It's been rumored for months, and now we finally have official confirmation: PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale is Sony's answer to Super Smash Bros. No, that's not just a quick-and-dirty comparison. Look at the PlayStation Blog reveal video above if you don't believe me. It's the same damn concept.

Except that now, instead of Mario and Samus and whoever else, you'll have the likes of God of War antihero Kratos, Twisted Metal lead crazy person Sweet Tooth, noted anthropomorphic raccoon and master thief Sly Cooper, and tragically underused boy/dog/rapper Parappa to play around with. Other announced characters include Colonel Mael Radec from Killzone, and the eponymous Fat Princess of her own game. Sony has hinted that some third-party characters could join the thus far solely first-party cast, though nothing's been confirmed yet.

The action, at least based on the reveal, looks definitively Smash Bros.-like, with multiple players battling it out in Sony-themed arenas, using fairly over-the-top abilities mined from their particular universes. Again, you can get a decent look at the action in motion via the promotional video above, so I probably don't need to describe it in too much detail.

Now that we know it's out there, all that's left to do is speculate wildly about what characters would make good combatants in a PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. I'll get the discussion kicked off with a few suggestions of my own:

• Piposaru - Considering the terrible things Sony has been doing with the Ape Escape franchise of late, the least they could do is let me run around smacking Nathan Drake and Kratos as a mischievous, siren helmet-wearing monkey. The sheer variety of weaponry he'd have at his disposal alone makes this an attractive option.
• The King of All Cosmos - Katamari started out as a PlayStation franchise, and I would certainly consider the King a PlayStation All-Star. His enormous size might be tough to insert into the game, but I'm sure the developers could think of something. Preferably something that properly leverages his smooth, royal charm, and preternatural crotch bulge.
• Reiko Nagase - With the exception of Gran Turismo, what driving franchise is more closely associated with the PlayStation brand than Ridge Racer? I have no idea what her abilities would be, except for a particularly brutal special move where she calls in a drift car to essentially clear the entire track. Also, any time she knocks out an opponent, Kaz Hirai's head will pop up Dan Forden style to let out a particularly hearty "RIIIIIIIIIIIIDGE RACER!" It never gets old, people.
• System Update - You play as a sentient, partially completed progress bar whose sole ability is to slow down time to an excruciating crawl. All the players on the field eventually die of boredom.
• Anonymous - An unplayable boss character that appears as a swarm of V for Vendetta masks and immediately disconnects you from the PlayStation Network. You won't be able to reconnect your console online until you beat them. Fortunately, they're all malnourished and out-of-shape due to their constant computer use, so you pretty much just have to hit them once to win. It's actually kind of anticlimactic.

What have you got?

It's been rumored for months, and now we finally have official confirmation: PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale is Sony's answer to Super Smash Bros. No, that's not just a quick-and-dirty comparison. Look at the PlayStation Blog reveal video above if you don't believe me. It's the same damn concept.

Except that now, instead of Mario and Samus and whoever else, you'll have the likes of God of War antihero Kratos, Twisted Metal lead crazy person Sweet Tooth, noted anthropomorphic raccoon and master thief Sly Cooper, and tragically underused boy/dog/rapper Parappa to play around with. Other announced characters include Colonel Mael Radec from Killzone, and the eponymous Fat Princess of her own game. Sony has hinted that some third-party characters could join the thus far solely first-party cast, though nothing's been confirmed yet.

The action, at least based on the reveal, looks definitively Smash Bros.-like, with multiple players battling it out in Sony-themed arenas, using fairly over-the-top abilities mined from their particular universes. Again, you can get a decent look at the action in motion via the promotional video above, so I probably don't need to describe it in too much detail.

