I don't think PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale was bad at all.

[Shinobido Heart]

Back when this game came out, it received a lot of heavy criticism because of how similar it was to Smash Bros.

At the time Smash clones weren't really a thing, people were really attached and protective of the Smash Bros IP. A game like Brawlhalla came out 2 years after PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale interestingly enough.

These days, I feel like people have become more lenient with Smash clones now that Smash Bros. Ultimate is essentially over, and we have games like Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, and that upcoming Multiversus game breaking the barrier.

I played a really mean Nathan Drake, and a buddy of mine played a phenomenal Kat. We'd queue up for 2 vs 2 online games all the time, and it was great. Sometimes we'd have some crazy synchronization and pull off something like a wombo combo on our opponents. It was awesome when my friend launched an opponent right into my level 2 super. Timber!

Looking at the cast of characters, PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale really did have a crazy cast to choose from.

Where else can you fight Metal Gear's Raiden as PaRappa the Rapper? Nariko from Heavenly Sword versus Dante from DmC. Freaking Kat from Gravity Rush fighting against the God of War himself, Kratos. They even had Isaac Clarke from Dead Space, fighting against Big Daddy from Bioshock. I thought this was wild.

Now imagine if Sony made a Battle Royale 2, you'd probably get Kena from Bridge of Spirits, Jin from Ghost of Tsushima, Delsin or Fetch from Infamous Second Son, Joel or Ellie from The Last of Us, maybe even Chloe or Nadine from Uncharted Lost Legacy, or Rivet from the new Ratchet and Clank.

I don't know, but I think people should give this IP a second chance. :)

 

[Porygon]

If they remove the "Only killing with supers" and "look at this traditional fighting game combo command string that does nothing" mechanics, it might become something

 

[Fudgey_Lumpkins]

The core of the game was fine. The issue was that the only way to K.O. someone was with Supers.

 

[Coltd99]

I never understood the hate this game received. Being able to play as Raiden doing spinny kicks was my favorite.

 

[Tribal24]

It wasn't bad just needed to cater more in terms of fan service , the budget is what probably held them back. Now I can see a revival being more effective with a budget, but it has to be done with care.

 

[jwk94]

Supers for ko was the best thing about the game. It added so much strategy to the fights. If we ever got a sequel, they'd probably just make it a smash clone smh

 

[Normal]

I enjoyed my time with it. People complained about combos doing nothing and being only able to kill with supers, but the combos let you hit confirms into the super.

Cast was fine too. People were upset no jrpg reps tho

 

[nsilvias]

the worse thing was the lack of a cohesive art direction. it feels like a 3d mugen

 

[alexi52]

You're right it was more Awful than bad

 

[StraySheep]

Supers for ko was the best thing about the game. It added so much strategy to the fights. If we ever got a sequel, they'd probably just make it a smash clone smh

Click to shrink...

Yup, the "it should just copy Smash" feedback we're about to see flood this thread irks me.

Game was super fun. What it needed more than anything was a more consistent and appealing aesthetic from the menus to the rosters art style.

Edit: and of course it needed third parties to play nicer like they would nowadays.

 

[Shinobido Heart]

You're right it was more Awful than bad

Click to shrink...

 

[Richietto]

I put way too many hours into that game. But it sucks it's not good. The hit confirms we're out of this world.

 

[Sawyer]

You take that back, OP!

 

[Shinobido Heart]

You take that back, OP!

Click to shrink...

Muahahaha! Nevah!

 

[CommandThrower]

Health bars and blast zones. That's all the game needed to have been much better received.

 

[Napalm_Frank]

It was my GOTY 2012. So much fun.

 

[Deleted member 4034]

I never understood the hate this game received. Being able to play as Raiden doing spinny kicks was my favorite.

Click to shrink...

I mean, the complaints here are laid out pretty well. It's not like people had it out for it for just trying to be Smash.

 

[Temascos]

Having Diet Coke Dante and not Original Dante bugged the heck out of me. I dream of a full Capcom Vs Playstation fighter and I think the idea of a PS fighter should return at some point as there is potential in the idea, it just needs budget and support.

