E3 2012: Hands On with PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale

Note: The majority of the article (black text) was written by me, Marcus. The blue text is written by Leah Santa Cruz, who added her own thoughts on the game's demo as well.

When rumors began circulating about a PlayStation-centric mashup fighting game, many became excited. As the rumors were finally announced to be a real thing then the gaming population seemed to split into two camps. There were those happy for a new fighting game featuring their favorite characters and others were quick to call it a Super Smash Bros. (SSB) ripoff.

Although SSB. was not the first "party" or mashup fighting game, it is certainly the most successful and well-known. In many ways PS All-Stars does follow Nintendo's blueprint but not completely. Does the game manage to be something else noteworthy or is it simply an inferior product?

So far, it seems to bring a few new things to the equation but can't quite step out of the shadow of SSB games. In the demo, we were able to select from one of eight characters:  Big Daddy, Fat Princess, Kratos, Nathan Drake, PaRappa the Rapper, Radec, Sly Cooper, and Sweet Tooth. Although not all of these characters are Sony exclusive, it did feel like they almost belonged together. For my first round I chose Big Daddy and came back with an initially negative impression of the game as a whole.

In case you had never realized, Big Daddy is a pretty big guy. As such, he was incredibly slow and unwieldy to control. It almost felt like there was a delay between controller input and on-screen action. However, his slow movement is paired with supreme strength which trumped the other characters. Still, his controls left me feeling that either he wasn't polished yet or would require a lot of effort to become skilled with. In comparison, the heavy and slow Bowser of Super SSB has much more fluid controls. It would be nice to see Big Daddy be a bit cumbersome but otherwise a still accessible character.

I decided to go with the sneaky, lithe, and quick Sly Cooper for round one. I thought I would do well with an agile character, but it seems for this round, it wasn't the case. Sly Cooper seems to be focused mostly with his thief techniques like becoming invisible and using different items at his disposal. Sly's most powerful Super isn't the best of the bunch, either.

You take control of shooting rockets at characters on the screen (which is easy to do), but it takes a very long time for characters to respawn. It wastes your precious time with your Super and usually only nets two or three kills. Unfortunately, for this round, I only got 2nd or 3rd place. Sly probably isn't the character for me, but he might be for someone else who is interested in his unique play style.

Later, I played a round with Sweet Tooth. Despite the fact that this Twisted Metal icon is also a rather beefy character, he moved with much more speed than Big Daddy. It was here when enjoying the game became easy. It stopped feeling like a fight with the controller and instead a fight with the other three players. In fact, it seems most of the other characters displayed were much more accessible and quick. Regardless, PS All-Stars definitely has the capacity to be a fun party fighter and I quickly was able to get into it.

For my second round, I went with the paper-thin PaRappa the Rapper. Out of the three characters I used during my time with PS All-Stars, PaRappa was probably the weirdest to use and control. His attacks are mostly short-range and not very powerful. I wasn't really able to damage the other players the whole time I was using him. Somehow, though, I was able to garner enough orbs to achieve a level three Super. This is where PaRappa becomes overpowered. Once you activate that level three Super, all characters on-screen are automatically killed from PaRappa's rap session. Those willing to master the dog's moveset would definitely have a powerful character at their disposal.

Marcus and I both decided to go with Fat Princess for our last round. Since he chose her before I did, my Fat Princess got the pretty white alternate costume. Controlling Fat Princess felt the most natural and easiest out of all the characters I used. While I never was able to get to a level three Super, I used her level two Super, which summons a giant chicken for you to ride on and bash into other characters (which will kill them automatically). With the sudden-death mode that sprung upon us at the end of the match, I was able to get another level two Super and garner enough kills to win. I believe Fat Princess will definitely be a character that a lot of people will use.

Beyond pure fighting finesse, the graphics are one area in which the game shines. Although only four levels were on display (and all ones which have been showcased previously), each had showcased that developer SuperBot had put a lot of time into them. Levels are each dynamic meshes of multiple games on one field. Seeing graphics from Patapon to Buzz is strangely refreshing.