Now that we know it's out there, all that's left to do is speculate wildly about what characters would make good combatants in a PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. I'll get the discussion kicked off with a few suggestions of my own:

• Piposaru - Considering the terrible things Sony has been doing with the Ape Escape franchise of late, the least they could do is let me run around smacking Nathan Drake and Kratos as a mischievous, siren helmet-wearing monkey. The sheer variety of weaponry he'd have at his disposal alone makes this an attractive option.
• The King of All Cosmos - Katamari started out as a PlayStation franchise, and I would certainly consider the King a PlayStation All-Star. His enormous size might be tough to insert into the game, but I'm sure the developers could think of something. Preferably something that properly leverages his smooth, royal charm, and preternatural crotch bulge.
• Reiko Nagase - With the exception of Gran Turismo, what driving franchise is more closely associated with the PlayStation brand than Ridge Racer? I have no idea what her abilities would be, except for a particularly brutal special move where she calls in a drift car to essentially clear the entire track. Also, any time she knocks out an opponent, Kaz Hirai's head will pop up Dan Forden style to let out a particularly hearty "RIIIIIIIIIIIIDGE RACER!" It never gets old, people.
• System Update - You play as a sentient, partially completed progress bar whose sole ability is to slow down time to an excruciating crawl. All the players on the field eventually die of boredom.
• Anonymous - An unplayable boss character that appears as a swarm of V for Vendetta masks and immediately disconnects you from the PlayStation Network. You won't be able to reconnect your console online until you beat them. Fortunately, they're all malnourished and out-of-shape due to their constant computer use, so you pretty much just have to hit them once to win. It's actually kind of anticlimactic.

What have you got?

cool bet it sucks

I hope Move owners get exclusive access to the EyePet character and that's the only way to control him. Won't that be fun?

Man it would be the coolest if they could get Tomba in there somehow.

looks interesting :)

I am going to buy a Wii-U just so I can play this!

I will buy if Kevin Butler is a character.

Hmmm… could be interesting. Would like to see more though

before the "oh my gawd its a blatant ripoff" comments begin,

The King of Fighters was released by SNK in 1994

Fighter's Megamix was released by Sega in 1996

X-Men vs Street Fighter was released by Capcom in 1996

But when Nintendo released Smash Brothers its like they invented the crossover fighting genre like Apple invented touchscreen smart phones.

This is an old tried and true genre and successful formula every major game development company should have.

after all, arent all the FPS games a blatant ripoff of Wolfenstein3D?

sure the gameplay is very VERY similar to ssb, but honestly its not a reason for the nintendo fans to go apeshit because the gameplay is similar.

..if the game is good and fun...whats the problem? ...and what if the game end up being better and more fun than ssb?

Character from the Atelier series, just because it would be hilarious to see someone from that world throwing potions at Sweet Tooth.

This is kind of weird

and here i was hoping it was gonna be a bunch of school kids murdering each other :/

And the Sony haters are just popping out of the bushes like cockroaches. I though we were done with system wars, guys...

Well, I don't really doubt the qaulity, but I'm just not into it. I've mentioned this before. Something about the style just doesn't mesh as well as Super Smash Bros. I don't want to say the characters aren't as memorable, because this isn't true. Kratos is absolutely more popular than Ike. I guess it's simply that most Nintendo characters seem right for a mash up, whereas Kratos and some dude I don't care about from Killzone... don't quite fit.

My big question: Will Snake show up in here? I'm talking about how characters "fit," and Snake definitely belongs among a Sony crowd more than a Nintendo crowd.

@MmaFanQc: I don't think anyone would call it a rip-off for being a character mash-up game. It would be that, combined with the clearly Smash Bros. inspired gameplay.

Figure they'll get the main guys from their exclusive franchises, like Cole McGrath, Jak, Daxter, Ratchet, and Clank. Maybe Nariko from Heavenly Sword or the knight from 3D Dot Game Heroes. Better yet, get Captain Quark in there.

Thinking outside of the box a bit, I'd like them to add Amadeus, Pontius, and Zoya from Trine as a single character who you can switch out on the fly. Not that they're exclusive to Sony or anything, but the first Trine wasn't on the 360. I'd also like to see Ico and Yorda playable as a single character holding hands.

Looks so....meh.

While I could join on the "this looks like they just looked at SSMB and said, 'yeah, let's do that...BUT WITH SONY CHARACTERS!!!!' bandwagon, I'm mostly just flabbergasted as to why this is happening now. I mean, was anyone really asking for this?