Plus, a better rounded story mode, as Sony's games are known for that they should leverage that strength.

 

[Byronic Hero]

I enjoyed my time with it. People complained about combos doing nothing and being only able to kill with supers, but the combos let you hit confirms into the super.

Cast was fine too. People were upset no jrpg reps tho

Click to shrink...

And that was the biggest issue. Some characters had multiple hit confirms while others had nothing and had to rely solely on situational kills. That made it a bit poorly balanced.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

that UI

 

[Indelible]

It was an okay game but I would rather just play Smash instead of a cheap knockoff.

 

[Shinobido Heart]

that UI

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I didn't like the UI much, I definitely think it could have been better.

 

[Gigi A]

It was a fun game, but supers to KO was so booboo

Supers for ko was the best thing about the game. It added so much strategy to the fights. If we ever got a sequel, they'd probably just make it a smash clone smh

Click to shrink...

Then there's the many character who can combo off of lvl 1 supers with ease from one attack that made it pointless lmao

 

[Knight]

You have my support, OP. I want All-Stars 2 so badly

 

[Ridley327]

I enjoyed my time with it. People complained about combos doing nothing and being only able to kill with supers, but the combos let you hit confirms into the super.

Cast was fine too. People were upset no jrpg reps tho

Click to shrink...

I'm pretty sure that the complaints about the lack of JRPG protagonists were slightly less pronounced than the lack of cornerstone icons of the history of the console. Like, sure, no Cloud or Sora sucked, but not particularly more than the lack of Crash, Spyro and Lara Croft were, on top of weird choices like Raiden over Snake or DmC Dante over normal Dante. The roster felt more like it was dictated by whatever the current marketing deals were at the time (hence Big Daddy for no other reason) than feeling like it was made by a company with a real interest in celebrating the history of their platforms.

 

[KAMI-SAMA]

Yup, the "it should just copy Smash" feedback we're about to see flood this thread irks me.

Game was super fun. What it needed more than anything was a more consistent and appealing aesthetic from the menus to the rosters art style.

Click to shrink...

Game comes out*

"it's just a super smash bros clone, no one wants to play this"

years later*

"If they want it to be successful, they should just make it into a super smash bros clone"

You can't make this shit up

 

[Kain]

If they remove the "Only killing with supers" and "look at this traditional fighting game combo command string that does nothing" mechanics, it might become something

Click to shrink...

Nailed it. So many stupid ass design decisions in one game

 

[Inugami]

I didn't hate the game... I nothing'd it. It wasn't bad enough to hate, I don't even think about this game till someone brings it up and their greatest praise is "it's not a bad game."

As a Sony first party game, that tries to go for the crown of one of the most celebrated game series of all times, you can't simply be a "not bad" game.

 

[Draper]

How the hell could anyone defend the super only KO

 

[Jimnymebob]

It was only really the baby's first UI and advertisement characters/missing Crash, Spyro, Lara, Abe that was the problem.
Oh, and a lot of characters were straight up just better than others but I mained a lot of them so it was alright.

 

[TheDinoman]

Game comes out*

"it's just a super smash bros clone, no one wants to play this"

years later*

"If they want it to be successful, they should just make it into a super smash bros clone"

You can't make this shit up

Click to shrink...

Most people who have actually played the game will tell you how really not good the core gameplay/combat is, so that's probably why they'd want the game to be a complete clone of Smash instead of doing half way with the KO meter thing.

 

[5taquitos]

Yup, the "it should just copy Smash" feedback we're about to see flood this thread irks me.

Game was super fun. What it needed more than anything was a more consistent and appealing aesthetic from the menus to the rosters art style.

Click to shrink...

The idea isn't the worst, but the fact that some characters have legitimately superior Super moves makes the whole thing feel lopsided and janky. It absolutely should have just copied Smash full on.

 

[Fj0823]

There's dozens of us!!!

 

[NekoNeko]

It was horrible and failed at pretty much everything Smash is great at.

 

[Tora]

Core gameplay sucks lol

Doesn't feel satisfying at all and killing with supers is lame

 

[KamenSenshi]

Agreed, not bad or horrible. The super thing made it stand out as something not just a smash wannabe. It needed a better art style, maybe make everything comic style or something.

