Sony doesn’t have a packed line-up of megaton titles for this Holiday season since The Last of Us and Beyond: Two Souls are slated for 2013, but they do have a few key titles such as PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. The franchise smash-up brawler has been the constant source of debate amongst gamers who aren’t that pleased with an apparent Smash Bros. “clone” while others are beyond excited to deliver an ass-whooping to Kratos while playing as Fat Princess. The development team at SuperBot Entertainment has slowly given us the goods with new stages and character reveals, but now a mega leak has occurred which seemingly has revealed all the game has to offer.
Ok, so if you want to go into PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale totally fresh and not be spoiled you likely should hit the back button now and enjoy one of our other articles. Seriously, this is your final warning since the stuff leaked today is some rather high-level sort of stuff which would’ve come across as an epic surprise if seen for the first time whilst playing the game.
I don’t know if this will impact what developers will do in the future, but thanks to the recent closed beta that has started for PS All-Stars, some vital information has been retrieved i.e. nearly every stage, character, and guest appearance has been leaked. Now it’s easy to imagine that such details were easily forged, but everything seems to be legit and the inclusion of pictures definitely help back everything up.
Posted on the somewhat hellish place that is the GameFAQs message boards, an anonymous tipster has decided to blow up SuperBot Entertainment’s spot in such a way that I’m sure the mood in the office isn’t that chipper. According to the files the tipster extracted from the beta these are the remaining stages to be included in PlayStation All-Stars:
- Sly Cooper – Paris Stage
- Twisted Metal – Black Rock Stadium Stage
- Killzone – Invasion Stage (Killzone 2 inspired)
- Infamous – Alden’s Tower (Infamous 1 inspired)
- LocoRoco stage
- BioShock: Infinite – Columbia Stage
- Resistance 2 – San Francisco stage
- Ape Escape – Timestation Stage
- Uncharted – Stowaways Stage (cargo plane)
Those nine stages join previously announced stages such as Sandover Village from Jak & Daxter and the ever amusing God of War/Patapon smash-up. Proof of the stages can be seen in the gallery below, and all together the choices are interesting to say the least. It was to be expected that key PS3 properties would get the stage treatment such as Infamous and Uncharted, but a few of the stages look a bit too static as far as the fighting plains are concerned.
At this stage we shouldn’t entirely pass judgment though as the exact franchise mash-ups for the leaked stages are unknown nor is it public knowledge how the levels may change as the battle continues. But with that said, I’m beyond disappointed with how the Infamous stage looks so far. If we don’t get a wide shot of Empire City at some point then the stage would be better left on the cutting room floor. What is a bit odd is that Columbia from Bioshock Infinite is featured as a stage yet Big Daddy from the original BioShock is a playable character. Wouldn’t featuring a Rapture stage be the logical thing to do or will things come full-circle in Bioshock: Infinite in more ways than one?
The other more major reveal made by this recent leak involves the remaining combatants of PlayStation All-Stars. So far the roster reveals have been kept to a minimum, perhaps to allow maximum shock levels upon seeing a character for the first time. Well if you don’t want to know who will be unleashing their fighting prowess in PlayStation All-Stars then you best go back as here are the remaining characters set to appear in the game:
- Evil Cole – Infamous
- Dante – DmC (New Dante)
- Nariko – Heavenly Sword
- Raiden – Metal Gear Rising
- Sackboy – LittleBigPlanet
- Ratchet – Ratchet & Clank
- Sir Daniel – Medieval
- Spike – Ape Escape
Again we have a list that is somewhat expected though the inclusion of Raiden, Sir Daniel, and new age Dante ought to raise an eyebrow or two. It’s nice to see SuperBot going old-school by including Spike and Sir Dan since those two franchises haven’t been seen since the PS1 days, but what’s up with having Evil Cole in the mix? Won’t that be a tad too similar to regular Cole sans for a few different attacks? Couldn’t there have been another character thrown into the mix like Kat from Gravity Rush or even Sev from Killzone as opposed to evil Cole?
As of now the remaining characters in PlayStation All-Stars do seem a bit uncertain as original reports made by the slightly infamous Paul Gale pointed to a RPG character and none other than 007 James Bond being included. Based on this recent leak we don’t have a RPG character nor do we have ultra-swag badass James Bond. It could be possible that those characters fell through for various reasons (developmental or contractual issues) but it’s also possible that there could be one or two secret characters as well, possibly revealed post-release.
It will be interesting to see how characters like Raiden play in the game and how gamers react to Dante and Nariko – both of whom aren’t looked upon with cherished memories by core gamers. In the end I think the roster would’ve benefited from a few more niche inclusions like Wanderer from Shadow of the Colossus or even Norman Jayden from Heavy Rain, but I guess we’ll see what developments are made when it comes to DLC or even a possible next-gen sequel.
This recent leak can definitely be considered a thunder stealing moment for PlayStation All-Stars and the team at SuperBot, but it at least shows us what the team has devised for better or worse. There aren’t too many issues with what SuperBot has done so far, but if we’re lucky this leak could benefit the game ever so slightly if SuperBot actually pays attention to the community and opts to alter or change things such as Evil Cole being a character in the game.
The team at SuperBot hasn’t commented as to this leak and I don’t think we’ll hear a peep from them in the end. Developers hardly address rumors/leaks such as this so the only “official” statement of any kind we’ll receive will likely be when the game is shown off at Gamescom next month.
So what are your thoughts on this recent leak? Is PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale on the right track in what its offering or is the lack of an Ico stage or Solid Snake showing up as a playable character a missed opportunity? Let us know what you think on our Facebook page or in the comments section of this very article.
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