@Anwar said:

Final boss is Kevin Butler wielding a move controller.

He'll be the sub-boss. The illustrious Jeremy moves onto the stage once Kevin's been beaten.

They're not even trying to hide the fact that they made smash bros with sony characters.

It's hilarious how sad it is, who gives a fuck about "dude from killzone" and fat princess?

Polygon Man should be the final boss. He would want to destroy all of the Sony fighters for forgetting about him.

Kevin Butler can be the announcer. Or maybe Marcus.

@MmaFanQc: your missing the point. its not the aspect of allstars but the mechanics that make it a ripoff. fourplayer, independently controlled fighters with dumbed down, accessible controls, where the winner is the one who died the least and took out the most players. not a single one of the games you described feature any of those characteristics and you should be ashamed.

@Enigma777 said:

And the Sony haters are just popping out of the bushes like cockroaches. I though we were done with system wars, guys...

Where? I don't see any Sony haters in any of the comments made before yours.

@MmaFanQc: Nobody is saying that because of the crossover thing. SSB wasn't even a crossover game until Brawl?

Edit: Or I guess they were crossover but with IP's under the company. Sorry! But still.

Not sure how I feel about this...

Oh, and Alex? Sly Cooper is a raccoon. A RACCOON! Not a fox! Sigh...

putting in Reiko Nagase is the worst idea ever.

But seeing the other ideas I hope it was a joke idea. It would probably be less dumb to have you playing as one of the cars, a la Hornet from Fighters Megamix. And that's saying a lot.

Also, King of the Cosmos? why not just play as the little dude the games actually have you play as.

Then again I don't get why we got Fat Princess considering you never play as her either. I am seeing a pattern here.

@louiedog: First comment. Plus Joystiq and Neogaf are having a field day with it. Hell our own boards are the same.

After mastering the first Smash, I've had a hard time moving on to something new. But this looks just dumb enough to intrigue me.

This just makes me realize how better nintendo characters are.

The King Of All Cosmos would be pretty good.

Anonymous is the last boss of course giant Guy Fakes mask apears on stage.

@BoG said:

Well, I don't really doubt the qaulity, but I'm just not into it. I've mentioned this before. Something about the style just doesn't mesh as well as Super Smash Bros. I don't want to say the characters aren't as memorable, because this isn't true. Kratos is absolutely more popular than Ike. I guess it's simply that most Nintendo characters seem right for a mash up, whereas Kratos and some dude I don't care about from Killzone... don't quite fit.

My big question: Will Snake show up in here? I'm talking about how characters "fit," and Snake definitely belongs among a Sony crowd more than a Nintendo crowd.

I think someone in another thread commented that Mr. Killzone Guy basically plays like Snake from Brawl a little too much.

But yeah, this really isn't a good fit. Part of it is how unoriginal Sony is being here, but another is that these characters don't feel right for this sort of mash-up.

@Anwar said:

@Abyssfull said:

@Anwar said:

Final boss is Kevin Butler wielding a move controller.

He'll be the sub-boss. The illustrious Jeremy moves onto the stage once Kevin's been beaten.

He's true form is Mr. Caffeine

DOOODELEEE DOOODELEE DOOODELEE!

...*shivers*

@Enigma777 said:

@louiedog: First comment. Plus Joystiq and Neogaf are having a field day with it. Hell our own boards are the same.

I haven't read any comments elsewhere, but I don't doubt it. Unless the first person to post deleted their comment, which is typical of people going for the achievement, I'm not sure how, "cool bet it sucks," has anything to do with Sony.

Hopefully it's fun. After all, the Smash Bros games are great with or without the characters.

It looks really good. Can't wait to get my hands in it.

@BoG said:

Well, I don't really doubt the qaulity, but I'm just not into it. I've mentioned this before. Something about the style just doesn't mesh as well as Super Smash Bros. I don't want to say the characters aren't as memorable, because this isn't true. Kratos is absolutely more popular than Ike. I guess it's simply that most Nintendo characters seem right for a mash up, whereas Kratos and some dude I don't care about from Killzone... don't quite fit.

