What if there was a reality where video game characters off all types suddenly appeared, and had to duke it out to try and…well, we’re not too sure, really. Each character would have their own agenda, now wouldn’t they? This is the approach that SCEE’s Santo Monica studios took when they created PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale. The game offers a setting where the lines have blurred between the various video game worlds, and the characters face off in a variety of settings. Their goals are to, obviously, get to the end of the massive fight that is ahead of them. Each character has a unique story, too, so there is a replayability factor for those that want to be all completionist about things.
On the surface, this is a fighting game. And that stays the case throughout, because it really isn’t deep enough to have much more than a surface. Battle Royale will have the player button mashing to the heart’s content in numerous side-on fight scenes. The characters and settings are an odd amalgamation of almost everything you can find on a PS3. Having God of War’s Kratos face off against Uncharted’s Nathan Drake in a level ripped right out of LittleBigPlanet may sound odd, but it’s par for the course in Battle Royale. As far as fighting games go, Battle Royale certainly isn’t the finest around – at least not in terms of mechanics. The characters all have a number of attacks, but aside from special effects and animations, they pretty much stack up against each other rather evenly. Therefore Sackboy could kick Kratos’ butt, and the Fat Princess could best inFamous’ Cole McGrath without too much weightshedding sweat.
Perhaps the only saving grace here, realistically, is that Battle Royale introduces elements not always found in fighting games. 1v1 battles are there, sure, but so are 1v1v1… even four characters in a massive free-for-all. Also, the battles tend to be times… rather than losing when the character is knocked out, the player will keep going until the timer runs out. Knockouts – both of his character and opponents- are tallied to find the final winner. This means that there are no health bars, making strategic picking of opponents a little tougher than it should be. The player will also battle to track their own health, which is an issue in any game, really… But the chaotic nature of these virtual free-for-all brawls add an element of crazy charm to the title that keeps it fun.
Another redeemer are the levels. They might be plain, but they also might be multi-level affairs, or even levels that are built, altered and destroyed around the characters as they fight. A level of random danger is also added by harmful environmental elements, be they lava pits or rockets fired by a monster in the background. When you roll everything together, it becomes apparent that Battle Royale is not a game for serious fighting fans. Rather, it is a mad free-for-all that will appeal to more casual players, particularly considering that up to four players can play locally, in some sort of crazy, violent party-game-like action.
Battle Royale may not appeal to purists, but it does expose people to the range of characters that PlayStation has on offer – even Dante, from the upcoming DmC, makes a surprise appearance. It’s not a deep game, and it can get tedious after protracted periods of play. But it can be great fun, particularly in groups.
Walt Pretorius
Developer: SuperBot
Publisher: SCEE
Distributer: Ster Kinekor
