ALL-STARS BATTLE – The Best Game so Far for PSN

You know, sometimes there’s no shame in taking an existing idea and putting your own spin on it. That’s fine. That’s the wheel that drives, like, 90 percent of this whole industry. It’s not fair to pick on this student when the entire class is doing the same thing. See, I have a real problem with this idea that...oh, PlayStation All-Stars is a bad game because it’s just a Smash Bros. clone. As if every other major, big-budget game isn’t copy of something else.

That’s ridiculous. But at the same time, there are also people, either too immersed in the details or living in a bizarre fantasy land, who are saying, “No, no. This isn’t anything like Smash Bros. It’s more complex than that.”Yeah, because if I put different Piz in the dispenser, that changes everything.

The point is both sides are wrong...and frankly, sound foolish. This game doesn’t suck just because it’s a Smash Bros. clone. And yeah, from the presentation to the dramatic voiceover guy to the very premise itself, seriously, are you f*caking blind...PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is a Smash Bros. clone.

I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. Of course, within that obvious fact, there is obviously nuance. Just released to thePlayStation 3, All-Stars strives to be the Sony equivalent to Nintendo’s Smash Brasseries. The difference is it does try to be more of a serious fighting game, as well. And largely, that’s where it succeeds.

All-Stars has a more technical fighting system beneath all the chaos, one that makes it feel like more of a fighter than a fighting party game. But the bigger change is one of objective. Offense generates orbs, which fill up your meter once collected. And once it’s full, you can do these crazy super attacks.

That’s how you get kills, but you have to weigh your options. You actually have three super attacks, each one more powerful than the last. But to use them, you have to fill your meter multiple times. So yeah, it could be a risk to just empty your meter on a lesser attack that might not even connect, but can you afford to wait for this one? That said, All-Stars shines brightest where it breaks from the Smash Bros. games, like the more advanced fighting, the changes in objective...you even level-up the characters individually, which unlocks new costumes and poses. And that’s all awesome.

But when you do copy a game this blatantly, comparisons are inevitable. And frankly, this doesn’t match the original. It’s a bummer to see Sony’s Smash Bros. fail to deliver the same amount of content and enthusiasm, but it does offer some great fighting. And any game that creates drama between a Big Daddy and Sack boy is fine by me. (get the psn code generator advantage.)