Well, since it's a fighting game there's probably not as much to say as with a normal title, but I've anticipated this game since it was announced (and even got a PS3 in large part for it) so I might as well give my two cents on it while I play through the God of War series to review that in a much bigger review soon.

Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale

As I said, I have been anticipating this game for a long time. When I finally got a PS3 it wasn't long before I picked it up, either... but for safety's sake, I rented instead of buying so that, just in case it wasn't amazing, I wouldn't hate it out of a personal grudge for buying something I was only luke-warm about.

The game is, indeed, very similar to the Smash Bros. series headed by Nintendo, and while many people will say it is a cheap knock-off with little of its own to offer, there is always an opposing side that says it is completely unique and only needs played to see beyond the Smash similar-facade. I... am of a mixed mind on this.

While I do admit this game is NOT simply just some cheap Smash Bros. clone... it still sort of is. It copies the basic idea pretty solidly and does its best to look almost exactly like Smash Bros. It has various interactive environments that scale more like a tiny platforming stage than a fighting game arena. It has items that randomly spawn for anyone who can reach them to have a momentary advantage. It has a two-to-four player format that crosses characters from various universes. To say it wasn't -extremely- inspired by Smash would be... ludicrous. That said, while it is indeed similar to the point of being essentially a copy, it does enough to separate itself and gain a personality of its own. Unfortunately, this often leads to me feeling as if they put too much priority in being 'as different as possible' from Smash... when they might have been better off playing it just a bit closer to the plate and accepting what they are.

The biggest and most obvious difference is the KO system. In just about any other fighter, you focus on bashing enemies to inflict stacking damage until they can finally be defeated. Usually this is executed through a set amount of damage a character can take before death, but Smash Bros. had a unique spin on it; amount damage until the fly out of the arena, more vulnerable to this the higher their damage is. Still, that's a life system. Each hit matters.

In All-Stars... each hit doesn't matter. There are no life meters, and there is no 'damage'. Everybody has a life bar of 1HP, and only three moves per character do any damage at all. Essentially, you hit enemies to build up an ever growing 'Special' gauge that, when it reaches a full stock, can release one of three specials. You must hit someone with a special to kill them. If a special hits, they are guaranteed death, and this can take out several opponents. Individual hits only matter in the sense it builds your "AP" (special gauge) faster, and it can disable or stun enemies. This trait is the number one thing that's going to either make or break the game for you. You'll either find it rewarding, unique, and strategic... or obnoxious. I'm, fortunately, of the former, but I really think the game could have benefited monumentally from a life-bar option.

Outside of this colossal separation from Smash Bros... there are only subtle differences. Stages are cross-overs themselves as opposed to each based on just one thing, the characters are Playstation (obviously) instead of Nintendo, and there is a LOT less content here. There are nowhere near as many pick-up items, stages, or even characters as Smash. Even Melee's roster outranks All-Stars, but that's not necessarily horrible. All-Stars boasts not a large roster, but an impressive one, featuring several forgotten and relevant characters alike, many of which are much more suited to a fighting game than most characters from Smash Bros (subjectively), and NONE of which are clones (except the semi-clone alternate versions of Cole McGrath, which still differ at least slightly.) The roster feels like it works well together and offers a lot more variety in the experience, as well as more reward. I often found myself fairly bored by Smash Bros' gameplay after a while, but All-Stars feels a bit more dignified and deep.

Even so, there is a lack of content, and the game only has so much to stand on without that. What it does have is pretty good, but it just doesn't have enough of it. It has an impressive (albeit short-handed) roster, fun and unique stages, and each character has multiple costumes (actual costumes, not palette swaps... though each costume has palette swaps of their own)... but I can't say you're likely to find a whole lot of purchase value here if you're not into the idea as much as I am. Luckily, the game DOES frequently add content, including characters and stages. Now if only it wasn't for that glitch...

Yes, the glitch. This is the biggest problem with the game I've found, and... while it may not apply to everybody playing the game, it's easily frequent enough to potentially break the title's success entirely. You see, for myself and several others... two updates so far have made it so that once you've updated, you simply can't start the game. While you can delete the update and play it again, this means you can't have access to the DLC. And I was incredibly excited over Zeus, too...

The only other thing I'll address is the presentation. First of all, the game has one of the best intros I've seen in a fighting game. It gives a very distinct feel for its personality and shows off a lot of the characters in a very entertaining display, all to a theme song that definitely grew on me. But beyond that... the menus are fairly dry boned, the character select screen is strangely small and zoomed out... and the cutscenes are all lazy still-shots. Each character has one fully animated (and voice acted) scene with their 'rival' in Arcade mode, and while that's nice... that's really it. Even the final boss, while immensely fun to play against, is an incredibly lazy and bland design. Still, this is the first game in a hopefully strong future series, and for what's essentially a very gutsy experiment I think they did pretty reasonably.

So, in the end... how is it? The game has a lot of promise, has a good combat system with a decent level of reward and depth, and it's one of the best cross-over collections I've ever seen. But the game tries too hard to be its own thing and sacrificed some of the most important components Smash Bros. had established long ago, and it just doesn't have enough content to keep you engaged for very long unless you get off on these characters all being together as much as someone like me does. It's good, but it's nothing spectacular. Don't buy the system for it, and definitely rent it first... but if you're interested based on what you've seen, I don't think you'll hate it.

Hoping for some nice DLC in the future, maybe Raziel, Hades, Lara Croft, and Rick Taylor? I can only hope.