Sony Announces 'Playstation All Stars Battle Royale' - Smash Bros. for the PS3

So it's true. Late last year, the Paul Gale network confidently previewed Title Fight, a game it promised would be Sony's equivalent to Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. mashup fighter franchise.  The site continued to leak supposed screenshots with no confirmation from Sony and then the trail went cold and nothing was heard of the title since.

And then, out of nowhere.. Sony has announced the renamed Playstation All Stars Battle Royale. Developed by SuperBot, the title will bring together characters, objects, and locations from all over the PlayStation universe.  This includes characters such as PaRappa the Rapper, Kratos, Sly Cooper, and Sweet Tooth as well as "a line-up of special characters from some of the game industry’s top third party developers and publishers." Paul Gale's rumored James Bond and more obvious choices like Sackboy and Jak and/or Daxter should likely be announced at a later date.

IGN, Destructoid, and Game Informer are already giving the game some early praise, and Destructoid has a little bit of information on their time with the game in its current form.

- The team consists of members with extensive backgrounds in fighting and combat titles
- Either the left analog stick or the d-pad controls movement of your character.
- The right stick will let you perform throws, with different ones assigned to each direction.
- The X button jumps, and the other three face buttons are assigned to different attacks.
- L1 blocks and R1 picks up items.
- R2, executes a super move. While fighting, you'll build up a meter that lets you perform a super move that knocks out characters.
- Also, some attacks knock AP (action points) out of opponents, letting others pick them up to fill up these meters. There are three levels of supers, each one stronger than the last, and each requiring another filling of this meter. If you can manage to land hits and survive long enough, a level three super can knock out all other players, earning you points.
- Victory goes to the player with the highest number of KOs; knocking out a character adds to your score while being knocked out subtracts from it.
- So, there's nothing in the way of health bars here, as health doesn't really matter in the long run.
- Most of the matches I played were frantic free-for-alls that had us hitting each other in any way possible in an effort to get those meters filled up.
- get excited about the control, because it's outstanding. SuperBot really nailed it. It's fast, super-responsive, and never gets in the way of the crazy action. The in-air stuff is not floaty at all; jumps do what you need them to, when you need them to. I never had a problem blocking, platforming or recovering.

Below is the press release followed by some screenshots. Excited?

Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (SCEA) today announced the release of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, available for PlayStation 3 (PS3). Developed by SuperBot Entertainment, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is the ultimate four-player brawler, influenced by some of the greatest PlayStation themes and characters of all time. Spanning the entire PlayStation universe, players will select and control the likes of iconic characters such as Kratos, Sweet Tooth, Parappa, Fat Princess, Colonel Radec, and Sly Cooper among others. Additionally, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale will include a line-up of special characters from some of the game industry’s top third party developers and publishers. With a host of playable characters, special attacks, themed stages, and mash up music, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale pits players in a deep fighting game that draws inspiration throughout the colorful PlayStation universe. 

“PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale delivers a veritable encyclopedia of PlayStation’s rich gaming history,” said Guy Longworth, Senior Vice President of Marketing, SCEA. “This game is a celebration for fans of PlayStation and we are excited to deliver the most comprehensive brawler available.” 

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale gives players access to a wide variety of PlayStation characters and ties in the excitement of a four player, full screen brawler. Players can fight in a variety of configurations, including versus matches for four, team battles, special practice modes, and team up with friends to take on players online. Online battles will deliver a new set of challenges, including Tournament mode, Special Event Battle, and Custom Matches. In Tournament, players are matched online to gain experience and special awards. Special Event Battles allow SuperBot to set match parameters daily, and players earn experience points towards an overall leaderboard based on performance. Players can also arrange customized matches with their own rules. 

Environments and music are drawn from the rich and varied history of PlayStation titles, then thrown together in unique mash ups that showcase each property in a new setting. The mash up elements will introduce a secondary IP to an existing theme, allowing situations where characters and environments from completely different PlayStation IP can interact during a match. The in-game music, composed by John King of the Dust Brothers, will also stay true to the mash up theme by incorporating a mix of various IP soundtracks throughout.
In addition to a rich and deep online multiplayer experience, players can engage in several single player modes including Combat Trials and Arcade mode. In Combat Trials, players not only learn the basics of the game but perfect their skills through hundreds of unique challenges. Additionally players can play through a fixed level progression with prizes in Arcade mode.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale has not yet been rated. For more information about the title, please visit www.playstationallstarsbattleroyale.com.