Although it is popular opinion that Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros franchise is superior to Sony’s PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royal, there are several arguments to be made in favour of the status-quo being false. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U was released this week in North America to an expected critical acclaim; this was due to the fun gameplay, great graphics and high levels of nostalgia. While Smash Bros does plenty of things right, PS All-Stars does a few things a little bit better.
Here are, in no particular order, five things PS All-Stars does better the Super Smash Bros series:
Cross-Save/Cross-Buy/Cross-Play
Whether you like PS All-Stars or not there is no denying that getting the game on two platforms for the price of one is a pretty sweet deal. Having to pay twice in the space of two months to see all of what the latest iterations of Smash Bros has to offer was a hard pill to swallow. Not only does PS All-Stars have Cross-Buy, it also has Cross-Play which works perfectly on both the PS3 and Vita platforms, obviously the 3DS and Wii U versions of Smash are too different to have the Cross-Play functionality but Superbot Entertainment should be commended for their astounding feat. Cross-Save is also a pretty nice touch for PS All-Stars as it allowed for one whole experience, a feature which would be awesome in Smash.
No filler Characters
Smash has a very, very large cast of characters which spans over 30 years of gaming, unfortunately though there are way too many clones. Was there really a need for clones like Toon Link, Young Link, Dr Mario and Zero Suit Samus? Those characters should really have been additional costumes instead of actual characters who take up spots which could have been filled by Nintendo or third-party fan favourites. With the exception of Good Cole, Evil Cole and Zeus, PS All-Stars has no filler characters; each character is welcomed into the fight and represents a fun franchise.
Ability to turn off hazards
One of the most debatable aspects of Smash is the stage hazards, do they add or detract from the experience? After all these years it is baffling that there is no way to turn them off. Some of the new stages in Smash for Wii U such as Dr Wily’s castle are ruined by the Yellow devil over staying his welcome. Quite a few of the levels in Smash would benefit from the hazards being turned off so the fighters can just duke it out. PS All-Stars has the ability to turn off hazards and items for those who do not want it, which is a nice touch.
Voice Acting
Super Smash Bros Brawl had everything available to create best cross-over story of all time; it had famous characters, high production values and all of the licenses necessary to create a story that would live forever in hearts of fans around the world. What we got instead was a joke which was completely forgettable; the main reason for this was the lack of voice acting. Granted not every Nintendo character talks but since plenty of them do it would have been fine to have a mixture of talking and silent characters to tell an interesting cross-over story, instead what we got was cut-scenes with absolutely no charisma whatsoever. PS All-Stars missed a great opportunity by not having an actual story mode but the rivalry cut-scenes are very well done and far more interesting than watch the story arc Smash had to offer.
Awesome Super-Moves
The super moves in PS All-Stars are awesome. While some of them like Nathan Drake’s level one move are completely useless, others like Sackboy’s level three move are sites to behold. The super moves in PS All-Stars are the most important attacks in the game so it was essential that the moves perfectly fit the characters they were used by. Some of the moves in the Smash series are well done, examples include some of Mario’s and Samus’ super moves but on the whole they are a clear step down from what PS All-Stars has to offer.
Both Playstation All-Stars Battle Royal and Super Smash Bros are great games, while Super Smash Bros will always be known as the superior franchise in just about every way, it is worth noting that PS All-Stars did a lot of things right and deserves to be known as more than just a ‘Smash Bros’ rip-off.
Do you think that PS All-Stars is just a rip-off with no discernible qualities or an excellent fighting game? Tell us in the comments below.