PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale

PlayStation All-stars Battle Royale pits many classic Sony characters and others that have made an impact on Sony's consoles against one another as they duke it out on various levels, using super moves and items based on the games the characters are from. The way that you play this game is the main differentiating factor between Nintendo's Smash Bros. titles because performing supers is the only way to win. Even still, there are many similarities between the title, but All-Stars is fun enough to be complimented on its own and provides a great experience for Vita and PS3 users.

When a game like this is announced, one of the first things you have to worry about is the roster. Will it have my favorite characters? Will there be secret characters to unlock? Will the characters play like they should based on their own titles? Most of these questions are addressed with All-Stars.

Currently, there are no secret characters, but DLC will be coming that will feature new characters, some free and some that require payment, as well as a strive to get characters people want to play. The roster consists of exclusive and non-exclusive characters that include the likes of Parrapa the Rapper, Nathan Drake, Dante from the upcoming DMC, and the Big Daddy from Bioshock.

Each character seems to play fine, and my time with the game has had me leaning towards certain types of characters. Kratos from the God of War franchise is very easy to use and provides many great combos to utilize, while Jax and Daxter are bit more difficult to use, but have better moves to use in long range combat. Balancing the characters seems to have been handled well since there are no real 'cheap characters' to use as everyone can at least dodge and block except for Sly Cooper who can turn invisible instead of blocking.

The visuals and controls are great, with the game looking great on the Vita, and nice on an HDTV when playing on PS3. Touch support is used in the Vita game, with the main use for picking up items and navigating throughout the menu.

Online play is pretty smooth, and you can play with three others regardless of how they're playing the game. You could have 2 on Vita and 2 on PS3, 3 on PS3 and one on Vita, and so forth. My only issue with this is that I couldn't find a way to mute the Vita mic, so you'll know when you're playing against someone on Vita because of the constant button tapping that the mic will pick up. Otherwise online play is great for both platforms.

With great and simple gameplay that does its best to be different from Smash Bros. while taking what makes those games so fun to play, All-Stars has what it takes to be a great new IP for Sony to utilize. A must-play for Sony players on PS3 or Vita!