Best of Both Worlds: Stage Mashups in PlayStation All-Stars

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Best of Both Worlds: Stage Mashups in PlayStation All-Stars

Drawing upon nearly two decades of PlayStation lore, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale assembles a dream roster of legendary fighters plucked from the annals of PlayStation history. But the characters are only half the story: Developer SuperBot Entertainment has invested much blood, sweat, and tears into the game’s elaborate fighting stages, each of which fuses two classic PlayStation brands into a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

“We have a huge team of designers, artists, and programmers working on the characters, but we have a team that’s at least equally large working on the levels,” Game Director Omar Kendall told PlayStation.Blog in a revealing new interview. “It’s a huge undertaking in a game like this, because the levels have such a loud voice.”

The inspiration to fuse two seemingly unrelated game worlds came early in the game’s development, with the now-familiar Hades level serving as the germ of the concept. “We had this idea of a giant Hades wreaking havoc on the playspace, when suddenly this happy-go-lucky music kicks in and the Patapons come over the hill to overthrow him,” Kendall remembered. “Once that came together, we knew we were onto something.”

PlayStation All-Stars Battle RoyalePlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale

Gameplay rests firmly at the heart of each stage’s design. “We start by sitting around a table, a bunch of designers and artists, trying to figure out an interesting combat space to fight in,” Kendall said. Sometimes that manifests itself as a specific gameplay interaction, whether it’s Dreamscape’s ever-growing level architecture (a nod to LittleBigPlanet’s level creator) or the vertical scrolling in Alden’s Tower (a homage to inFAMOUS’s final stage).

“Some characters excel against enemies that are in front of them, others directly above and below them,” Kendall explained, “so we create playspaces that leverage those advantages and disadvantages.” Case in point: Chop-Chop Master Onion’s tiny dojo is designed to create a uniquely claustrophobic play style, while Metropolis is wide-open and favors longer-range strategies.

“Technically, the process can be extremely complicated based on the ideas we’re introducing,” Kendall admitted. “So many of the levels in the game are essentially one-offs. We’ll create a lot of technology to construct a specific type of encounter, and then toss it and build a totally different experience for the next level.”

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale

Though inefficient, that approach is yielding some dazzling results. Such is the case with the game’s exhilarating mashup between UNCHARTED 3 and 2013’s BioShock Infinite. “When we first watched the demonstration of Columbia, it left a strong and lasting impact,” Kendall remembered. “We knew we wanted to incorporate that world and those characters into one of our levels.” Then UNCHARTED 3’s famous cargo plane sequence entered the picture, and the rest is history.

Other times, an interesting visual contrast might spark the inspiration for a mashup. Time Station begins firmly rooted in the whimsical Ape Escape universe. Halfway through the match, a teleportation error sees the Resistance 3 universe bleed into the environment — including a monstrous, rampaging Widowmaker.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale: Time StationPlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale: Time Station

It’s important to note that these stage evolutions are no mere cosmetic flourish: new hazards, new level layouts, and new strategies develop organically as the stages bleed from one universe to the next, creating a truly dynamic combat arena.

Be sure to watch our new video documentary to get an inside look at SuperBot’s process for constructing stages in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. Which stage mashup are you most interested in playing so far?

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117 Comments

8 Author Replies

  • hey Sid i saw the dragon from 3:23 to 3:26

  • @remanutd5 thats not a dragon.

  • What does that even mean Sid?

    You worded is very specifically. You said “We have revealed the full launch lineup of characters.”

    I cannot believe Kat isn’t in the game. Lightning isn’t even in the game? This is THE most sexist lineup you guys could have used.

    There’s so many third party characters in here that you couldn’t even put in Kat? Kat, who is the face of the Vita now.

    Your wording makes it sound like anything else is DLC.

    Guess what buddy? I canceled my pre order. If you guys honestly think I’m willing to pay $60 for 20 characters, 2 of which happen to be THE SAME EXACT CHARACTER, you’re handicap.

  • I wish there were a lot of environmental hazards for each lvl, but since they aren’t any real threat besides knocking off some ap, they are pointless in this game.

  • They have Sly’s cane! I’m jealous.

