‘All-Stars Battle Royale’ Gameplay Video Reveals ‘Metal Gear’ Raiden Character

Despite some controversy, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale continues to be one of the most anticipated upcoming Sony titles – joining other fan-favorites like God of War: Ascension and Beyond: Two Souls. When the game was pushed from October 25th to November 20th, certain expectant gamers were disappointed they had to wait another entire month – while others hoped the delay would mean SuperBot Entertainment intended to dramatically overhaul certain, contentious, elements of the core gameplay – i.e. for some, it’s not similar enough to the Super Smash Bros. experience while others claim the title is an outright ripoff.

However, in spite of the delays, Sony is still moving full speed ahead with PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, recently unveiling Evil Cole (from inFamous) as a playable character – as well as detailing four other newly revealed combatants. The reveals aren’t expected to slow down either (as we draw closer to the, now, November launch) and today, we have our first look at another playable character (this time a third party participant) – Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance‘s hero, Raiden.

We nearly predicted the Raiden reveal several months back in our 25 Characters That Need to Be in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale feature – though, at the time, we expected Smash Bros. alumni Solid Snake to represent the Metal Gear franchise. Raiden was later teased when leaked images of the PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale character roster appeared online.

Now, GameSpot has a pre-PAX Prime look at the character in action – ahead of an “official” reveal trailer that we can definitely expect in the coming days.

Check out Raiden’s moves below:

As Director at SuperBot Entertainment, Omar Kendall, and Sony Santa Monica Studio Lead Game Designer, Seth Killian, discuss in the video – Raiden is a close-quarters combat character who relies heavily on his trademark Rising: Revengeance swordplay in the PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale arena. Raiden’s level 1 and 2 super moves are mostly powered-up versions of his primary attacks but his level 3 super provides a fun nod to Metal Gear Solid fans – as he traps opponents inside cardboard boxes for one-hit kill attacks.

The new footage doesn’t outright showcase any major overhauls to the core gameplay that hesitant PS3 and Vita owners might have been hoping to see addressed (such as a different scoring mechanic) but that doesn’t mean larger changes to the title aren’t still in the development pipeline – especially considering new modes (such as Smash Bros.-like “ring out” scoring) would require pretty substantial tweaking. That said, we’re still relatively certain that the game’s delay isn’t going to deliver anything more than a tighter (bug-free) final product with minor tweaks to the onscreen interface. At this point, it seems like Sony, and its lawyers, have a pretty clear idea of how close they want to toe the Smash Bros. line – and they’re not likely to suddenly bend to fan criticism on major gameplay points.

Both our PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale Hands-On E3 preview and our demo impressions resulted in the same sense – that, assuming SuperBot doesn’t significantly change the gameplay model, the title is stuck in an awkward middle ground. A middle ground where it doesn’t innovate enough to avoid comparisons with Nintendo’s franchise and at the same time doesn’t borrow enough to match the Smash Bros. experience.

Regardless, the game should make loads of money for Sony when it launches later this year – as there are plenty of players who aren’t bothered by the similarities/differences and just want a competent Sony-themed beat ‘em up fighting game.

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Follow me on Twitter @benkendrick for further updates on PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale as well as other movie, TV, and gaming news.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale releases November 20, 2012 for PS3 and Vita.

Source: GameSpot