PlayStation All Stars: Battle Royale

Let's get the blindingly obvious out of the way first: this is, for all intents and purposes, a Super Smash Brothers game with Sony characters instead of Mario, Link and co. That's not a bad thing, by any means - and nascent developers Superbot (who've been built from the ground up to handle this very title) have done a good job of capturing the spirit of bouncy, over-the-top, irreverent mash-up fun that Nintendo managed to create with their flagship comedy brawler.

Here's how it works: you and up to three other Sony IPs spoiling for a brawl are chucked into a fairly simple arena and set about hitting each other with sticks and a variety of other colourful objects. The more you hit, the more AP (Action Points, I presume?) you gather. Spending AP lets you unleash Super Attacks, which are the only moves that kill opponents, and they come in three tiers depending on how many AP you've earned: Level one is a close-range attack, level two tends to explode in an area burst, and level three generally involves some sort of transformation - allowing you to stomp around killing everyone multiple times over as they respawn.

There are plenty of hazards, though, which'll drain your AP like nobody's business. Dangerous terrain features include the giant blades of God of War alumni Hades, stray barrages of golf balls from Everybody's Golf as they invade a Ratchet and Clank level, and whirring mechanical pits in Jak and Daxter's metropolis (The land of Hades, adorably, is invaded by an army from Patapon in the closing stages of the level). There are also collectible, ammo-limited weapons to nab - rocket launchers, bombs, glaives - and these will send AP spitting out of you in physical form, ready for other players to collect.

At the end of the match - ours lasted for three minutes, but presumably this can be changed - your total kills vs your total deaths are calculated and the player with the best ratio wins. Pretty straightforward stuff, right? A lot of the fun, though, comes from the way that some characters insist on breaking the normal rules of the game with their moveset or abilities. This week in Los Angeles I got the chance to play with the first six characters to be revealed; there's no info yet on size of the final roster - the best answer I could get out of the dev team was "definitely more than six".

Here's what I discovered:

Kratos

In general: Right out of the gate, Kratos feels remarkably similar to his third-person hack 'n' slash incarnation. He's still carrying more weapons than his scanty loincloth might perhaps realistically allow - his trademark Blades of Olympus/Athena/Exile/Delete as Appropriate make up the go-to attacks, sweeping through enemy fighters and terrain alike and generally ruining the day (and face!) of anyone they make contact with.

Supplementing those are a shield and spear to make thrusting dash attacks, the bow of Apollo and Medusa's head, which kick out quick and chargeable ranged blasts respectively; there's also a Barbarian hammer the size of a small family car which of, course, smashes people into tiny bits. Just about the only tool they're missing is the purple double-ended blaster glaive affair from God of War 2, which instead occasionally drops as a weapon pickup for anyone to use.

As a fairly standard combatant (he's a chap with a sword, once all's said and done - even his level 3 super just makes him a slightly larger chap with a slightly larger sword and a set of natty black armour), Kratos is the most immediately satisfying character to use, ploughing into unsuspecting raccoons, princesses, and everyone else. He doesn't mess around with dropping bombs, turning invisible or setting up convoluted ranged attack strategies, and instead uses that car-sized hammer to settle disputes like a proper Spartan.

Technical notes: Mid-range and fairly nippy, Kratos specialises in breaching defences and introducing people to his arsenal of pigstickers. He's remarkably straightforward and nimble, and a great starter character - although hardcore fans might disregard him as a bit simple, perhaps, given the variety of other options available. Still, y'know, he's got a hammer the size of a car. You can't really argue with that.

Best bit: The hammer. That, or using the head of Medusa like a shotgun and blasting folk with it at close range. In fact, of all the mythological heroes I can think of, Kratos would probably be most improved by putting a sawn-off shotgun in his arsenal. Or a pub ashtray, that sort of thing.

Worst bit: Mis-timing his massive hammer attack (I liked the hammer, can you tell?) and dropping all the way to the bottom of the Ratchet and Clank arena, falling in some water, and getting chomped on by a giant fish. Very unheroic. Aside from that, though, not much.

Radec

In general: Hey! You like guns? Then you'll LOVE Colonel Radec of Killzone villain fame. He's got guns coming out the wazoo. Assault rifles? Of course! Sniper rifles? As standard. Shotguns? Obviously. Rocket launchers? Grenade launchers? Flamethrowers? Giant experimental plasma cannons? YOU GOT IT.