  • Game was going to be day 1 buy for me but not anymore. Only 20 characters for $60 are you guys serious?
    Plus none of the most requested characters were in it no crash,spyro,snake,cloud,etc.
    Instead you guys add people like Big Daddy and New Dante. You could have gotten a better lineup of chartaers even if you couldn’t get other 3rd party characters you could have used Dart(LoD) or Kat.
    But instead we have this terrible roster, yeah this game isn’t even worth $60.

  • launch line up sounds like characters u start with when u buy the game not including any characters u unlock as u play the game

  • @57

    If they announce that there are secret characters in game I will consider bringing back my pre order.

    Honestly though, if they don’t announce that or say that there will be DLC instead I won’t look back. There should be 20+ launch characters before DLC is even mentioned.

  • So are there going to more characters in the game.

  • I’m sure there’s going to be more characters – they just won’t be free. It’s probably going to cost $9.99 per additional character.

  • @60
    Lol $9.99 per character.
    Good luck making any profit off that no one is going to buy a dlc character for $9.99

  • If some character’s are dlc.
    They should be $1.30.
    That what I think.

  • Well, SuperBot/Sony haven’t really made the brightest decisions so far when it comes to this game. Why do you think the game ranks at #387 on Amazon’s video games sales rankings and that fans are bashing the game everywhere on the internet?

  • Wow only twenty for launch? Really underwhelming. Only an announcement that a bunch more are coming as DLC could get me interested again. This WAS on my radar now my 60 bucks will be going elsewhere.

  • I just can’t wait to get my hands on a demo (or beta, if there will be another one)…..I’ve joked about something like this type of game for Playstation fans for a while, but when it actually started coming true, I was psyched!!!

    Sure I would prefer more Playstation/Sony specific characters (no Team Ico rep is a travesty and complete nonsense)….but I’m not a game developer, am I?

    I still look forward to this game most intently!!!

  • Wow, I’m extremely disappointed as well. THIS is the final roster? I’m not one for complaining especially since this game was created for the fans, but is this all you guys have up your sleeves?

    PS3: Infamous, Uncharted, Fat Princess, Heavenly Sword, Littlebigplanet

    PS2/PS3: God of War, Killzone

    PS2: Sly Cooper, Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank

    PS1: Ape Escape, Twisted Metal, Pa Rappa, Medievil

    The rest are 3rd party characters.

    How the heck do those 4 games represent Playstation 1? I didn’t know about any of those when I was a kid. I only immediately knew games like Crash Bandicoot, Spryro, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, and Final Fantasy, the big selling blockbuster titles.

    Now let’s move onto PS2. I think the 3 characters you chose were actually spot on, but there’s definitely room for more. Still, not too bad.

    PS3 is the one that’s more represented, most likely since this game is for that platform. But really… 2 of the characters are from the same game(infamous) and Fat princess is a PSN game that no one (except for PSN gamers) know about.

    I’m not trying to dissect the roster and make Superbot feel bad because I’m sure they are working very hard on this game. But this is just sad.

  • 20 characters is horrid well hype train is out of gas

  • Whats even worse is that when Superbot was asked about how many characters are in the game, Omar said ” more than you think” 20 is not an appropriate number, especially when 25% of the roster are bad characters. Even Amazon’s decription said over 20 characters! False advertising.

    I’m dumbfounded that there’s so many cool characters out there including from Sony owned franchises! And they pick the most hated character in games Emo Dante, who’s brilliant idea was that?

    Plus there’s not even that much stage variation, so many franchises yet God of War, Killzone, LittleBigPlanet, Resistance, Sly Cooper get 2 stages. Even Bioshock gets 2 stages, not even PS exclusive lol smh. You definetly lost my support

  • Such a great idea! It’s great to see the mashups. However, the hardcore, competitive gamer inside me still hopes that there is One stage that WON’T in fact interrupt the fight. I’m thinking of Final Destination for Smash Bros. because 1v1 duels can be very intense WITHOUT the distraction from the stage. i’d like to win my duels uninterrupted so I can safely claim the victory is due to my skill :D

    Keep up the great work…and I won’t be one of those fans to hate… but at least announce more characters via DLC :D

  • #16
    You do realise this game is mostly only having so many announcements due to leaks, right? They aren’t gonna announce every character and stage before release man, be patient and quit whining.

