Happy to be back to tell you about some new surprises from PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. More costumes? More minions? Well, okay, yes. But also more new characters!

Our newest challengers are Isaac Clarke from Electronic Arts’ Dead Space, and Zeus from… well, from some of the foundational myths of Western society, but also from a little PlayStation game you might know called God of War by SCEA Santa Monica Studio.

How did these two emerge as All-Stars from the vast PlayStation multiverse? Synchronicity. We were talking with some friends over at EA who were hard at work on Dead Space 3, and with a lot of Dead Space fans on our team and all the cool tools at Isaac’s disposal, some quick concepts emerged and we knew he’d be a great addition. We’ve also wanted to add another “heavy,” hard-hitting character into All-Stars (Big Daddy was getting lonely), and with all the work on God of War: Ascension around Sony Santa Monica, Zeus emerged as a perfect fit.

As you might remember, Zeus is kind of an arrogant jerk, but one thing you can say for him is that he does not mess around. As King of the Gods, he’s a big guy, used to getting his way, and he hits HARD. Of course he’s got some cool combos, but his primary offense is centered around fewer, but more powerful strikes that generate a ton of AP and send enemies flying. He can power up virtually all of his attacks into a “charged” version with all kinds of new effects, giving him one of the biggest move lists in the game. Super-armored rushing punches, a clone move, teleports, and lightning bolts–lots and lots of lightning bolts. Your best bet against Zeus is to stay on his good side (aka behind him), or far away.

His level 1 is a giant Lightning Clap that lacks range but has a great area of effect. Level 2 lets Zeus take to the skies and fly anywhere before exploding in a deadly lightning storm. His level 3 “Wrath of Zeus” takes you to Olympus to fight a godlike 100-foot tall Zeus, and in true boss-fight form, he can wipe out half the screen with a single strike.

Through a combination of playtesting and staying true to his original series, Isaac emerged over the course of development as a strong mid-range fighter using the unique weapons and Kinesis/Stasis abilities you’ll recognize from the Dead Space series (think somewhere between Drake and Jak, with a lot of twists). He has some very interesting long-range options (the Bouncing Bola acts like sniper rifle that bounces off of walls, getting more powerful with each bounce) and he’s got some great moves up close, but just as in Dead Space, he’s at his best keeping foes safely out of his face. He can advance or retreat while firing his trusty Plasma Cutter, toss proximity mines, use Stasis attacks to freeze opponents, or spin slowly moving Ripper blades at enemies with a blast of Kinesis torque.

His level 1 super fires a supercharged stasis burst and then overloads his Plasma Cutter, which can be aimed anywhere, even at very long range. His level 2 super overloads his Kinesis module creating a bubble that launches nearby enemies away at “terminal” velocity, and Isaac’s level 3 takes you into space where he blows the airlock, sucking everyone into space for a quick game of something like “Asteroids” where Isaac flies around blasting opponents and space debris into dust.

Finally, what better to welcome new characters than with a new stage? The new “Graveyard” level mashes up MediEvil‘s Graveyard opening with… The Unfinished Swan. While we start in recognizable MediEvil territory (complete with pop-up zombies and a wisecracking gargoyle), the “Swan” elements are shown off with a mid-match whiteout and ink splatters that slowly reveal the emerging structures. There are lots of little Swan touches throughout the stage, from the hidden labyrinth, to a balloon, the King, and of course the Unfinished Swan itself makes a cameo.

So how do All-Stars fans get their hands on the new stuff? The new DLC pack hits the PlayStation Store on March 19th. As before with the recently released “Fearless” stage, the new “Graveyard” stage will be free in online ranked matches and $1.99 if you want to own it. As for Zeus and Isaac, I’m very happy to announce they will come to North America FREE as a redeemable downloadable voucher code packed in with the new God of War: Ascension, which launches on March 12th. When Zeus and Isaac Clarke go live in All-Stars on March 19th (one week later), you can use your code to redeem them any time after they are live. For anybody who doesn’t pick up God of War: Ascension (but of course that’s only crazy people–it’s got what I think is the most epic final battle in the series’ history), the characters will also be for sale in the PSN Store for $4.99 each.