Colonel Radec has, in a very real way, brought a gun to a knife fight. Well, he's brought seven-plus guns to a knife fight, but the point stands. It's as though he didn't get the same memo that every other character did on day one and decided just to bring along every firearm he's ever owned, touched or been near to, just in case any of them come in handy.

Most matches with Radec consist of trying to run away from other players, sitting down quietly somewhere far away from everyone else and quietly sniping them to bits, then maybe shuffling a bit closer to use his level one super (the plasma cannon, which fires a short-range killer burst) - or else staying as far away as possible to use his level two, a targeted rocket launcher that requires you to pick off your opponents with a hovering reticule. Presumably his level three is more of the same - some sort of orbital nuclear strike, maybe - but unfortunately I didn't get the chance to find out.

See, Radec is rubbish up close. Get through his defences (although bear in mind his defences consist of a stupid amount of guns, so that's not all that easy) and he's stuck with an ineffective flailing of limbs and a handful of unconvincing grenades. We found that once Radec starts doing well he briefly becomes the target of everyone else on the battlefield, who settle their differences for long enough to kick the tar out of him and then get on with proper fighting like MEN. Or, you know, fighting like two-dimensional rapping dogs.

Technical notes: Radec has a longer range than any other character I've seen in a fighting game, which is appropriate when you hail from an FPS but a bit weird in reality. In the hands of an experienced player, he's dangerous and can set up fantastic stun-locks on opponents, hampered only by his inability to get away quickly once they block your assault rifle fire and proceed to duff you up. In the hands of an inexperienced player - i.e. me - he's a bit of a damp squib. Lots of potential, though, and the capacity to cap Sly Cooper in the face with a high-powered rifle can't be overstated.

Best bit: Really? Just abusing that Sniper Rifle. Over and over. It's tremendously efficient - like being Tekken 2's Devil Kazuya with his screen-clearing laser eyes, all over again.

Worst bit: The targeted missile launcher - the level two super - is massively unwieldy and leaves you far too open to attack. When compared to the powers of the other fighters, it's pretty limited in its scope.

Sly Cooper

In general: First things first - Sly can't block. At all. Instead of blocking, he turns invisible. Not fully invisible, obviously - that'd be as much of a penalty as it would be a benefit - but he can shift into a barely-noticeable shadow with a push of the R1 button. Well. I say "barely noticeable"; my opponents, both human and CPU, still seemed able to locate me and strike me about the raccoon head with a variety of sharp objects - but I get the feeling that, with practice, it might actually work.

While he's invisible, Sly can nick AP off other characters by backstabbing them, which is a great way to a) represent his inclination towards thievery and b) piss off over-achieving players, who do all the hard work for you, then get unexpectedly shanked in the kidneys by a masked woodland animal and find themselves drained of power. Thos is just as well because offensively, Sly's no great shakes - he's got a lot of dash attacks and plenty of short-ranged staff bashing (and the ability to create, hide in and then detonate big baskets of dynamite, which is nice) but nothing that's going to give, say, Kratos a run for his money in a straight-up fight.

Technical notes: Within seconds of starting play, the fact that Sly's suited for expert players becomes immediately apparent due to his array of unusual powers, that lack of a block, and the way that everyone else is pasting you against a wall while you desperately hammer at the attack buttons to no real effect. Using his defensive powers - the invisibility, the basket of dynamite, his infinite supply of mines - to set up traps, and then pickpocket AP off your opponents is the order of the day. And to a new player, that's a tall order.

Best bit: His level three super sees him leave the action and receive instructions from his tortoise companion, Murray, via radio. You scan a viewfinder over the battlefield and take pictures of other players, which inexplicably kills them. It's a great way to celebrate a hard-won three bars of AP though, given the difficulties inherent in playing the super-sneaky Sly to start with.

Worst bit: Trying to hit anyone with that hooky stick thing he insists on carrying around, and seeing it have little to no effect. Seriously, can someone give this guy a knife? Or, you know, rabies? Either would be fairly intimidating.

Sweet Tooth

In general: In a game largely about cheeky characters getting up to no good, Sweet Tooth from the Twisted Metal series (also called Needles Kane) is a masked psychopath with fire instead of hair and an oversized machete in his back pocket, which I entirely support.

