Is it Sony Smash Bros.? Yes and no.

User Rating: 7.5 | PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale PS3
Of all the games that came out in 2012 none fascinated me more than Playstation All Stars Battle Royale. It wasn't nesscarily my most anticipated game or my favorite game but it was one I just wanted to experience. Some blew it off as a lame Smash Bros. knockoff with less popular, less iconic characters, Sony fans defended it thrilled to have a game of their own. Critic review ranged from "fun" to "boring."

So after a price drop, I finally picked up thanks to Sony putting that lovely online code you need so you can't buy it used.

Now first off I LOVE Smash Bros. as a series. I am not into the arcade like fighters of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat but Smash. Bros. gave us something unique in swapping out a health bar for a damage meter and making the object to knock your opponent out of the ring and you combine that with having Nintendo's iconic characters (and then some) coming together to kick the crap out of each other. It was fun, addictive and easy to pick up and play.

Honestly, I was surprised that as big as SSB is that it didn't have a million knockoffs like Mario Kart did. Sure we had TMNT Smash Up and a few anime ones but honestly I was more surprised companies like Sega didn't jump on this (seriously why does Sega All Stars Brawl NOT exist? Does Sega not want to make tons of money?) So to see Sony attempt to make their own answer to Smash Bros. did not surprise me. I wanted to see how it came out. I'm not opposed to something being a "clone" of something as long as it brings something new to the table.

Well you get a roster of 20 characters, with 2 new ones available for download. The nice thing is they're all available from the start so you don't have to spend hours solo unlocking anyone but at the same time it gives you less incentive to play solo as the only things you unlock are alternate costumes and animations. The roster is decent and Sony, while not as colorful or diverse as Nintendo, has a good amount of variety. Where else can a cartoon racoon and a rag doll go up against a killer clown and a fat princess? But also you have more generic white guys meaning when action gets crowded, it gets hard to see your character as more characters in this one have the same body type and aren't as colorful. Still it's better than what an Xbox mascot fighter roster would be. (Master Chief and...uh...um...) But at the same time I agree with the fans, third party or not the absence of Playstation 1 icons like Spyro, Crash, Cloud and Lara Croft is disapponting. Hell Metal Gear fans got stuck with Raiden on this one. And it's a shame fans got stuck with the "new" Dante instead of the one they wanted. If you're going to do a game like this, give the fans what they want.

Now onto gameplay. Enter South Park Ski Instructor: "If you go into this trying to play like Smash Bros. you're going to have a bad time." I must emphasize you CAN'T play this like SSB. It may look like SSB from screenshots, but plays completely differently. First of all, you can't fall or get thrown out of the stage. Stages are walled in and this forgos health meters as well. What you do is the more hits that connect earns you AP. You build up this power to 3 different levels and only when said level is reach can you do a super attack to KO opponents. This is how you win matches. On one hand, it's a unique strategy making you think if you want to build up to level 3 which almost always guarantees a hit or spam the lvl 1 attack. This though can be frustrating for some. You can spend an entire match punching, kicking, grabbing, hacking away with items but if none of your Supers KO anyone, you'll still lose and I will say this, there are some serious balance issues. Kratos is easily the Meta-Knight of this game. His hits always connect and he builds up AP at a staggering rate. So this is a system you're going to love or hate. But one thing is certain it DOES NOT play like Smash Bros.

The stages are rather nicely done meshing two gameworlds together. For example you start out in Metropolis from Ratchet and Clank but midway through GoW's Hydra shows up to wreak havoc and wrestle with Captain Qwark or my favorite, starting out in the Underworld dodging Hades attacks, when the Patapon show up and start singing and attacking Hades. You'll have that Patapon song stuck in your head for days. It's clever though the stage hazards aren't much of a threat since all they do is knock down AP

While obviously it outshines SSBB in the online department; No friend codes, mostly lag free, and short waiting times, the single player features are soley lacking. You can play through each character's story mode which is made up of some still's of the character's short story that lead them to the fighting realm. There is voice acting but whatever story is given is weak and forgettable. Ratchet's looking for bolts. Jak's looking for Ico. Toro's is rather funny as he's the only one aware he's in a video game. But the story still just bookend the arcade mode with the most amusing thing being when the two characters who have a "rivalry" meet up and talk smack for a second. These range from clever "Sackboy vs. Big Daddy" to WTF "Evil Cole and Fat Princess." The final boss was a clever idea. Polygon Man the early PS1 graphics demo is this game's "Master Hand" sadly he doesn't really do much. He shows up to talk and challenge you then sits in the background sending purple clones of other fighters while yapping in the background. Then he'll try to smash you with his chin, you punch his cheeks a few times. Repeat this and he's done. I did expect this to be a lot more interesting than it was.

But outside of each arcade story mode, there's some practice challenges to hone your skills and that's it. No massive Subspace story mode, no event matches, and as I said before the unlockables are rather "meh."

Maybe I'm being a little too hard on PSAll Stars. I still had fun with it and like SSB it's still fun to break out with friends but to me if Sony was wanting to make their own answer to Smash Bros. They should've have really gone out. Of course SSB64 was small with limited content when it came out so we can keep our fingers crossed that future installments will expand more.