Written by LvlUpUK writer Steve Bennett.

Let’s not beat around the bush. PlayStation All-Stars is a blatant clone of Super Smash Bros. but, should we care? This is only really bad news for Nintendo and their ardent fan boys. For the rest of us it's the chance to play a type of game we have either missed or are missing. After all, plenty of top quality games have been labelled rip offs and clones in the past. Most first person shooters were labelled Doom clones in the 90's.

Obviously this game has taken direct inspiration from Super Smash Bros., but let’s just judge it on its own merits. After all, we haven't had a Smash Bros. game since 2008, so for the time being, All-stars isn't stepping on any toes.

What we have with PlayStation All-stars is a straight up 2D brawler that can accommodate up to 4 players as they try to smash each other to smithereens, either online or in the same room like the olden days. Online play will also support cross platform play allowing you to wail on your Vita owning friends. All nice features, however, for me this is a game that needs to be played with your chums in the same room, on the same screen.

The character roster on here is fairly decent with plenty of characters associated with brand PlayStation, along with a few who have appeared on other consoles as well. ‘PlayStation All-stars Battle Royale with a couple of extra characters chucked in from multi format games’, doesn't really have the same ring to it, so we can let them off.

For my first match I plucked for Jak N Daxter and jumped straight in to a four player match. The game was instantly fun to play, even if I did find myself hammering away at the buttons like a monkey with a new toy. It’s all good fun. The more I managed to hit people, the more my specials bar at the bottom of the screen filled up. Once full, a quick press and 'kablamo' a nice powerful move allowing me to hurt everyone close enough to me. A few more times and that’s it, game over, I have won somehow. Result.

Not many issues raised themselves during my play time. Occasionally I struggled to see what was going on with my fighter as there was so much going on and the camera can also zoom out pretty far in order to show all four fighters on screen at once making everyone appear small. Not major problems at all and all part of the fun.

The arenas are also based on some of our favourite franchises and they do look very nice. Just seeing the arena based on Master Chop Chops dojo makes me want to buy this game straight away. There are plenty of characters and levels to keep most fans happy although I would put money on character and level DLC being released in the near future.

I would like to have some prolonged play with this game; it has real potential and could very well be an essential purchase. Not one for single players so if you have no friends and no internet then maybe stay away. As a multi-player experience it could be a must have for Sony's black box of tricks.

Platforms: Playstation 3, PS Vita