Falling somewhere between a standard brawler and an area controller, his combat tricks are as multitudinous as they are random. In addition to that machete, he can breathe fire, for example, or whip out a chainsaw and spin it around his head like it ain't no thing. He drops mines and throws molotov cocktails and has a sawn-off shotgun, and he seems like he's more suited to a guest role in Manhunt rather than a family-friendly game like this one. I wouldn't be surprised if he had a plastic bag on his person and used it to suffocate folk at the touch of a button, or a screwdriver ripe for jamming into the side of people's heads.

All of that kit pales in insignificance to his level three super, though. This summons his weaponised ice cream truck from Twisted Metal, in its terrifying Sweet Bot mech form. It's quite the experience to mash Fat Princess into a cholesterol-rich smear on in the ground with your giant robot feet, simultaneously launching rockets all over the arena.

Technical notes: Sweet Tooth's selection of close-range surprises ("Surprises" in that waking up to find that both your legs have been sawn off is a surprise) coupled with a shoulder-bargy, rough-and-tumble approach to combat make him a joy to play. Moving at a similar lick to Kratos but with a greater variety of ranges means it's easy to keep opponents on their toes, and the weird mix of offensive and defensive abilities stops him from coming across as too standard a character.

Best bit: That mech thing, obviously. That's the best bit in the game so far. Also his sawn-off shotgun blast is remarkably meaty, and a great way to dissuade people from coming anywhere near you.

Worst bit: We've racked our brains and genuinely can't think of a word to say against him. He's fantastic. Hats off to you, you crazy bastard.

Fat Princess

In general: Obese royalty aren't usually the first choice for a beat 'em up, but here we are. Fat Princess - of, um, Fat Princess fame - couples short-range attacks from her stubby little arms and legs and area-of-effect divebombs with the ability to summon subjects and set them on her opponents for a moment or two. A push of Circle and toward summons a Warrior, for example, and while he's running forward and delivering sword-based justice, the Princess is free to move around on her own and evade or attack appropriately.

She's fairly slow thanks to those short, fat legs of hers (and her considerable weight), and that coupled with the close nature of most of her attacks makes her a challenging prospect. On the plus side, though, her level two super involves summoning a wizard who turns into a giant chicken, then riding him around the arena, crushing enemies under his giant chicken feet. You can't really complain about that.

Technical notes: I'm sure there's some deep tactical nuance to having almost no range on your standard attacks coupled with mid-range autonomy from her summons, but I've yet to experience it first hand. To a new player the Princess is frustratingly slow and ineffective, and - well - you can't help but feel a bit daft playing her, too, when Kratos is rocking around the place creating hurricanes, flying on wings he nicked from Icarus, and mashing people to bits with a giant hammer.

Best bit: The princess' level one super creates cake nearby, which she'll surge towards and hungrily consume, destroying en route anyone who happened to be standing in her path. Kinda cute.

Worst bit: Waddling around slowly and ineffectually slapping people with your STUBBY LITTLE ARMS.

PaRappa the Rapper

In general: PaRappa the Rapper was in a rhythm game before rhythm games were cool, so he's definitely worthy of your respect. Despite a lifetime's experience in rapping he's also a kung-fu master (having received excellent tutelage from Chop Chop Master Onion, of course) and specialises in short-range flurry attacks with his skateboard, microphone, and deadly papery feet. Presumably paper cuts are somehow involved.

Unlike every other character in the game, PaRappa can generate his own AP by plopping down a beatbox and collecting the delicious energy it spews forth - possibly because he's just not able to get up close and personal as much as he'd like. It suits the non-aggressive nature of the friendly little chap and it's a great way to cheese an easy victory - at least, that's what I experienced. Sloping off to a corner of the battlefield and soaking up free AP then dashing into the centre, killing someone and retreating proved a remarkably effective tactic... although I felt kind of dishonest doing it, and switched to gun-toting Radec next round, in a move towards fairness.

Technical notes: PaRappa's not overly inspiring - he's fairly quick and, of course, out of all the characters he probably carries the most nostalgic weight as he was massively popular years ago and then disappeared without much fanfare. But the lack of remarkable attacks, coupled with the incentive to run off and power up rather than getting involved in the fight, means he lacks something when it comes to combat dynamics.

Best bit: His level three super consists of a brief rapping scene which, of course, kills everyone. Also, if I'm honest, the ability to gain AP without getting in a fight meant that I won, and winning is always nice. Even when it's cheap.

Worst bit: Chasing him around a level when you're not playing as him, trying to catch whoever's in control as they spawn AP then run away. Although as you can take the AP that they fail to collect, it's not a terrible tactic.