  • Hey guys, If you’re reading I just wanna say that I support the game in full as it is, The Internet may be going crazy with rumors and more character demands, but I think the game is gonna be awesome, 20 good balanced characters is better than a game with 2 broken chars and 55 unplayable characters. However I still think you have a couple of aces in your sleeves…Amirite? ;)

  • I am no longer buying this travesty. It is an insult to PlayStation.

  • Here are the facts so far:

    20 characters at launch (on disc)
    No unlockable character

  • Dear Superbot,

    Your 20 character roster is pathetic and a joke! A slap in the face to people playing PlayStation games from Day 1. You have lied to the consumer saying you a “listening”. Having us pay for DLC of the most wanted characters is something Capcom would do, but knowing you guys have hired a guy that worked for the company makes perfect sense. As of now this game is off my radar for most wanted and most anticipated game of the year. Good job messing up a game that had so much potential .

  • Superbot.

    Cmon now.

    How can you sit there with a straight face having Fat princess in this game and not have just about all of the top requested characters and still ask for my money? Where is Snake? Crash? Spyro? Cloud?

    DLC won’t matter if nobody buys you’re game to buy the DLC.

  • First of All, the only way i have a connection to playstation is through my psp and playing patapon. I bought a PS3 just for this game and now i see a bunch of sony’s fans trolling the company. Are you serious? Wheres crash? He’s with freakin Actvison, you know the guys who give Xbox there DLC a month earlier than playstation! Where’s Spyro? HEZ A FREAKIN TOY NOW. NOT A CHARACTER! Kat i wont say anything cuz i dont know anything but Cloud and all those final fantasy peoplez. There on both Xbox and Playstation, and im pretty sure there company doesn’t even know what this game is. 20 characters. 20 characters that are all pretty bad ass. Ohhhh but big daddy is not from ps1 or- WHO THE BLEEP CAREZ. Big Daddy is a BAD ASS, same with Dante. I dont know Y they had 2 put spike in there but wat everz. U guys are complaining about the coles but at least they have different move sets. Im a smash fan and Falco and Fox have the EXACT SAME MOVES so be happy they just didn’t colour his lighting red and counted that as a seperate character. Good FREAKIN JOB SUPER BOT IM ACTUALLY PRETTY DAM PROUD OF YOU GUYS. I LOVE YOU WITH MY WHOLE FREAKIN HEART JUST FOR PUTTING A SINGLE PATAPON IN THIS GAME

  • More so, theres more 1st party characters you could have included, such as wander, Ico, Blasto, etc. And there are Dev’s out there who are sitting on amazing loved character like Abe and Tomba who are dying to get their characters in this game! Oddworld inhabitants goes as far as saying you guys won’t answer their calls! WTF

  • Hype is an important part of the Gaming industry, So the majority of what the fans have been asking for will be answered it’s just a matter of time and patience. They know leaving out Real All-Stars will not only half their sales but already set bad rep for the studio itself and if you ask me I doubt Superbot is setting up to kamikaze themselves right off the bat. So Fellow Playstation Fans let us be patient and see if this title is worthy enough for all True Ps fans to have in their Library of Games..

  • Drawing upon nearly two decades of PlayStation lore, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale assembles a dream roster of legendary fighters plucked from the annals of PlayStation history.
    JAJAJAJAJAJAJJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJJAJAJA
    You are kidding right?!!
    RIGHT?!!

  • I can’t believe they can say that after including characters like big daddy, fat princess, new dante, raiden, Heihachi and evil cole while excluding Cloud, snake, crash, wander and spyro.

  • really superbot, bahahahahahahahahaha I really want to know how you chose your characters for this. Did you think of as many playstation characters as possible as strips of paper and then put it in a hat and drew them blindfolded while every time you pulled out a very popular playstation character you put aside as “dlc” seriously?

  • on strips*

  • I agree with Revolutionary_AV, we should wait and see who and what they rly got for us on release date. And just to refresh your mind on what the fans want Super Bot here is a list..

    Amaterasu – Okami.
    Cloud Strife – Final Fantasy VII.
    Crash Bandicoot – Crash Bandicoot.
    Dart Feld – Legend of Dragoon.
    Wander – Shadow of the colossus
    Razputin – Psychonauts
    Spyro – Spyro
    Sora Or Riku – Kingdom Hearts 1,2 & Final mix
    The Wanderer – Journey (TGC)

    A direct reply doesn’t matter as long as you guys (Superbot) PLEASE take these characters into consideration!

