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PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale is Sony's Super Smash Brothers

Sony finally unveils the long-rumored brawler featuring various disparate characters from the PlayStation universe.

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.

The only way this ends is with a Nintendo lawsuit, right?
The only way this ends is with a Nintendo lawsuit, right?

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?

Alex Navarro on Google+

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GaspoweR

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Edited By GaspoweR

Nintendo can't sue Sony anyway. Japan has made anime mashup brawlers for some time now featuring characters from different aniime universes. Nintendo would probably have to sue everybody else who has done mashup brawlers if they are going to do this.

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orange_pork

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Edited By orange_pork

Sony just makes me sad now.

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deactivated-5afdd08777389

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@MmaFanQc said:

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

The point is that in both of these cases (Apple/Nintendo), they did it right and was the first real successful product for that type. For all intense and purpose, they were the first ones. Technically Microsoft was one of the first companies to make tablets, but I wouldn't say that has much to do with tablets today (besides their upcoming 4th attempt with Win8).

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blueinferno

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Edited By blueinferno

@Alex said:

  • 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?

Classic.

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offsprnvid24

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Edited By offsprnvid24

The issue isn't that it's a cross over but that it is a rip-off of the same game play of Nintendo's title. Sony has been ripping off Nintendo for years.

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blueinferno

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Edited By blueinferno

@cexantus: I don't think anyone was asking for this. I mean it could turn out to be a lot of fun, but I'm with you. Looks meh.

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batosiz64

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Edited By batosiz64

I just expected better from Sony. They could have and should done something different with their crossover. In my mind this game should be a little more mature looking, and probably should have gameplay that looks at least a little bit unlike SSB.

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benspyda

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Edited By benspyda

What a blatant rip off. I at least expected it to look a little different to SSB. Wow.

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vanfarley

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Edited By vanfarley

@MmaFanQc: Agreed, Nintendo fanboys are just protective of the last good hardcore series with any depth that the company hasn't run into the ground creatively or commercially. I think the reason you're seeing this level of unreasonable outcry is that most of the fighting game crossovers have been released by third parties thus far and since Sony has the strongest stable of first party characters (outside of Nintendo) they're worried this one might actually take something away from SSB.

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nh_213

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Edited By nh_213

Crash Bandicoot/Abe as an unlockable character, please

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viking_funeral

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Edited By viking_funeral

"We captured the essence of her love of cake."

Well, thankfully that happened.

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wisdumcube

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Edited By wisdumcube

"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."

DOES NOT COMPUTE.

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MocBucket62

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Edited By MocBucket62

From what I've seen it seems the characters get eliminated in Powerstone 2 fashion where once the lifebar is gone, the character is out of the fight. I'm tempted to play since I love m some smash bros, and hopefully they'll put in characters like Cole McGrath, Nate Drake, Ratchet and Clank, Sully, and possibly Scott Shelby from Heavy Rain. Hell, put in Crash and Spryo since those two used to Sony's main mascots from the PS1 days.

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ceniza

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Edited By ceniza

ripoff is a compliment. will play it, tho. seems like a fun sony SMB. microsoft should do one too. in a couple of years, there should be a nintendo-sony-microsoft one. seriously, that'd be mad crazy.

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SeriouslyNow

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Edited By SeriouslyNow

@msavo said:

I'm pretty certain that if you looked at a Nintendo game hard enough, you'd find something that was clearly "inspired" by something else. That's the way the video game industry works. Sure, Nintendo fans should crow that they had it first, but why would you want to deny the magic of SSB style gameplay? If anything, the attitude should be, "You guys are in for some good times!" When did gaming become such a war? Remember when games was just about having fun?

That's a stretch. This isn't inspired by elements of SB, this is clearly SB lifted wholesale. I agree with the attitude thing though.

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GhosthH

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Edited By GhosthH

Seems to be a lot of activity surrounding this on the internetz. Can't say it seems worthy. There are any number of more promising looking 2D downloadable games coming out this year. Sony really need to up their game if they're going to be competitive next generation, mimicry of features and games won't cut it.