I’ll have some more details coming on the new challengers in the coming weeks — until then, see you online!

The second entry in our Behind the Classics series is a real lost gem – SCE Cambridge Studios’ wild, wacky supernatural adventure MediEvil. First released on PSone back in 1998, it put you in the shoes of Sir Daniel Fortesque – an undead knight unwittingly reanimated by the evil sorcerer Zarok who embarks on a quest to liberate the kingdom of Gallowmere.

A sequel followed in 2000, with a PSP remake also popping up on PSP in 2005, however, it’s the original game that remains most embedded in the memory. With Sir Dan soon to enjoy a comeback of sorts as a playable character in PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale, we sat down with original designer Chris Sorrell to find out more about the game’s development.

PlayStation.Blog: What was the original concept for the game? Did you draw inspiration from anywhere in particular for the game’s look and feel?
Chris Sorrell, Game Designer, MediEvil: The first design proposal for the game had the working title ‘Dead Man Dan’ and described a game that was a fusion of Capcom’s Ghouls’n Ghosts with the art style of Tim Burton – especially the look and feel of The Nightmare Before Christmas. In both cases these were things that I was a huge fan of back in the mid ‘90s. Lead artist Jason Wilson shared my interest in dark, gothic influenced artwork and we worked together to define the look and feel of the game.

PSB: It was an ambitious title for its time – what were your biggest challenges in realising that original vision?
CS: MediEvil presented a real mountain of challenges. The game started life as a project of a small, cash-strapped independent developer – Millennium Interactive. In addition to bringing together a brand new team – none of whom had really made a 3D game of this scale before – we were in ‘sell’ mode almost from day one, with the future of the studio riding on our ability to attract a major publishing deal as quickly as possible. We were initially working on multiple platforms including Windows and Sega Saturn as well as PlayStation before we finally had the chance to demo the game for Sony. Thankfully that was probably our best pitch ever: SCEE had some really inspiring people in management, they loved MediEvil, and within a few weeks we were signed to make an exclusive PlayStation game. In a few more months we became Sony’s second studio in the UK.

Of course another layer of challenge came from the fact that, like most other developers at that time, we were still feeling our way with 3D. Things like camera and character control presented a lot of interesting new challenges and required us to try out a number of approaches before we settled on solutions that seemed to work.

PSB: How close to your original concept was the finished game?
CS: Actually really close. Over the course of development the game became less arcadey and a little more of an adventure – which, being a huge Zelda fan, I was very pleased about. As for the game’s look, I think that was extremely true to our initial goals as you can see if you track down some of the concept art that’s out there on the internet.

PSB: Which element of the game are you most proud of, and which element, if any, do you feel fell short?
CS: At the time I might have said I was most proud of how our team pulled together to finish the game without compromising on the quirky attention to detail or scope of the game. Looking back now, I guess I feel most proud of the fact that we managed to create a game which – and I believe this is down to the game’s personality and charm – a lot of people still seem to remember. As a developer, it’s a real privilege to be told that your game brings back fond childhood memories for someone and that seems to happen quite often with MediEvil.

Where do I feel we fell short? Well I would have liked to travel a little further down that ‘Zelda’ path – I think a genuine, deep adventure set in the MediEvil world could have been something quite special. The game was also supposed to feature Morten the Earthworm – who lived in Dan’s empty eye socket. Alas, he didn’t make the cut.

PSB: What do you see as the game’s legacy? How would you like it remembered?
CS: Certainly I think we were one of the first games to capture that Tim Burton vibe and I think there may have been a few spooky themed action games that followed MediEvil where the developers probably looked at what we had done. [2002 Capcom fantasy adventure] Maximo springs to mind. I’d be quite happy if people remembered MediEvil as ‘that game with the weird, grunting skeleton dude with one eye and no lower jaw who throws his own arm like a boomerang’.

PSB: A PSP version came out in 2005, but the series has been largely dormant since. Do you ever think about where you might have taken the franchise?
CS: I’d certainly love to work with Sir Dan one more time and I have lots of ideas that I think would make for a great new MediEvil game. Sadly I think it’s an unlikely prospect since I no longer work for Sony, not to mention how times have changed in the years since Dan first left his crypt.

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