The Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale Beta has already been out for a few days and news outlets are starting to chime in on how they feel about the new title. The initial impressions do not look good for the new fighting title however.
The Examiner's Mark Loproto stated that when he initially heard about the title he questioned whether it might be a rip-off of Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. franchise in which notable company mascots fight it out. He states that he did have hope but upon playing the title, he realized it was misplaced. "The hands-on time I had with the game's beta yesterday did little for my hopes; rather, it actually brought my excitement down a notch," he says. He adds that the title feels like a SSB "clone through and through" and that it "just feels like an unpolished and slightly more adult version of Nintendo's infamous brawler." He added that the game's six characters were imbalanced and "while it was inevitable that some characters would be underwhelming against others, there should at least be a curve that makes every character fun to play as."
Video Game Writers' Stu Strock stated that it was nearly identical to Smash Bros. but that he found the experience fulfilling. Like Loproto he felt that there was a great deal of imbalance pertaining to the different characters' Super Attacks. He also felt that it was tough to follow the player's character onstage because there was not enough difference in the colors of different versions of the same character during battles. He did however feel that the title had enough redeeming factors to make it a potential hit.
Humad Ali Shah Of Techdeville was extremely positive regarding the beta and stated that he was addicted to the title. "The fighting is fun, and sometimes you just don't want the battle to end," he states. Despite loving the title, Ali Shah did point out its shortcomings. Like Strock identification of characters was an issue for him. The screen is zoomed out a little too much sometimes and identifying your player becomes slightly difficult although the player number is written on each character.
Stick Skills had four critics review the beta. Christopher Sheridan stated that he didn't love the game but it grew on him. He noted that it was a clear Smash Bros. Copy and that it had "severe" balancing. Regarding the combat he adds that it "lacks any sort of heft, and it doesn't really feel like a bunch of characters are kicking the hell out of each other." He also complained about the stages: "Not to nitpick, either, but I really hate how the stages are a mix of at least two different games (like God of War and Patapon). It robs them all of any sort of identity."
Josiah Renaudin was far more responsive and stated that it "seems to be hitting the mark in most areas." He did note that it was not on par with Smash Bros and that "Without ring-outs or a tangible measure of damage sustained on characters, the combat can grow stale until a Super Move spices things up a bit."
Ross Adams also compared it to Smash Bros. and stated that the combat was lacking as well. "The visual feedback is almost non-existent, which isn't helped by the super-zoomed-out camera or the fairly small scale effects on the moves of most characters."
Angelo Valdivia was the least interested of the four Stick Skills Staff members and stated that it lacked the "charm" of Smash Bros. He said that the characters were imbalanced and complained that the online system was "completely broken" Finally: "Worse yet is that when playing against cross-platform Vita users in a regular match, their microphone automatically broadcasts whatever background noise those players have going on. This is because the game doesn't offer the ability to mute yourself."
All the critics reminded readers that they were only reacting to the Beta and that the final version could very well make up for the majority of the aforementioned shortcomings.
Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale comes out November 20, 2012 on the PS3 and PS Vita.