Sup gamers,
Last week at an event in LA, Sony demoed the worst-kept secret in gaming: a Super Smash Bros for the PlayStation 3 dubbed PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. That name is terrible. And collectively, we all let out a sigh. Just think about it: there’s no reason why any of these characters should be in a game. At least Nintendo has enough crossover titles, compilations and sports games to have it make sense that Ness fights Wario. And Nintendo’s whole deal is making light-hearted, yet extremely addictive fare. BUT… think about it again. Even if Sly Cooper shouldn’t be fighting Kratos, isn’t that wacky enough to make it awesome?
Yes. And if you disagree, shut up.
Developed by SuperBot Entertainment, PASBR looks and plays like Smash Bros, but with its own unique twists. Yes, there are weapons and character-specific abilities/Super attacks. But this doesn’t look like just a shameless rip-off. Like Smash Bros., a large amount of thought has (according to reports) gone into the balanced gameplay. For one example, Sly doesn’t even have a Block button because he can turn invisible and use that to his advantage. Okay, maybe that’s not enough to silence your “BORRRRIINNNNNNNGGGG” chant. And maybe it never will be until we get some juicy more tidbits (possibly by E3). But hang tight, I’m still talking.
On top of that, the stages warp and change at any given time, adding a layer of chaos and strategy. The LittleBigPlanet stage builds its background and other obstacles as you fight within. In Smash Bros, it was always one themed world the entire way through, and while they had their own unique charm, PASBR makes sure (at this moment) that each stage features at least two games. That makes the stages themselves a little more charming and lending to the whole feel of “Why the hell would Sony make this?”
At the moment, only six characters are known: Sly, Kratos, PaRappa, Fat Princess, Sweet Tooth and Colonel Radec and only a few stages have been spotted. On top of that, there’s a strong rumor going around that Ico will be playable. And we’re pretty sure Crash Bandicoot will be in there. But what about Jak and Drake? And… will Solid Snake be playable after his stint in Smash Bros. Brawl? Will we play as a flower from Flower? How about a worm from flOw? Maybe we’ll play as Chell from Portal since Valve got all buddy-buddy with Sony for that one year? How about Spider-Man being lent from the Sony-backed films? Cole from Infamous or Ethan from Heavy Rain (a special attack being he shouts “Jason” every five seconds)? We’re sure Sackboy will be in there… but shit, Sony’s known franchises are of the T for Teen and M for Mature variety (mostly). Will Kratos be able to slowly rip the head off the princess from Ico? That shit be fucked up.
Anyway, there’s also a single-player campaign – which, if like Smash Bros will mean that none of these characters have any business partnering up. Remember how cute it was to see Samus running next to Pikachu. WHY WOULD THAT HAPPEN? Because it’s a goshdurn vidja game, that’s why.
We have next to no other details besides the few we mentioned and the rest we sensationalized, but this could actually be pretty damn exciting.
2 Comments
I’m so excited and I just can’t hide it.
Sweet Tooth is a psychotic serial killer clown who butchered his family for fun. I’m not uh…I’m not seeing how he can be in a game with Sly Cooper.
The reason Nintendo could even dream of Super Smash Bros is because their characters more or less fit within a certain tonal range. The only way I think this game could make any sense would be to go full-mature with it to accomodate Kratos and Sweet Tooth. After all, Sony has always tried to position itself as the older, more sophisticated alternative. Then you could toss in Cole McGrath, somebody from Killzone (God knows who), Nathan Drake, a few others.
Trying to make it like SSB is disingenuous to Sony’s IPs as a whole, in my opinion.