It would be foolish to dance around PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale’s extreme similarity to Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. series; it’s an almost identical concept – a four player fighting game featuring various popular PlayStation characters and environments, with a heavy focus on multiplayer.
Even in name, PlayStation All-Stars bears some resemblance to the first instalment of Nintendo’s popular fighting series, known in Japan as Nintendo All-Star! Great Melee Smash Brothers. Sony, too, know that this game thrives, exists even, due to the popularity of Smash Bros. – tagging their PS All-Stars E3 trailer with “super smash brothers” and “SSBB”.
Thankfully, All-Stars is much more than a cheap knock-off; it’s a brilliantly fun, fast-paced fighting game with some of its own tricks, deviating from Nintendo’s well known and well loved formula, hidden up its sleeves.
[videoyoutube]Fans of Smash Bros. should feel right at home with the controls, since SuperBot haven’t mixed it up too much. While X is used for jumping, the other three face buttons, in conjunction with a direction on the left stick, unleash various attacks: square is generally used for lighter, close-range attacks; triangle attacks are often powerful special attacks, harnessing suitable items from each character’s inventory; whilst pressing circle will unleash a variety of additional ranged and defensive attacks. Blocking, taunting and throwing also play a part in All-Stars’ impressively varied control scheme.It does feel somewhat weightier than the springy Smash Bros. – none of the characters can reach the top of the screen by jumping, so it takes some time to get used to the heavy feel of the game, even with lighter characters. There’s no danger of falling off the side of a level in PS All-Stars, however, so the lighter and higher jumps aren’t as necessary.
And that’s exactly where All-Stars falls short.
All of the excitement from recovering from attacks, all of those dodges so you aren’t thrown off to the side or up into the sky, all of those hard-hitting attacks to smash players out of the ring are gone, replaced with a new common goal for the players: to build up their power meter by attacking each other. This power meter has three levels, which in turn activate three different Super moves for each character.
Supers are the only way to get kills, with each level being more devastating and more likely to kill multiple players. Not that you can’t kill three players with a first level Super, however; Kratos, for example, swings the Blade of Olympus for his first Super, which can kill all three players – or none at all – depending on the positioning. The second and third levels of Kratos’ Super moves up the ante, firing a tornado and turning him into the devastating, giant God of War respectively, with each wreaking more havoc and getting more kills than the last.
The Super system certainly works, adding a different dynamic to the game as players chase orbs to push their power meter up, but it completely removes the danger of being attacked. Your character’s power meter might go down, the attacking player’s will go up and you might even be thrown over the screen, but you won’t die from being hit with a normal attack – you’ll even stop at an invisible wall if you go too far off the side. There’s little danger in being attacked and it soon becomes a building up your power meter game rather than a fighting game.
Smash Bros. works with percentages: the higher the percentage, the more likely you are to fly off the screen and die from a powerful hit. Smash Bros. knockout system works and Super-like attacks play a secondary role, so it’s bizarre that the one biggest change SuperBot have made is with the one core mechanic of the game – knocking out other players.
[drop]Stages in PlayStation All-Stars are brilliant, however, as not only do they offer dynamic environments from PlayStation games, they bring elements from two (or more) games together. It’s incredibly fun to take part in a round of Buzz!, answering a PlayStation-specific question whilst a LittleBigPlanet level makes itself in front of your eyes, or to see Captain Qwark run away from the deadly Hydra from God of War, with the music changing to suit the new mood.Various items such as Resistance’s hedgehog grenade or God of War’s Hermes Boots also appear occasionally, adding yet another way to defeat other players build up your Super meter.
Unfortunately, one item All-Stars will never have is the Pokéball, a favourite from Smash Bros.
SuperBot have taken time with each character’s moveset to make sure it stays true to each game and with that, they’ve succeeded. Whilst Kratos might have an arsenal of weapons to use, his blades work much like they do in God of War – pressing square, square and then triangle will even do the same move, with further variations and other attacks by pressing a direction on the left stick.
Despite the success of the movesets, the game (which is still in beta stage so it’s understandable for now) has some serious balance issues. SuperBot are going to have to spend a lot of time from now until release tweaking each character’s moves so that there’s no cheap attacks – something that may prove a challenge.
Unless SuperBot has done something really smart with the full game, the Super and knockout system will forever curse PlayStation All-Stars. Yes, there’s fighting and, yes, it’s fun, but it’s ultimately not the fighting – not the skill – that wins the game; fighting in All-Stars feels like hitting a punch bag, even with your mightiest of attacks, only to squash them like a bug with a tap of the R2 button. And there’s nothing super about that whatsoever.
uncleniccius
It has been delayed by the way. Sony put an article on PS Blog announcing a November 20th date, but it can’t be accessed yet.
