Previews

What do Nathan Drake, PaRappa and Metal Gear's Raiden have in common? Not only are they classic SONY gaming mascots - but they're also three of the 20 PlayStation icons currently slapping each other silly in the hilarious but surprisingly deep PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita.

It's a bizarre sight when you first clap eyes on a cake-loving Fat Princess going fist-to-face with God of War's Kratos. Imagine Gigglebiz's Justin Fletcher beating up the entire cast of EastEnders or Gollum smacking down Jeremy Clarkson. Or a certain boyband singing live. It just doesn't sound believable.

But the eclectic, eccentric collection of characters featured in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is for real - and the end result? Not a bloody mess but an absolute riot. You'll already know the premise if you're a fan of Smash Bros; a side-scrolling free-for-all brawler where multiple gaming icons slug it out, punching and kicking each other all over the screen.

And in the case of PASBR, the 14 backdrops to the action are brain-bending affairs too, featuring mash-ups of key level imagery spliced together from PS gaming greats. Think Ape Escape genetically melded with Killzone. Your head hurting yet?

You could be forgiven for thinking then that with such outrageous characters and settings that the action itself might be all talk and no kung-fu trousers. But nope, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is the real deal with each character boasting their own in-depth set of moves and combos.

Then consider the novel All-Stars Points system that replaces the genre's traditional health meter; instead of having to reduce, say, Devil May Cry Dante's energy bar to a bleeding stump, you'll need to power-up and land as many knock-out blows within each round as possible. Smart (and smarting) stuff.

And such smartness means that by the time the novelty has worn off seeing Bioshock's Big Daddy get gut-punched by Sackboy, you're left with one seriously sorted beat 'em up that offers frenetic local and online multiplayer modes too.

Actually, come to think of it, we'll never get tired of seeing Big Daddy get gut-punched by Sackboy. Sold.