PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale
This was one bold video game. Sony tried to creep in on a genre that Nintendo had owned since the N64. Despite the criticisms of lacking certain PlayStation icons, their third-party lineup was impressive.
It’s a shame that there haven’t been more PS All-Stars games. The fighting is fun, and the crossover aspect keeps things fresh. Most of the characters fight extremely differently. That’s all you can ask for in a game with 22 different franchises represented. The one exception is Cole and Evil Cole, but only having one clone character is pretty good for a fighting game.
In the end, Sony’s best shot didn’t quite work out as intended. This was supposed to be their Smash Bros., but it just didn’t pan out. Even though it was missing Spyro and Crash, the lineup was still stellar. The number of crossover fights you could do was on the level of Smash Bros. Their biggest mistake was in the lack of balancing –certain characters had a ridiculously unfair advantage.
Unfortunately, the servers for PS All-Stars were shut down last fall. It seems that Sony has forgotten this franchise and it may be forgotten to history. Even though it was still a massive first-party endeavor from Sony to match Nintendo, it wasn’t the game we had hoped for. But at least the roster was still impressive!