I disagree with the article somewhat though, the best players will learn the supers, and know which to use and how best to use them. As such, they are most likely to win.
JBoo
There seems to be something wrong with all ‘PS3 Exclusives’ according to gaming sites over the years?(it seems never-ending to, it will never stop) :D I just buy all of them & i have enjoyed all of them(maybe i am not that picky & maybe i don’t think all PS3 Exclusives have to play & be like i want them to be) LoL:D I can’t wait to buy this game anyway :P
The Lone Steven
Because Sony are perfect and have never released any shit over the years. Oh wait……
Taylor Made
Haze *cough cough*
The Lone Steven
Didn’t Haze result in Free Radical being shut down? :O In fact, i think it is often regarded as the worst thing to hit the PS3 since it’s release.
colmshan1990
Lair?
carson321
watching all the preview stuff, I was actually dead set on buying Haze when it came out, i Never did, instead I watched the price plummet straight away and all the crappy reviews roll in, I still haven’t played it to this day….
Death_In_Flamez
I loved Haze…..
RadicalMave07
i also thought haze was great:-)
ProjectJAY
Gaaaah, nothing would please me more than being able to play this game so I can judge it for myself, but I’m gonna do my best to defend it, because I like the way it’s shaping up.
I can understand that a significant amount of tension is removed when you can’t die from normal attacks, but this article reads like you’re expecting All-Stars to be a sequel to Smash Bros with Sony characters, in that you’ve gone into it expecting to play it the same/a similar way. I’d be interested to see what someone who has never played Smash Bros thinks of it.
And from what I’ve learned about the mechanics, it sounds very much like a proper fighting game. I imagine a player who can whip out some deadly combos will accrue Super attacks much faster. Am I right in saying that being killed drains your Super meter completely? Because if it does, therein lies All-Stars unique tension; it’s basically a race. Kill or be killed.
Like I say, I have not played it. But I feel All-Stars’ unfortunately prevalent resemblance to Smash Bros is going to, if it hasn’t already, cloud people’s impressions. This is a special moment for long-devoted Sony fans, surely it deserves to be judged by its own merits. And not Nintendo’s.
The Lone Steven
Why have an invisible wall in a fighting game? Surely having the risk of getting booted off the platform would add to the experience and would result in people having more fun with their mates. It does sound like they are making sure it is balanced but i suspect everyone will use Kratos due to him being able to kill 3 birds with a massive rock.
Taylor Made
All fighting games suck, only one worth playing mortal kombat. This game doesn’t look appealing for ps3 maybe for the vita yes
3shirts
Way to keep an open mind there champ
ProjectJAY
I’m intrigued as to when you found the time to play ALL fighting games.
Bodachi
No, just no. All fighting games don’t suck. You may not enjoy them but they don’t stuck.
colmshan1990
I have a similar line: I suck at all fighting games, the only one where a match against me is worth playing is Mortal Kombat.
I think you’re just as bad at them as me. Go buy Marvel vs. Capcom on the Vita and we can be crap together! :P
Taylor Made
Yep this is what I meant lol I suck at fighting games but am decent on mk so therefore in my eyes fighting games suck.
Is that any good marvel vs capcom? I have mk9 on vita already
colmshan1990
Yeah, it’s really fun and looks utterly stunning.
Even has a simplified controls option for people like me! :)
three_leg_jake
“While X is used for jumping, the other three face buttons, in conjunction with a
direction on the right stick…”
How do you use the four buttons and the right stick at the same time?
Forrest_01
Obviously been made for those that have been gaming too long & have developed ‘claw hand’. :)
Blair Inglis
It’s the left stick, sorry. Fixed.
wearejimbo
Maybe the news from the other day (http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2012/08/08/playstation-all-stars-allows-arcade-sticks/) that said it was compatible with fight sticks should have said it requires a fight stick instead. :)
Sad Panda
Sounds too much like Smash Bros Brawl to me, too much emphasis on luck to win. It’s a shame as I really hoped that this would be fun to put on when the lads come round. I might pick it up cheap, but there are a lot of games on my radar at that time of year and this has dropped down the list.
KeRaSh
That sounds awful… They took the core idea of SSB but left out the best thing… The more I read about this the less excited I get…
Jim Hargreaves
I’ve never played a Smash Bros. game before so bring it on.
fs
This is just a rubbish copy of Super Smash Bros. I’m not even going to bother listing the reasons, most have been mentioned. You can’t just copy a brand and sell it as your own. Besides the point that, although I like Sony and I love the Playstation.. Nintendo have far better characters to work with when making a game like this. Even Microsoft could probably make something cooler.