It's also one point that diverges from SSB where each level is generally based off one franchise in particular. Most of the time though you won't ever be focused on the background as the fighting keeps players pretty preoccupied. That's certainly not a bad thing but it is a shame after all the work that was put into them.

Something Marcus didn't mention about the stages were the hazards that will come with all of them. Like the SSB series, stuff happens in the background that could potentially hurt you and help the other players at your disposal. Sometimes it just gets purely annoying, however. One instance is the Jak and Daxter stage with the giant Lurker Shark (a carnivorous fish that is out for your blood). More often than not, when you're being knocked around, you'll fly right off the stage into the water below. This results in you frantically trying to reach dry land more so than focusing on fighting. This particular stage is probably one most players will ignore.

However, this doesn't mean the game is ready to ship just yet. It looks fantastic, sure, but the mechanics of gameplay currently leave something to be desired. It seems Sony wants the game to be a complete party title which anyone can get into. In that case, they don't currently have enough easily-recognizable characters to really be attractive. Of course they will no doubt add in many notable characters in time. Beyond that there is a larger issue at hand and that is the path to victory.

As part of making this game highly accessible, there are no health bars. Instead, players must simply bash each other relentlessly to procure Action Points (AP). These points fuel Super bars. These bars progress from level one to three and, once filled, can unleash Supers. As expected, each level of super is higher and more powerful than the previous one.

In theory, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with this until you discover that really the whole point of the game is simply gathering up orbs in order to perform Supers. Your path to knocking out characters is by hitting them with Supers and only these moves. Sure, you can beat up on characters to pile up AP, but you can't knock them out just with that. Combatants will keep on fighting on and on until you can KO them with a successful Super hit.

Instead of focusing on purely fighting everyone else, the game can quickly turn into a match of simply shuffling for orbs from boxes and unleashing Supers as often as possible. As these moves leave the lead character invincible for the duration, it could easily become tiring to have to deal with an onslaught of Super moves one after another.

As Marcus mentioned, the game becomes slightly duller when you realize the only way to kill players is with Supers. I'm hoping with the feedback the gaming community has given already, the developers will take this into account and give us some more modes. These could include being able to do stage knock-outs for kills, stamina mode, and so on. Let's see some variety!

Supers aren't created equal either. While many still require you to be skillful enough to land a hit on an opponent, some will instantly kill everyone on the field. It's hardly fair and if such overpowered characters exist, then why play as anyone else? Anyone interested in beating everyone every time would no doubt go with one of these unfair characters (I'm looking at you, PaRappa). These special moves definitely need to be balanced out before shipping. It also might be smart of SuperBot to add in more purpose to battles than this mechanic. It wouldn't be that hard since they already have a solid starting point.

One other issue with the game is one that SSB fans would be quick to notice. While there are items you can use in battle, they are hardly as fun as the ones in SSB. Part of the fun in the SSB world is that each weapon has a unique effect. In comparison, the current weapons displayed in PS All-Stars weren't distinctive in the least. And at least for me, they also didn't appear to be anything iconic, although they probably are (why wouldn't they be?). The weapons seemed to offer little extra advantage in combat beyond what characters were already capable of. Here's hoping they work out a way to make using weapons a lot more fun.

I definitely want to see more items as well. A bomb, some sort of sword, and an invincibility shield doesn't cut it for me. If PS All-Stars is going to head down the path of being a party fighting game, then items are definitely needed. The Sony universe has so much it could pull from, too. So here's hoping that more, unique items are added so that there's more to the game than "beat up the opposing players for orbs to get Supers and kill them."

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale already has a solid start but definitely has a ways to go before it's ready for launch. Thankfully, nothing about the game's current state seems dire. At the worst, it is a shallow but richly developed title. As SuperBot continues to work on their game, I expect them to address many, if not all, of the points raised here. They'd be silly not to! By seeing what has all been put into the game so far though, I'm confident they'll keep working at the game until it is a product that PlayStation fans will enjoy.