Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale (Sony Smash)

So, yeah, still kind of dead, I guess. Rising from the grave is harder than I thought. Rising is a poor choice of words...
Anyways! I recently got Sony Smash Bros. (Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale: Too long of a title). I got that because I was unaware Sly Cooper 4 came out on the fourth... Life sucks. I suck. It's actually not that bad of a game. There are some flaws, terrible flaws that really take away from the game, but it still holds up. I'll review it now, or whatever.

Sony Smash is a fighting game much in the wake of Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. series. So, side-scrolling, plus game company mascots fighting equals, like, the best fighting game, right? Yeah, it actually is, pretty much. Nintendo's, not Sony's. The thing about Sony Smash is that while the controls are dead-on good, there is a great unbalance in the gameplay itself. The biggest part that sets Battle Royale from Smash Bros. is the key to winning. In Smash, the more you pummel your opponent, the higher their damage percentage goes, where the higher that gets the more you're sent flying after being hit, to the point that if you're sent off-screen, you lose. In Battle Royale, you have infinite health. However, as you fight your opponent, successful hits turn into "AP," which goes to your Super Meter, the key to victory. Once the meter fills, you have a super attack at the push of a button and more points to your score with a cleverly layed-out move on your enemies. "But wait!" you're probably telling me, "how's that supposed to be unbalanced? That seems fine," to which I say, "No, shut up. I'm not done." The thing is that most of the time, different characters have different AP rules, kind of. Like, some characters stack AP like Bill Gates and others move like a slug. These super moves are way too easy to use, especially when you can get two higher levels of attacks that are even easier or downright AUTOMATICALLY KILLING ENEMIES. It sucks. It's annoying. It's cheap. It makes it incredibly easy to win a match with the push of a button. At least in Smash Bros. you can dodge super attacks because they don't strip opponents of control or ability. Here, they're awful and unfairly designed.

Story time! A bunch of semi-famous Playstation exclusive characters and some marketing characters fight to become God of Playstation. Sly Cooper wins because I say so.

What might be the most important part of a video game would be how the game plays. Duh, I know, but we've already done that part, so we're doing characters. All good fighting games are centered around a multitude of varying characters with their own play styles to cater to different players who can use the character's abilities with their own wit and skill to their advantage. This is a good place for the game. I haven't actually played as all the characters, but screw professionalism, that shit's for pros. Each character has a certain gimmick that keeps them afloat in battle. For instance, Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, and Radec use guns to deliver their attacks. They can use them close in battle or taking long shots from a safe distance. These attacks can differ in use for giving them an edge in battle by fending off opponents. Some characters are more original, even overshadowing those in Smash Bros. My personal favorite, Sly Cooper is an escape artist who counters with teleporting, sacrifices the ability to block for invisibility, and keeps away with explosives or status-effecting swift moves. He's the most fun to use for me because the mastery requires careful attention. He's effective against combo or long-ranged fighters. Then there comes another one of my least favorite aspects of the game: Parappa the Rappa. Never heard of him? Wow, what a surprise. He's an old Playstation character from a name-derivative game. It's arguably the first music/rhythm game. And it sucks. He's also pretty much Naruto with the whole "I GOTTA BELIVE" thing, except he's even more annoying. Being literally paper-thin has never been so fitting. So, that aside, he's the best character in the game. That's bad. Horribly bad. Fighting games should NEVER have a character who tiers above anyone else. That is the epitome of unbalancedness that I see in this game. He's an AP GENERATOR (which is actually a literal move he has) and racks up Supers like Bill Ga-- I already made this joke-- Steve Jobs (R.I.P.), all of which are difficult to dodge, two of which have a wide span to kill ANYONE who is on the stage, one of which is an auto-kill by the time the initiation cutscene ends. I seriously hate him.

All in all, the game is decent. No where near Smash Bros. level, aside from some characters, but it has potential. All it needs is some balance.


I should've gotten Sly 4...