash Brothers, All Stars incorporates many Third Party Characters as well, such as Big Daddy, Dante, and Raiden. The roster currently only has twenty characters. More characters are being released in pairs of two as DLC. The first batch holds Kat from Gravity Rush, and Emmet from StarHawk, and will be free to download for two weeks after its release.
Story - 5
All Stars really doesn't tell much of a story. When you start the "story" mode, you choose the character you wish to play as, then watch a small clip bringing your character into the story. Essentially, your character becomes involved in this multi-dimensional tournament because of a lust for power, treasure or adventure. Then story seems to go out the window for a while as you battle in round after round of this arena fighter.
Before the final battle you encounter a rival character, who challenges you before your encounter with the final boss. The rivalry is usually comedic and ironic, but really doesn't do much for the story. Once your final obstacle is out of the way, you face off with Polygon Man, a giant face. He reveals that he is the all powerful being in the PlayStation universe and claims to be unbeatable. After his inevitable defeat, you gain an aura of power that seems to be what was fueling Polygon Man. And you get to watch a small ending clip explaining what your character does with said power.
Video - 7.5
The graphics are very well done, but not above and beyond what is expected. There are some faults in the story clips, as well as a few video glitches in the online multiplayer during the early stages of the game. The story clips are extremely basic. They are two dimensional static images, that barely move and feature narration behind them. As for the glitches, in the online multiplayer, occasionally enemies will never appear on screen, or disappear randomly during a match. Other than that there's nothing really wrong with the graphics.
Audio - 8.5
Battle Royale uses the original voice actors from the various games it draws characters from. It is nice to play a character and be able to listen to lines taken almost right from the pages of a game, with the voice you are used to. However, the background music is nothing to write home about. Most of the music is repetitive, but doesn't really stick with you after a session of gameplay.
Gameplay - 9
This is what this game is all about. It is not meant to have an interesting story, amazing graphics, or an award winning sound track. Its about being fun. And that's exactly what PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale is. The gameplay is simple. There different moves associated with triangle, circle, and square. If used in combination with a directional button, the move changes. Attacks don't actually deal damage to your opponents. Instead, landing attacks causes you to gain ability points. Once you have enough ability points you can use a special move.
Special moves come in 3 different levels. The first is usually powerful enough to kill one or two opponents if placed well. The second level can easily get you two to three kills. Finally the third level special can kill the all your opponents at once, and sometimes even do it a second time before the time runs out. I enjoy the special move system because it adds more strategy to the game than just trying to deal tons of damage to your opponent. You have to carefully set up kills instead of just hacking away till you can smash attack your opponent off the map.
All Stars is lacking in a few areas. It has a limited number of arenas to play on, and a very small in game item list. This can make the game feel quite monotonous and bland after a few hours of gameplay. Also, the single player modes don't offer you much to do on your own. There are some balancing issues between characters too. Some feel quite overpowered in comparison to others. However, this issue is being addressed and updates are released from time to time to aid balancing.
PlayStation All Stars: Battle Royale is very fun to play with a group of friends, or online. I've had a lot of fun playing this game with some good friends, and have played it enough to unlock all of its trophies. Overall, I'd give the game a 7.5, but don't let that discourage you from buying it. This game is another must own for any Playstation 3 or PSVita owner.
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