  • you forgot:
    Solid Snake – Metal Gear Solid

  • 83# also forgot Tomba, Abe, the prince from katamari, etc.

  • 83# dont forget all of playstations history!

  • WOW. I wish i could swear all of you Ignorant people but i can’t… So i’ll say this: I am very disappointed with everyone here thats complaining and whining about the Roster. Some fans. Last time i checked a large amount of characters did not make a fighting game, its how much fun/joy/excitement etc. that can bring to the player who is playing as those characters. 20 Awesome characters with original movesets voices and supers? Sounds pretty good to me, as well as the Dlc add ons. Did you all forget about The different game modes, The story mode, The stages, The Soundtrack, The Unlockables… ETC. Give SuperBot a break they’ve had to deal, (and still are!) with people that call this game unoriginal, a ripoff, a disgrace… ect. as well as having to deal with the leaks, Trolls, Constant Character requests and so forth. I’m glad some of you aren’t going to get this game. Less competition for me when i buy it day 1 and the actual people who enjoy games for the pure fun of it.

  • SuperBot, please don’t get discouraged just because of some criticism. You have my full support… and patience =]

  • ok so we will deal with a game that has a small amount of characters for a 2012 game. Characters no one wanted. Milked dlc, and very little content. And all charged for 60 bucks? yea sounds like a game that is worth it!

  • Looks like I’m not getting this game for at least a year. It’s not worth 60 bucks with that roster. I understand Activision can be greedy, so the absence of Crash and Spyro is forgiveable. However, there are SO many first party characters missing that should be EASY for them to get in the game – Wander and Kat come to mind. Instead, they choose to put third party characters like Big Daddy in the game.

    Really disappointing news. My hype level is down to zero. I will still get the game as the PlayStation fan I am, but not for a long time.

  • 87#

    I almost agreed, but then I remembered they didn’t add Crash or Spyro or Cloud. The list goes on. I’m happy they got Sir Dan and Spike and parrappa, and they were one good announcement from having a super solid roster, and its disappointing knowing that.

    But guys Paul Gale still says 22+.

  • You know, they could be pulling a fast one on us considering how many times stuff for this game has been leaked. Maybe they have a few more characters left that isn’t DLC that people have been asking for and are waiting til closer to launch to show them. That or they’re planning DLC for the ones not already on disk. Either way reviews are gonna decide my purchase.

  • i know who i wanna see its lightning from FFXIII, soap from MW Series, of course crash. i see dante(original) as dlc and cloud as dlc.

  • If at least it were a “hardcore” fighting game… it could be interesting, but it’s not even that awesome, the engine, effects and gameplay looks pretty bland and meh (for my taste… I also thought it could have better graphics)
    And no Crash, Spyro, Lightning, even Cloud, Sora…
    And my PS3 died yesterday, so I hate Sony… they can’t even make a decent rip off

  • This game will only has 20 characters i was hoping crash would be in it

  • @cosmis_chaos

    HAHAHAAHAHAHA…I played this game before you have when I was at E3. I have been following this game closely, and everything almost everything was leaked through the beta. The list is pathetic, and Superbot needs to delay this game till next year and add the characters that people have been asking for. Snake in SSB s**ts on any 3rd party character this game has, and that is saying it politely. This game had the potential of an awesome roster, but Superbot seemed to get cocky and thought they knew what they were doing. THIS IS ALSO MY OPINION, and almost a lot of people agree with me, the FINAL Roster is a slap in the face and a joke to people that has been following the PlayStation franchise like I have. I have this game pre-order, and now thinking if I should even get this game……I am not paying for characters that should of been in the game in the 1st place.

  • Yes Uncharted 3 has a level this is what I wanted to see. I am considering this game now. Jak & Daxter, and Drake are in the game. I wish Sully made it, but makes total sense why he isn’t there. If I don’t buy this on launch, I’ll defintley ask for it for Christmas. Will this be digital by any chance?

  • If the game does well, could there be a second? I’d love to see this become a series as new IP’s are always popping up- and the ones you don’t use in the first one will be great additions to the next game too!

  • Are all the characters in this game confirmed or will there be more they announce?

  • As far as we know, there’s only 20 characters in the game.

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