CRG Reviews: PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale

''After playing this game for quite a bit recently, I felt inspired to give my personal review of it. Enjoy...''
 * Name: PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale
 * Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
 * Developer: SuperBot Entertainment, Sony Santa Monica Studio
 * Platform: PlayStation 3
 * Release: November 20, 2012
 * Genre: Fighting
 * Players: 1-4
 * ESRB: T

Review
Back in the day, I didn't just play just Nintendo or Sega consoles. Whenever I had the chance to go to a relative's house, or when said relative came over to crash at our place, I also briefly played the original PlayStation. That console intro never left my memory, even to this day! Some years later, I got to play the PlayStation 2 a whole lot, and that intro was also cool. (Oh, and when I first saw that Red Screen of Death, I almost shit my pants...)

Nowadays, aside from a 3DS, my main gaming platform is a PlayStation 3. My genre of choice? Fighting games of course. When I first heard about a crossover with Sony characters that felt a bit similar to Smash Bros., I was a bit skeptical, yet wanted to know more about the game before it came out (mostly when it came to the characters), and for a few years, I had yet to test it out for myself... until a year ago when I finally bought it.

Now I didn't expect much from the gameplay (especially since this is a fighting party game), but it's in no way similar to Smash Bros. (unlike this one Wii title I once played before getting Brawl, but that's for another review). It's pretty much more like Shrek Super Slam if it played on a 2-D plane. You got three sets of four attacks depending if you press the square, triangle, or cirle buttons (X is the jump button) and each attack gets you this stuff called XP, which you use to pull of devastating attacks called Supers, and they're the only way you can kill foes if they connect. Some of them are pretty easy to hit with if ya know what you're doing, while a good number of them are actually a bit unreliable most of the time.

The roster offers a variable Who's who of characters from classic Sony franchises as well as a few third party characters. Sony legends like Kratos, Sweet Tooth, Nathan Drake, and Sackboy join nostalgic faces such as PaRappa the Rapper, Spike, Sly Cooper, Sir Daniel Fortesque, and Colonel Radec, the badass commander from Killzone 2. The thrid party characters are Big Daddy from BioShock, Heihachi from Tekken, Dante from DmC: Devil May Cry (ie, the reboot one, who isn't quite as cool as past Dante, but still frickin' awesome), and Raiden from Metal Gear (in his Revengeance attire). They're pretty awesome and add to some variety. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to unlock the DLC characters, and I hope I do soon.

The graphics are pretty cool, though it's not surprisinging considering how similar it looks to many other PS3 games look. Every character looks the way they should, and they offer a playstyle that's almost slightly reminiscent to how they play in their home series. Oh, and the Arcade Mode is fucking beast (that is if you can play it because the load times are sometimes god awful!). The cutscenes are awesome, and almost all the characters are voiced by the ones who did them in their own games. Some of the script and dialogue may seem a bit half-assed, but these voice actors really give it their all, and I like that.

Finally, the music. First off, let's talk about the song that plays in the gorgeous opening cutscene. That song is Finale from Madeon. When listened to in its entirety, it's a damn good song, and I definitely recommend downloading it. I know I did. Aside from that, the music is pretty decent. Some of the original songs are okay, but the remixes of music from many of the original games range from cool to freakin' amazing! Oh, and if you don't know, nearly all the regular stages transition to represent another series, which I think is pretty damn awesome depending on what the next hazard's gonna be.

It's also worth mentioning that there's also a level-up system that, if you get to a certain level, you unlock some cool stuff, like intro animations, outro animations, costumes, minions (not the one-eyed, Twinkie lookin' mofos), and victory music (in case you don't want to listen to that generic victory theme). There're also titles you can get from playing online, though that's useless to me since I don't have the online pass.

Key component

 * Graphics- 7.8
 * Gameplay- 8.1
 * Controls- 7.0
 * Sound- 8.8
 * Entertainment- 7.6
 * Replay Value- 8.9

Final Score and Final Words
And the results are...................

8.0 (Solid)

While not as fun as Smash Bros, a.k.a. the series that invented the mascot fighter, PS All-Stars is a pretty cool alternative if you don't own a Nintendo console or are a hardcore Sony fan.

-Joshua Garriga (a.k.a. ComicReadingGamer)