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Gerhabio

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Edited By Gerhabio

@FilthyBastard said:

cool bet it sucks

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robot4me

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Edited By robot4me

Watch invisible walls from today. They said it looks like they copied just enough to look like smash brothers but forgot to copy the fun parts. I see another clone like tmnt smash up that looks fun untill you play it.

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robot4me

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Edited By robot4me

@Cyrisaurus: don't praise the game untill you have played it. I was excited about TMNT SMASH UP (another smash bros. clone), then I played that turd and felt ripped off.

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AngelN7

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Edited By AngelN7

@robot4me said:

@Cyrisaurus: don't praise the game untill you have played it. I was excited about TMNT SMASH UP (another smash bros. clone), then I played that turd and felt ripped off.

I think that TMNT game was made by the same guys so they can rip-off themselves.

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Hailinel

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Edited By Hailinel

@AngelN7 said:

@robot4me said:

@Cyrisaurus: don't praise the game untill you have played it. I was excited about TMNT SMASH UP (another smash bros. clone), then I played that turd and felt ripped off.

I think that TMNT game was made by the same guys so they can rip-off themselves.

Well, it was made by Game Arts, one of the studios that Nintendo contracted to assist with development of Brawl. But you know, with Ubisoft in charge instead of Nintendo and Sora.

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robot4me

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Edited By robot4me

@Hailinel: I already knew this. But who is Sony getting to do this blatant ripoff. I guess it doesn't matter, because the game will sale poorly in the united states like all of the other Sony exclusives. If I had a ps3 I would buy this game because it looks fun. I'm not mad about the game being on ps3, I'm annoyed that Sony has no new ideas and rips off a Nintendo game 90% this time.

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Hailinel

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Edited By Hailinel

@robot4me said:

@Hailinel: I already knew this. But who is Sony getting to do this blatant ripoff. I guess it doesn't matter, because the game will sale poorly in the united states like all of the other Sony exclusives. If I had a ps3 I would buy this game because it looks fun. I'm not mad about the game being on ps3, I'm annoyed that Sony has no new ideas and rips off a Nintendo game 90% this time.

The game is being developed by SuperBot Entertainment, which is apparently comprised of former Sony Santa Monica team members that were reorganized into a separate studio. This is the team's first game.

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shishkebab09

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Edited By shishkebab09

@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.

Calm yourself. This game is certainly JUST LIKE Smash Bros. and he's saying that it's just no that big of a deal. Super Smash Bros. has been out for over 10 years. It's time another company with just as many mascot characters joined this type of game, especially after Brawl's suckage. I'm just glad it's Sony and not Microsoft with their two known characters.

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Hailinel

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Edited By Hailinel

@shishkebab09: Define "suckage."

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shishkebab09

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Edited By shishkebab09

Also, if they put Garl Vinland in the game, I will poop.

Or anyone from Demon's Souls.

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Edited By RurouniGeo

For those of you who says this isnt a rip off...uh That Killzone character's LV3 is a complete rip off of Solid Snake's Final Smash move in super smash bros brawl . This will be a subpar game that will be marginally better than Cartoon Network's abysmal smash bros clone.

You want a good 4 player brawler? Get a copy of Brawl and play it with the Project M mod. That's as good as it gets

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MachoFantastico

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Edited By MachoFantastico

Shameless rip-off maybe, but I'm excited for this. I care more for Sony characters then Nintendo characters, which to be fair I don't care about at all but still loved playing Smash Bros which goes to show what a great game that is. Sounds like it plays a little differently then Smash Bros tho. 

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shishkebab09

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Edited By shishkebab09

@Hailinel: In comparison to Melee, any idea of balance was thrown out the window. "Suckage" I suppose is an exaggeration; I just had to get rid of the game a week after it came out because I was going to have an aneurism if I heard Pit say "Oyoyoyo!" one more time.

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robot4me

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Edited By robot4me

@Hailinel: Since you said superbot entertainment have never made a game I really don't like the chances of this being a great game. It will probably look 1005 like smash brothers with Sony characters but have fucked up gameplay.

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digital_sin

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Edited By digital_sin

If it doesn't have Crash Bandicoot then I'm not interested.

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Edited By TomA

My favorite part was when he called God of War the best looking game on the planet......

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brewster

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Edited By brewster

No thank you

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Shortbreadtom

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@Atramentous: Why would you buy a Wii-U to play a PS3 game?

