Well Played, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, Well Played

You couldn’t force me to buy a Smash Bros.-style 2-D brawer to save my life (not that I have any moral problem with them, I’m just terrible at them) but I have to admit the opening cinematic of Sony’s PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is actually pretty damn cool. Sony doesn’t have the particularly robust character library on Nintendo, but there are some neat additions, and I can’t be too disdainful of any game that features a Sackboy getting chased by an enraged Big Daddy. But the real kudos are for the final boss, the floating head shown in shadow at the very end. SPOILER, KIND OF — that’s Polygon Man, the short-lived American PlayStation mascot that was used before the first PSX even went on sale. The idea that Polygon Man is insanely bitter about being dumped and is now forcing the more popular PSX characters to fight to the death is, simply, fantastic. If only he had the cast of Battle Arena Toshinden as his minions… (Thanks to SlyDante for the tip.)