It’s the epitome of water-cooler discussions: who would win in a fight between X and Y? This must have plagued the designers of Super Smash Bros, which led to an extensive franchise spanning three consoles. Now Sony have decided that enough is enough and that they want to get in on the cross-franchise brawler action. Cue the mouthful that is Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale (PSASBR), by Superbot Entertainment.

Initially, the game looks similar to the Smash Bros series, with up to four unlikely characters scrapping on one screen, picking up items and dodging obstacles. However, there are major differences. Defeating an opponent does not involve knocking them off-screen, but using character-specific Super Moves, which instantly kill if they hit.

Attacking an opponent builds up a bar from level 1 to level 3, which grants the use of increasingly powerful Super Moves. Also, there are three attack buttons, compared to Smash Bros’ two, boosting its complexity, and the stages are an ingenious mishmash of two franchises, such as LittleBigPlanet and Buzz.

Complexity is further extended by the ­fighting styles available–there are simple characters like Big Daddy from Bioshock, with whom you can just mash buttons, but also Sly Cooper, who can turn invisible, or Sackboy, who can imagine objects into existence. However, there are overpowered characters like Raiden from the Metal Gear Solid series, creating some (but not unassailable) imbalances.

Superbot pushes the offline Arcade Mode, where you choose a character and attempt to beat all the others until you reach an uninspiring final boss, but the main draw was the online play, which, after initial connection problems, is challenging without making you feel out of your depth.

There’s an extensive tutorial system, which helps you learn your character quickly, and the option to play locally against friends or computer-controlled opponents. Finally, you can unlock numerous costumes and taunts for your character.

However, the main problem is immediately evident: Sony just doesn’t have enough iconic characters to populate a game like this. It is exciting for obsessives to play as the obscure Sir Daniel Fortesque from MediEvil, but it’s nothing compared to the roster of Mario, Link, Pikachu et al. that Smash

Bros boasts.

The Super Move system is also flawed. If you miss a Super Move, then all your work so far is wasted, so players hoard their attacks, creating a lack of pace. In Smash Bros, there’s tension when everyone has high damage and one attack could win the round. In PSASBR, this tension is lost when everyone has Super Moves to use with reckless abandon.

A further criticism is the boring menu screens, average art assets and unimpressive music direction, especially in the levels. The main menu does feature the brilliantly apt ‘Finale’ by Madeon, but its repetition gets annoying quickly. Controlling the menu is also difficult, as the game sometimes counts one button press as two, making the player choose the wrong option.

Overall, I would say that Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale is a reasonably intricate ­fighter which still manages to be accessible. However, it’s not even close to the brilliance of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which has everything PSASBR has, but with recognisable characters, a better ­fighting engine anda deeper offline mode.

My advice? Only get this game if you want something for parties and you don’t have a Wii.