To be honest, I think it's mainly down to art style. Most of the Nintendo characters go better together because their games have more stylised art styles, but when you're trying to match games with much more detailed, realistic graphics like God of War and Killzone with the stylised worlds of Parappa and LBP, the result just doesn't work so well. I mean, I've always thought Snake was a really weird fit for SSBB.

• Kazuma Kiryu or Shun Akiyama from Yakuza
• Detective Scott Shellby from Heavy Rain
• The rabbit from Jumping Flash
• Anyone from Battle Arena Toshinden
• Samanosuke from Onimusha
• One of the stages needs to be Playstation Home

They're already pulling deep from the well if they're bringing in Parappa.

I wonder if they'd be able to pull in Solid Snake or if Nintendo has that locked up in their licensed fighting game already.

Probably going to see Nathan Drake and Infamous Cole at some point, at least those are the obvious answers.

Good work Sony keep doing what Nintendoes

@Enigma777: Fuck the haters, man. I'm fine with opinions and all that, but assholes will be assholes. As for me, I'm excited. I mean, fucking Kratos is fighting Parappa the mothafuckin Rappa...nothing any jerkoff says will diminish my interest in this game.

If it didn't already have it's own fighting game I would say throw in some Persona 4 characters.

Geohot is final boss. ;)

I was rolling my eyes at the video, at how unimaginatively SSB it was, then the PR guy starts talking about nothing but Parappa and pulls me right back in!

I'd love a bonus stage where Rico from Killzone is tied up in the middle of the screen, and all four players get to wale on him for the highest score. After time runs out or his dumb ass is knocked out, Sev walks in, drops to his knees, and cries "Oh, my bro!"

How much dryer and robotic could that Omar guy be? Stop spouting industry lingo, complimenting yourself and smile for the camera, maybe?

I felt like punching the guy when he said "God of War is the best looking game on the planet"

Sly Cooper is a raccoon. ASSHOLE.

@Hailinel said:

@BoG said:

Well, I don't really doubt the qaulity, but I'm just not into it. I've mentioned this before. Something about the style just doesn't mesh as well as Super Smash Bros. I don't want to say the characters aren't as memorable, because this isn't true. Kratos is absolutely more popular than Ike. I guess it's simply that most Nintendo characters seem right for a mash up, whereas Kratos and some dude I don't care about from Killzone... don't quite fit.

My big question: Will Snake show up in here? I'm talking about how characters "fit," and Snake definitely belongs among a Sony crowd more than a Nintendo crowd.

I think someone in another thread commented that Mr. Killzone Guy basically plays like Snake from Brawl a little too much.

But yeah, this really isn't a good fit. Part of it is how unoriginal Sony is being here, but another is that these characters don't feel right for this sort of mash-up.

Exactly. Mash-up games by nature must be light-hearted. Marvel V. Capcom is probably as mature as it gets. Kratos is a dark character, and contrasting him with Fat Princess is... uncomfortable. Not to mention, Fat Princess? I mean, it's cool, but in a way it feels like they're really going to have to stretch to make a roster. Some of the more mature and important franchises, like Killzone, really aren't character driven, so the choice lacks identity. Smash has the opposite problem, too many characters that may be deserving of a spot, potentially going overboard.

Wonder if they will be able to get some Final Fantasy characters into the game. Could be neat to see some FFX guys. Would love to see Lulu in there.

@TastyBread said:

@MmaFanQc: your missing the point. its not the aspect of allstars but the mechanics that make it a ripoff. fourplayer, independently controlled fighters with dumbed down, accessible controls, where the winner is the one who died the least and took out the most players. not a single one of the games you described feature any of those characteristics and you should be ashamed.

No, you are the one missing the point. Games copy each other all the time. Call of Duty was an action packed WW2 shooter, but it doesn't make much sense to bitch about how much it is like Medal of Honor. This is just a style of fighting game that not many other people have copied before. This is not going to be the last time you see a fighting game in this style.