Playstation All Stars Battle Royale? A Smash Bros clone or no?
All about Playstation All Stars
For a while now, Sony has been working on a game that's a bit Super Smash Bros-esque. On the surface, you might say it's pretty much a direct clone of the game. I have to re-assure you that it is not. Let me give you a brief rundown.
Super Smash Bros
Man, oh man. This is a straight up classic, and there is no competition. Luckily for us, there is no need! Nintendo finally answered the prayers and the hopes of youngster with a game that pits all your favorite Nintendo cronies into one big beat em up. When the first edition of Super Smash Bros released stateside on April 26, 1999 (Pikachu's birthday), there was a huge blur of players waiting to get on the action. In fact, I was one of them. I went to my local blockbuster and heard about the game. I was like "Wow, this is actually real! Do you know how long I've been waiting for a game like this? I remember talking about game like this in 1996!!"
Enough about my personal backstory. Let's get into the meat, shall we? Super Smash Bros is a very unique title that focuses on a system of damage and spacing priority. The higher your damage goes up, the easier it is for you to be knocked off the stage. Simple concept, right? Yes. That's what made the game unique. It was more of a defensive game in the sense that you tried your best not to take too much damage because that made you an easy target. Whoever had the most knock-offs, knockouts at the end of the time period would win. Also, there is a mode based on stock, so whoever had the best defensive/ellusive game would be the victor. Stock is more so a tournament style of playing and it's pretty much the last man standing who wins! Now, let's dig a bit into what Playstation All Stars is about.
Playstation All Stars Battle Royale
Fundamentally, the gameplay is very different. I say it's more traditional to be honest. Your focus isn't to just solely damage a person and knock them off. No, it's more like building meter for a higher attack. You know how with the Street Fighter games you would constantly hit your opponent, and do specials to help build your meter. That's kind of the purpose of this game. Each player has a special kind of combo attack or some crazy animation when you get to that point! So from the start, this game is pretty different!
Will it capture the attention like Nintendo did with it's characters, probably not at first. The thing about the Nintendo characters that separates itself from Sony is that those characters have some kind of synergy. You know some of them were in the same titles, came out around the same time, and people automatically identified with it. While Sony's characters are iconic in their own way, they don't quite have the same synergy. Each one of these characters were made as a separate entity. So it's kind of weird to see a Sweettooth, Parappa, Sly Cooper all in one, you know? Also, with the more serious characters and edges, it's kinda hard to make things a bit more realistic. Will that make the game falter? I don't think so. Why? Well, for one reason they are putting in a lot of effort to make this game just right. Everything from the characters, the build up, the mechanics, and more.
One thing I absolutely love is that they are using past EVO champions or really well known fighting game players/engineers to make this title. They are getting advice from EXPERTS in the community rather than just people looking outside in. This is fundamentally going to make this title that much better when it releases 3rd or 4th quarter of this year. From the footage I've seen so far, it looks pretty good!
If you haven't really seen any footage of Playstation All Stars, then you can check below for some footage. And if you want a good comparison of both titles, you can check out my blog with an exclusive IGN interview! Also, if you are looking for all things related to E3 2012 for Playstation 3, check out my E3 posts!