03-20-2013, 06:24 PM
Yeah, Shenmue is a pretty good game. Anyway:
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale [PS3 version is reviewed]
The main reason why I bought it was another free Vita version game (along with Pinball Arcade, Retro City Rampage, Alien Breed and soon enough Sly Cooper 4) to play away from home but also a quicky game. Looking at the cover, you can see many of the characters of the game (some at the back) but sadly it does seem to be one of the better aspects of the game. As for the game itself, gameplay wise is actually pretty decent with responsive and easy to learn controls, no slowdown, the IPs were treated with some fair respect (like Heihachi being completely in Japanese or Sly Cooper having the binonicom while triggering the level 3 special) and the in game graphics felt okay in terms of backgrounds and the character models (however the new characters like Kat and Zeus have a slight different design making them stand out compared to the original). I knew the game from the beginning was going to be short since it was designed for multiplayer in mind but it isn't a bad thing when I can complete a character in arcade mode within 45 minutes so yeah it is a quick playing game but played overtime [anything more than 2 hours] and you will get fed up.
It's like most of the budget for the game went towards licensing the characters and some of the marketing and not so much in terms of the presentation. The menus are basic, the stories of the characters are still images even if they are quite good for some characters and the music is just there (the only recogniseable theme is the Uncharted theme). For something that is suppose to be a 1st party title, it has a low budget low rate developer feel to the game that is very noticable. Personally the game was made as a marketing advert for DMC: Devil May Cry, Metal Gear Rising: Revengance, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Bioshock Infinite, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Ratchet & Clank: Q-Force (both games have a free Vita version, well the latter doesn't seem to be out) and God of War: Ascention even if many of them weren't out until recently. Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed was also similar in terms of marketing focused gameplay but at least most of the characters fitted except for Danica Patrick and maybe Wreck-it-Ralph [not as much though].
Since this game gets compared to Smash Bros. all the time even though both games are inspired by The Outfoxies, well it doesn't have the charm of the series even if they are pretty similar (4 player multiplayer arena action, end of boss in the arcade mode [SSB - Master Hand, PSASBR - Polygon Man], characters being from the system [SSB - Nintendo franchises with Snake and Sonic in Brawl, PSASBR - Sony franchises with some 3rd party characters], simple controls).
The problem with PSASBR is that the characters aren't as memorable when compared to Smash Bros. With Smash Bros people can relate to Mario, Luigi, Link, Samus, Fox, Donkey Kong, Kirby, whatever Pokemon is there but with PS All-Stars there's only a few. Kratos, Nathan Drake, Ratchet & Clank, Sackboy, maybe Jak & Daxter are really the only characters that people can related to since the game is rated PEGI 12 (ESRB T?) the younger players might not know who Kratos and possibly Nathan Drake are. Either the characters are more towards the B-side that are either not as well known but still liked (Sly Cooper, Parappa, Spike from Ape Escape even if his redesign is ugly and has a different voice actor, Dan from MediEvil, Kat if you have the DLC), a 3rd party character that sort of fit in (Heihachi [even though some Tekken games were published by Sony], Raiden [most Metal Gear games are on Sony systems], Dante [his original design would have fitted in better but it is for marketing reasons]), unappealing like Radec, don't fit in like Big Daddy or you really have to be a diehard Sony fan to know (Sweet Tooth [Twisted Metal that only Americans seem to remember], Fat Princess, Toro [JP only], Nariko from Heavenly Sword). Don't forget Cole as well taking up two character places (to be fair though, Smash Bros did the same to Mario [Dr. Mario] and Link [Toon Link]).
In my point of view, the characters that I liked the most in the game in terms of both character design and gameplay are Kratos, Sly Cooper, Nathan Drake, Heihachi, Parappa, Ratchet and Raiden isn't too bad but people have different tastes.
The characters that people associate with the PlayStation aren't there so no Lara Croft, no Crash and no Spyro [probably too expensive from Square-Enix and Activision to license] so it is a chance of a game that has promise but does not fully meet the expectations of people. It's a decent game but not one that people will be talking about in 10 years time (by then the online servers would have switched off and probably only a few would be playing it).
I can't give a score but only really get it if you are either a diehard Sony fan, want a quick multiplayer game, want a good Vita game (there's no difference between the PS3 and the Vita versions except the resolution and change of controls) or if you want to play a game similar to Smash Bros./The Outfoxies and have some spare cash.
