Review: PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale (PS3, Vita)

If you’ve ever wondered how Sackboy from LittleBigPlanet would fare in a fight against Nathan Drake from Uncharted or if you've been thinking how Kratos from God of War would look scrapping on the streets of Columbia from Bioshock Infinite this crossover brawler is for you.

The side-on beat 'em up has been widely compared to Nintendo's Super Smash Bros, though for me personally it's stirred up thoughts of Street Fighter II. But instead of Ryu, Ken, Guile and co, you can expect to see Cole MacGrath, Dante, Big Daddy and more than 20 other game stars closely connected with PlayStation history.

I'll be honest, when I first saw it I wasn't expecting much. I imagined it to be a shallow, throwaway game that wouldn't offer anything much. I figured it for a cheap cash-in, tapping into fans' fondness for the characters and then representing them in the game with lacklustre and generic fighting moves.

As it turns out, my suspicions have proven unfounded and I've enjoyed All-Star Battle Royale more than I thought I would. It's a game with a surprising amount of depth and choice.

The characters are actually very well represented. As well as there being a lot of them to choose from, each of them has different skills and strengths.

It's fun working through the roster and seeing what each character brings to the arena. Each of them has individual weapons or abilities that are relevant to the games which they come from, and there are some really nice touches, such as Sackboy being able to call on various items from his Popit device and Sly Cooper being able to use his hippo friend Murray with one of his attack moves.

There is something very surreal about watching characters from Infamous and Killzone slugging it out in front of a vividly coloured PaRappa the Rapper background but once you get used to it it's interesting to see all the different match-ups.

Over time characters can be customised with different costumes, taunts, intros, outros and victory music.

Fighting takes place within 14 stages and these are among my very favourite things about the game. They are clever, creative and play a big part in the action.

Each stage is a mash-up in its own right, inspired by a fusion of two different games but not necessarily titles from which the characters are taken. Hot Shots Golf and Loco Roco, for example, are two games which make an appearance. My favourite of the stages has to be the brilliant Dreamscape combo of LittleBigPlanet and Buzz!.

Every background is interactive in some way, with various monsters and hazards having an effect on the players during fights.

Of course, any fighting game would fall down very quickly if it didn't have top-quality, well, fighting - and that's another area where All-Stars Battle Royale doesn't disappoint.

The action is always fast, fluid and frantic fun.

The controls are a fairly standard set-up with button commands for attacks, jumps, blocks and throws. Attacks can be combined with directional stick movements to increase the selection of available moves. Different weapons, some of them also drawn from other PlayStation games, can also be picked up when they appear.

What differentiate this from other similar games are the super moves and the way they impact on the outcome of battles.

Each fighter has a power meter which fills as attacks are landed. When it's full the player has access to a level 1 super move which, if executed properly and not evaded, will instantly kill a nearby opponent. If the player holds back from launching their super move straight away and builds up more attack points they can then unleash a level 2 super move which is more powerful and gives a chance of chain kills.

Finally,, if the player holds off long enough they will eventually build up enough AP for this highest level 3 super move which triggers a cutscene and takes out more enemies.

This fighting mechanic differs from other games where usually any successful attack causes damage and depletes an opponent's health bar. Some critics have found it to be frustrating and too limiting, not liking how an all-or-nothing super move is the only way to land a knockout blow, but I've found it actually adds a nice bit of risk-versus-reward tactical play.

For most of the game the aim is to avoid being on the receiving end of opponents' super moves while inflicting as many deaths as you can to score maximum points in the timed battles.

So not only do you have to keep a close eye on what opponents are doing throughout each fight and be aware when they have a potential killer blow ready to go, you also need to work on building up your power bar and then timing your own super moves for maximum effect. If you fail with a super move you go back to square one again and must restart building up your meter.

The system adds depth to a game which could have been very one-dimensional because it means you have to balance self-preservation with offensive aggression. Just having one shot with each super move adds more strategy.

As well as characters, customisations, stages and strategies, All-Stars Battle Royale offers further choices on how you play it.

On single-player you can play arcade mode in which you pick a fighter and face off during the course of a very loose story against a series of randomly selected opponents, leading to rival battles and an ultimate boss battle. Or you can play in challenge mode, completing a series of trials and tasks.

In multiplayer you can go up against three other players, either locally or online, and there is an array of choices here. Players can be on either PS3 or Vita, and you can tweak a whole bunch of settings and rules to have things just how you want them.

With all the silliness of its mash-up concept and the childishness of this being an old-school arcade-style fighter at heart, you might think this game is best kept back as a guilty pleasure, played on your own and then switching over to something more credible when someone else walks into the room. But actually this is a game best shared with others.

The solo modes are alright for what they are, but the game really comes into its own in multiplayer. It's great fun going against another person, and even better in a group.

There are a few areas in which I can nitpick, such as the lack of animated scenes during story sequences and the way the camera sometimes pans in and out during fights making it difficult to see what's going on.

But overall PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is a very able fighting game featuring more interesting features than you might first give it credit for. It plays homage to PlayStation heritage very well without ever taking itself too seriously. And above all else it possess a quality which is sometimes absent these days, namely it's just a lot of fun to play.

Verdict: 8 out of 10

Out now for PlayStation 3 and Vita - PS3 version tested