It’s Real, Sony Fanatics: PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is Slamming into a PS3 Near You
If you haven’t heard about it yet, you aren’t possible. Sony’s “secret” fighting game has been outed from minute one as a rebuttal to Super Smash Bros. I just didn’t believe it would be a mirror image of SMB as you can see in GTTV’s exclusive preview.
Dubbed PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, the title does not have the excuse of being a poor Japanese translation as SCEA’s own Superbot Entertainment is tasked with readying the game on Western shores for a projected Holiday release on the PS3. While Superbot’s resume is a tad…blank, the internalized Sony studio has stated serious fighting game talent was brought on board to bulk the four-player brawler up.
PSASBR – as it will never be referred to again – features familiar Sony game mascots entering the fray such as Kratos, Sweet Tooth, Sly, and Parappa (occupation: the Rapper), but several unexpected combatants make the roster, ranging from obscurities like Fat Princess and extending to even third-party characters friendly to the company’s platforms. Given the mash-up nature of the game, stages also follow suit and offer up crossovers like a Little Big Planet themed level that literally builds itself up until turning – well, honestly, degrading – into a Buzz! inspired backdrop/nightmare-scape.
Let’s review: we’re getting a kitschy SMB clone from an unproven developer that swims in a tirade of licenses, some that may coast right past most people’s threshold of recognition…This one can really go either way, but I’ve seen miracles in this industry before. Just that, most of those miracles weren’t so unfortunately named.
Still, with as many huge properties attached to the bill, the only real feat All-Stars needs to perform is being fun to play.