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale [PS3 version is reviewed]
The main reason why I bought it was another free Vita version game (along with Pinball Arcade, Retro City Rampage, Alien Breed and soon enough Sly Cooper 4) to play away from home but also a quicky game. Looking at the cover, you can see many of the characters of the game (some at the back) but sadly it does seem to be one of the better aspects of the game. As for the game itself, gameplay wise is actually pretty decent with responsive and easy to learn controls, no slowdown, the IPs were treated with some fair respect (like Heihachi being completely in Japanese or Sly Cooper having the binonicom while triggering the level 3 special) and the in game graphics felt okay in terms of backgrounds and the character models (however the new characters like Kat and Zeus have a slight different design making them stand out compared to the original). I knew the game from the beginning was going to be short since it was designed for multiplayer in mind but it isn't a bad thing when I can complete a character in arcade mode within 45 minutes so yeah it is a quick playing game but played overtime [anything more than 2 hours] and you will get fed up.
It's like most of the budget for the game went towards licensing the characters and some of the marketing and not so much in terms of the presentation. The menus are basic, the stories of the characters are still images even if they are quite good for some characters and the music is just there (the only recogniseable theme is the Uncharted theme). For something that is suppose to be a 1st party title, it has a low budget low rate developer feel to the game that is very noticable. Personally the game was made as a marketing advert for DMC: Devil May Cry, Metal Gear Rising: Revengance, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Bioshock Infinite, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Ratchet & Clank: Q-Force (both games have a free Vita version, well the latter doesn't seem to be out) and God of War: Ascention even if many of them weren't out until recently. Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed was also similar in terms of marketing focused gameplay but at least most of the characters fitted except for Danica Patrick and maybe Wreck-it-Ralph [not as much though].
Since this game gets compared to Smash Bros. all the time even though both games are inspired by The Outfoxies, well it doesn't have the charm of the series even if they are pretty similar (4 player multiplayer arena action, end of boss in the arcade mode [SSB - Master Hand, PSASBR - Polygon Man], characters being from the system [SSB - Nintendo franchises with Snake and Sonic in Brawl, PSASBR - Sony franchises with some 3rd party characters], simple controls).
The problem with PSASBR is that the characters aren't as memorable when compared to Smash Bros. With Smash Bros people can relate to Mario, Luigi, Link, Samus, Fox, Donkey Kong, Kirby, whatever Pokemon is there but with PS All-Stars there's only a few. Kratos, Nathan Drake, Ratchet & Clank, Sackboy, maybe Jak & Daxter are really the only characters that people can related to since the game is rated PEGI 12 (ESRB T?) the younger players might not know who Kratos and possibly Nathan Drake are. Either the characters are more towards the B-side that are either not as well known but still liked (Sly Cooper, Parappa, Spike from Ape Escape even if his redesign is ugly and has a different voice actor, Dan from MediEvil, Kat if you have the DLC), a 3rd party character that sort of fit in (Heihachi [even though some Tekken games were published by Sony], Raiden [most Metal Gear games are on Sony systems], Dante [his original design would have fitted in better but it is for marketing reasons]), unappealing like Radec, don't fit in like Big Daddy or you really have to be a diehard Sony fan to know (Sweet Tooth [Twisted Metal that only Americans seem to remember], Fat Princess, Toro [JP only], Nariko from Heavenly Sword). Don't forget Cole as well taking up two character places (to be fair though, Smash Bros did the same to Mario [Dr. Mario] and Link [Toon Link]).
In my point of view, the characters that I liked the most in the game in terms of both character design and gameplay are Kratos, Sly Cooper, Nathan Drake, Heihachi, Parappa, Ratchet and Raiden isn't too bad but people have different tastes.
The characters that people associate with the PlayStation aren't there so no Lara Croft, no Crash and no Spyro [probably too expensive from Square-Enix and Activision to license] so it is a chance of a game that has promise but does not fully meet the expectations of people. It's a decent game but not one that people will be talking about in 10 years time (by then the online servers would have switched off and probably only a few would be playing it).
I can't give a score but only really get it if you are either a diehard Sony fan, want a quick multiplayer game, want a good Vita game (there's no difference between the PS3 and the Vita versions except the resolution and change of controls) or if you want to play a game similar to Smash Bros./The Outfoxies and have some spare cash.