The much-rumored mass brawler for the PlayStation 3 has finally been unveiled, called PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. While certainly borrowing from Super Smash Bros., it also represents an evolution of the formula.

The PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is being developed by California-based SuperBot - a purpose-built studio that brings experience in the genre from Mortal Kombat and UFC Undisputed, among 100 employees - along with support from Sony Santa Monica. The studio claims talent was "hand picked."

Like the Super Smash Bros. series, the PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale brings a huge roster of first-party characters (and perhaps one-off, guest characters) that fight on a side-scrolling plane. Along with Sony's characters, such as Kratos from God of War and Parappa the Rappa, third-party characters that have featured on the PlayStation will be included. Characters have different playstyles, so Parrapa the Rapper has short-range melee attacks while Colonel Radec from Killzone is a long-range, weapon-based character.

Characters seem to have special abilities: Sly Cooper can swap blocking for turning invisible. This is done through the "Super" meter at the bottom, which can be levelled up three times. The attacks can be used at any level.

Levels are based on the characters in the games, though there are only two per character, with maps such as Hades from God of War and Dreamscape - a mashup of Little Big Planet and Buzz. The soundtrack is also based on PlayStation's game history. The game includes the ability to start team battles, play online, in tournaments and in special events.

VentureBeat questioned how fans will respond to the game, claiming the characters aren't "classic" enough to appeal to the nostalgia players might have for Link or Super Mario. Some characters, like Fat Princess, are fairly recent: the first game was released in 2009 in North America. Kirby, for example, is 20 years old.

There is no firm release date for the PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, though it's set for the holidays. Sony describes it as a "celebration" for fans of PlayStation and is listening to what the fans want, particularly regarding characters.

(reported by Jonathan Charles, edited by Dave Clark)

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