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Edited By Shortbreadtom

The only characters I need are Ratchet, Clank, Jak and Daxter.

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MideonNViscera

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Edited By MideonNViscera

Now if only they had recognizable characters like Nintendo does.

EDIT: Reminds me of Sonic and Sega All Star Racing. You have every Sonic character, some secret Virtua Fighter guys, then a pile of unknown douchebags.

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@robot4me said:

@Hailinel: Since you said superbot entertainment have never made a game I really don't like the chances of this being a great game. It will probably look 1005 like smash brothers with Sony characters but have fucked up gameplay.

It's not like the developers behind the game have never made a game before; it's just a new studio that was specifically made to make this game. And, so far, the gameplay looks fine. Not sure about the super move mechanic yet, but I, and all of us, need to see more the game to judge it.

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penguindust

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Edited By penguindust

Wouldn't Sackboy be a given? I thought they would have included him from the get-go.

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Edited By shtinky

Even though this is a blatant rip-off, more Smash bros-style games are always a good thing.

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robot4me

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@FluxWaveZ: I understand what you are saying. If they were great talent Sony wouldn't have closed the other studios they were associated with because of poor game sales. Not always but most of the time poor sales equals a bad game.

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MmaFanQc

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Edited By MmaFanQc

@robot4me said:

@Hailinel: I'm annoyed that Sony has no new ideas and rips off a Nintendo game 90% this time.

I'm getting pretty tired of people claiming Sony are totally unoriginal. For all their strengths, Nintendo launched the 3DS with a range of games that were almost entirely sequels. The games we're getting excited for from Nintendo are both Mario games. They'll be fun and interesting, but it's still a Mario game. Sony launched the Vita with Uncharted, yes, but we also had Escape Plan and Gravity Daze. Not to mention the fact we've had the likes of Vib-Ribbon, Patapon, Flower, Journey and LittleBigPlanet, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Demon's Souls Heavy Rain, God of War.... all have been published by Sony or created by Sony's internal development teams

they created a lot of new stuff, ...if you care to look for it and not just arbitrarily designate it as ripoff bastards. Meanwhile others still surf on their old copy & paste bad habit....but i know...i shouldnt say that, it may offend some peoples.

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Edited By falling_fast

the only smash bros game I've ever even liked was the one for n64. so, not very interested.

edit: besides, Alex has ruined this game for me now because I know that that Ridge Racer thing won't be in the game and that makes me sad.

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BrotanamoBay

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Edited By BrotanamoBay

was this article really necessary?

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manicmyna

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Edited By manicmyna

Meh

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DukesT3

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Edited By DukesT3

Seems neat.. I guess. Never was really into these types of games.

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spartanlolz92

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Edited By spartanlolz92

i dont understand all the hate towards this ssb made a new type of fight gaming sony wants to do their own version.

im excited because now ill actually be able to play a game like this online, im ssb was so great with its friend codes and what not.

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spartanlolz92

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Edited By spartanlolz92

@RurouniGeo said:

For those of you who says this isnt a rip off...uh That Killzone character's LV3 is a complete rip off of Solid Snake's Final Smash move in super smash bros brawl . This will be a subpar game that will be marginally better than Cartoon Network's abysmal smash bros clone.

You want a good 4 player brawler? Get a copy of Brawl and play it with the Project M mod. That's as good as it gets

no thank you no friend codes and crappy nintendo online internet interfaces for me. its like their still stuck in the 90s

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dropabombonit

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Edited By dropabombonit

I was listening to podcast beyond and despite how much a blatant rip off of smash bros this looks like, they said the game plays and looks really well. In terms of characters I would like it would have to be Wander from SOTC and Big Boss from MGS3

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robot4me

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Edited By robot4me

@MmaFanQc: If you would reread my post, I said Sony completely ripped off smash brothers this time, not every time. This is one time anyone who defends Sony has to blind or are just haters who want Nintendo style games on a Sony console without buying a Nintendo console.

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Superkenon

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Edited By Superkenon

I guess I'm just not super-into those franchises. I'm usually all about crossovers, but for some reason I don't see the appeal of those guys fighting each other.

Maybe future reveals will pull me in.