There have been a lot of clones of Super Smash. Bros over the years since the series released its first game in 1999, but some of them ended up being based more on popular cartoons (like Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion) or are original properties (like Brawlout). However, Sony decided to try and do a Smash clone with the Playstation-exclusive heroes and some third-party characters, resulting in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.
So, you may be wondering, what sets this game apart from the Super Smash Bros. series? A lot. One of the main draws is that unlike some Super Smash Bros. games, this game actually has a story explaining why all these characters are fighting each other, as the game's main antagonist, Polygon Man (for those who were not born at the time of the first Playstation's pre-launch, he was originally going to be the mascot until the console's creator rejected him) has opened time holes allowing the many PlayStation characters (as well as some third party characters, some whose franchises started out as PlayStation-exclusives) to collide with each other. In the Arcade Mode, each character has his or her own reasons to enter the fight, all with one aim: to attain the ultimate power.
The character roster is good, but not perfect. Basically, you have the recent characters like Nathan Drake, Cole MacGrath (who comes as two separate characters, with the second being Evil Cole), and Sackboy, while also including legacy characters like Sweet Tooth, Sly Cooper, and Kratos. But that's not all, the roster also includes forgotten characters like PaRappa, Spike from the Ape Escape series, and Sir Dan, and tops it off with third party characters like Heihachi from Tekken and Raiden from the Metal Gear series (the latter showing up as he appears in Metal Gear Rising Revengance).
The gameplay is also different from Smash Bros. While it has some control similarities, the way to score has changed. Instead of knocking your opponent off the stage, your character has a meter that can be filled by collecting AP orbs (AP is short for All-star Power), which appear when characters land attacks. When a meter is full by even one level, this allows the character to perform a super move that, if it connects to a defenseless opponent, will kill him, either taking away a life or adding a point to the attacking character's score, depending on the match rules. Each character has three super moves, with the third super move, which requires the super meter being at the max level of 3, being the most powerful and starting with a cinematic when activated.
Every fighter needs stages to fight in, and Playstation All-Stars provides that. Thankfully, they have stages based on some of the games represented (like Twisted Metal having Black Rock Stadium from the PS3 game, and Hades from the God of War series), however, what makes them different from Smash Bros.'s stages is that they have another game mixed in to serve as either a stage hazard or a cameo (Columbia, the level based on Bioshock Infinite, will have Iron Maiden from Twisted Metal PS3 fly up and attack, while Dreamscape, a stage based on LittleBigPlanet, will have Buzz, the host of the Buzz series of trivia games, appear to quiz the characters, with the wrong answer leading to a pie thrown at said character and loss of AP).
The game was good, and it had two DLC packs, each one adding two new characters and one new stages. Sadly, the second DLC pack did not sell well enough that it not only cancelled future DLC (which included Dart from Legend of Dragoon and Abe from the Oddworld series), but also cancelled any hopes for a sequel, and Sony cutting ties with SuperBot Entertainment, which is sad. With over a million copies sold and various good reviews and even winning Fighting Game Of The Year at the D.I.C.E. Summit in 2013, this game deserves a sequel, With the problems people had like the character choice, the AI being too flawed, and maybe even improve Campaign mode so we get movies instead of still images, and it could improve into a serious competitor to the Super Smash Bros. series.
