Gamescom 2012: Playstation All Star Battle Royale

We had just come from playing Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 (that’s two hours of my life I’m not getting back) and they had The Last Of Us booth being displayed in the Sony area. So we got in the queue and about half way through was Sony’s latest fighting game playable, Playstation All Stars Battle Royale, so we jumped on to have a play. I was already very excited about this title and so was very eager to have a go and it was not a disappointment.

In case any of you don’t know anything about Playstation All Stars Battle Royale (where have you been, living under a rock), it is the latest fighting brawler from Sony which on first glance looks very much like Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros series. Well after playing this it is still quite true, but I don’t see this as a bad thing as the Super Smash Bros games are great games and Super Smash Bros Brawl on Wii is one of my favorite games on that console. So a Playstation version, i believe, is just great mixing up many iconic Sony and 3rd party characters into the mix.

In the demo that was on show there was a lot of characters to choose from, these being; Nathan Drake (Uncharted), Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, Sweetooth (Twisted Metal), Kratos (God of War), Fat Princess, Cole McGrath (Infamous), Toro (Japanese Playstation mascot), Spike (Ape Academy), Sackboy (Little Big Planet), General Radec (Killzone), Sly Cooper (Sly Raccoon), Parappa the Rappa, Big Daddy (Bioshock), Heihachi Mishima (Tekken) and Dante (DMC).

Each character has their own array of basic attacks and special moves. For instance, Jak & Daxter have a selection of weapons they can use from their various games like the electric gun, mines, blast gun and spanners. Also included is the ability to pick up weapons during the fights and all these weapons will be recognizable from different games that the cast are from. In the fights we played, we used razor claws from Ratchet & Clank, the hedgehog grenade from Resistance and a bazooka from Uncharted.

Another cool thing that is in the game is the variety of the different special attacks you can use in the game. To use the special attacks, you must first build up your special meter by attacking your enemies and picking up the blue orbs. Their are three stages of attack, each one getting progressively more powerful. I used Jak & Daxter in one of the fights and managed to get to his level three special and it was not only visually bad-ass, it was also a devastating attack which took out all my enemies in one fell swoop. He transforms into his Dark Jak form and has the ability to fly and use one hit K.O blast attacks.

Also in the demo was six levels to choose from and each one tended to have a cross of two games in the level. These levels were Hades (mash up of God of War and Patapon), Dojo (Parappa the Rappa), Dreamscape (mash up of Little Big Planet and Buzz), Metropolos (mash up of Ratchet & Clank and God of War), Sandover (mash up of Jak & Daxter and Everybody’s Golf) and Stowaways (Uncharted).

Each level had a very distinct look and they also had interact-able environments. The Hades level had Hades attacking the players every so often, while the Uncharted plane would suddenly have the back of the plane explode and the cargo falling out so you would carry on the fight outside the plane fighting on the cargo. The detail in each level looked great and I can’t wait to see what other levels they will incorporate into the game from other Sony games.

So me and Rob managed to have three rounds of Playstation All Star Battle Royale and again, like the previous day on Medal of Honor and Crysis 3, I was awesome. The 1st game I used Sly Cooper, where I kept trying to sneak around and attack enemies from behind like he would in his own games. I ended up getting 2nd, not bad for my first try. The 2nd game I used Jak & Daxter and I ruled hard. This is the fight I was able to unleash Dark Jak and completely owned everyone, which was very satisfying. This round I won easily (go me). The final round I tried Spike from Ape Academy, who was quite fun to use. His attacks are very silly, like he can throw bananas at his enemies, try to catch enemies in his net and unleash monkeys against his enemies. This round I also won, but was a lot closer than the previous round.

So all in all, this game is great. it was a very enjoyable experience and is just a very fun brawler type beat’em’up. Anyone who has played the Super Smash Bros series is going to love this title (like me) and I believe it could be just as good, if not better than the latest Smash Bros Brawl game, just because of the great characters already announced for the game and more still to come.

Playstation All Stars Battle Royale is set to be released November 2012.