Opinion: Why Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale Will Be Better Than Super Smash Bros.

There's been a lot of talk around Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale since it was first announced a couple months back. GTTV's Geoff Keighley originally teased the reveal through his twitter page stating that he just filmed a segment on a ‘huge top secret game' and promised that ‘no one will see this coming'.

Fortunately, most fans did see Playstation's Battle Royale on the horizon after rumors began to swirl regarding a possible Super Smash Bros. style Playstation game. After the reveal was made, many fans began immediately comparing the brawler to Nintendo's Super Smash Bros.

The comparison was an understandable reaction, as Super Smash Bros. is a largely successful series that spans from the Nintendo 64 to the Wii. The two games are undoubtedly similar but here's my opinion on why Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale will be the better game.

Characters: Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale, which I'll call PASBR for the sake of not getting carpal tunnel syndrome, has a far more colorful roster of character than Nintendo's Super Smash series. Nintendo's characters may have come from different games but it wasn't until ‘Brawl' that we actually saw any sort of variety between characters. Most of Nintendo's characters share the same cartoony, kid-friendly look whereas Playstation's are from seemingly completely different worlds. PASBR has 12 playable characters listed so far but promises ‘over 20'. While that's not as large a variety as Super Smash Bros, the character's themselves are much more independent from each other and don't feature the duos of Nintendo's series such as Mario/Doctor Mario/Luigi. The idea behind having characters from different worlds coming together to brawl is simply to give players the ability to create match ups that they've never seen before. I look forward to taking out the bubbly ‘Fat Princess' as the deadly ‘Big Daddy'.

DLC: This is a big one for me. I'm not a huge fan of the ridiculous prices game developers will charge us for a couple extra characters in a fighting game (Street Fighter X Tekken anyone?) but having a game on a console that actually believes in DLC means that we'll be looking at new additions coming to the game after it's launch. It's a great way to both rob us blind and, more importantly, add more replay value to their game.

Skins: One thing I never really enjoyed about Super Smash Bros. was the lack of character skins available even after completing the entire game…because there were absolutely none. Instead of offering new skins like a Baby Mario or Pixellated Donkey Kong Nintendo made things like Kid Link and Doctor Mario completely new characters that were way too similar to their counterparts to stand on their own as individual characters. The best thing we got in Super Smash was the ability to change your color tone. PASBR offers multiple usable skins for each character with all pre-orders and they actually look to be clever skins as well. For example, one of Big Daddy's new skins is the baseball and bottle cap doll version of him.

Item/Stage Variety: This one relates to the character variety but there's enough to say about it that it deserves its own little blurb. Super Smash Bros made sure to incorporate items from various games in their stages for player use but there was definitely some redundancy in them. A lot of the items felt way too similar but, from what we know about PASBR so far, it looks as through Sony won't be following the same idea. While they will still have usable items from various Playstation titles, the items themselves vary from grenades to special shields to spears and everything in between. On a side note, PASBR will also feature all the same gameplay modes as Super Smash Bros. so, yes, there will be a story mode.

Specials/Combos: In a game with so many different characters, I expect there to be similar types of attacks and whatnot but the inclusion of the characters' unique special moves is a splash of cool water on my sunburnt face. Strange metaphor aside, PASBR's three-tier special moves are much more than a new take on an old idea. As your special meter fills throughout combat, player's will be able to decide whether to unleash lower levels specials earlier on or save up and use their ultimate special attack. From what I've seen, these attacks are pretty outrageous and make the specials from ‘Brawl' look like cat fights. One idea that's completely new is the combo. A combo in a fighting game? That's just crazy, I know. Instead of simply using random moves over and over, PASBR makes the combat much smoother with a flowing combo system that allows you to really kick the crap out of your opponents in style.

…and that is why Playstation All-Star Battle Royale is going to rise up as the better game.