 

[Deleted member 4034]

Game comes out*

"it's just a super smash bros clone, no one wants to play this"

years later*

"If they want it to be successful, they should just make it into a super smash bros clone"

You can't make this shit up

Click to shrink...

A GOOD* Smash Clone.

Better represent the PlayStation brand, this didn't.
Have a cohesive art style.
Have a stronger budget.
Keep trying with the game and not make it a one and done try.

Don't be a obtuse.

This was competing with Brawl which had tripping.

 

[Japanmanx3]

It had the most illogical KO system ever.

 

[Soul Skater]

Making an obvious smash clone only to ditch the most fun gameplay element of smash was a very not good idea

like just go all the way, if you are going to make one

 

[PBalfredo]

It was a platform fighter that had no idea why it was a platform fighter.

 

[tapedeck]

The KO system was so bad it ruined any fun I was trying desperately to have. Oh well.

 

[Byronic Hero]

Game comes out*

"it's just a super smash bros clone, no one wants to play this"

years later*

"If they want it to be successful, they should just make it into a super smash bros clone"

You can't make this shit up

Click to shrink...

To be fair, the complaints about the super-only ko system were there from day 1.

 

[FernandoRocker]

The fact that you have to write the name of the character and its starring game in the OP tells you everything about how unappealing and unmemorable the characters in the game are.

Sony just doesn't have the roster to pull this out by itself.

 

[psynergyadept]

I enjoyed it; even platted it. I'd love Sony to take another shot at it.

 

[Platy]

The combo ko system was idiot in a driver psx tutorial way.
People making and praising the game forgot how is to be a complete noob at this game.

This game does have a difficulty and improvement ladder, but it starts 2 meters off ground.

Yes you can combo into supers, but this means that unless you are familiar enough toknow a character combos who fit supers, the game is full of free for all matches of people who didn't get a single hit being killed and people who beat everyone and didn't killed anyone and that is SUPER frustrating to have in a party game. Like even 3rd strike is less frustrating when played noob vs noob

 

[Blindy]

Game was solid, I put so many hours into it and Fat Princess was my main. Played a good 3 or so years, had so much fun and good times with players because of it.

Got to black belt so many times. The problem is the bare bone campaign that the game had that outside of 1-2 minute intro and outros, it felt like the same exact campaign each and everytime for these characters. Also there was so many exploits and glitches where people could RQ and not suffer any belt point losses which made ranked very frustrating.

Likewise, Kat(Gravity Rush) was ridiculously OP to the point that she was head and shoulders above the rest of the roster goes. Game was borderline unbalanced, felt like some characters were difficult to do well when against a "high tier" character.

Yes the roster was kind of meh, like an Evil and Good Cole McGrath but the game mechanic was very fun and addictive. I liked the KO system honestly, gave it some differentiation from say Super Smash Brothers.

 

[xmassteps]

One thing I'll say for that game, they got screwed out of a lot of characters which should have been included but weren't for liscensing reasons.

Solid Snake
Lara Croft
FF7 characters
Crash
Spyro

all are tied to PlayStation in a big way. That said, not sure whether they'd have made it a better game lol

 

[Shinobido Heart]

One thing I'll say for that game, they got screwed out of a lot of characters which should have been included but weren't for liscensing reasons.

Solid Snake
Lara Croft
FF7 characters
Crash
Spyro

all are tied to PlayStation in a big way. That said, not sure whether they'd have made it a better game lol

Click to shrink...

That reminds me, I think they had plans to put that guy from Legend of Dragoon in, lol.

 

[Gotchaforce]

Smash's killing by ring out is arbitrary and I'm fine with it being unique to it. Loved this game. If Smash is a 9 this was a 8 and could have grown in wonderful ways if it was given a chance. I'd love for it to return as an alternative to Smash but guess it never will.

 

[Blindy]

How the hell could anyone defend the super only KO

Click to shrink...

It was fun, especially in ranked Free For All. It was all about racking up kills and the combos you can do to chain them together was fun. Seeing a Level 3 super have some resonance with the character's series was cool.