One of Sony's biggest fall releases is PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, its unabashed knock-off of Nintendo's popular Super Smash Bros. fighting game series that pits established franchise characters against each other in free-for-all arena matches.

All-Stars Battle Royale was given a major push during Sony's E3 presentation in June, and it is one of a few games coming to both PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3. With a public beta on the way, Wired was given an early look at the PS3 version to see what lies beneath the fansploitation.

In short: A game featuring a rapping dog, a nightmare clown and a chubby princess really ought to be more fun than this.

"Early" is the key word describing my experience with PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. The private beta contains only six characters and no single-player or offline multiplayer modes. Left only with four-player online multiplayer, I found that the game struggled to connect me to opponents, dropping the connection before the match even started.

Once I got into battle, lag was a constant issue. While my character was always responsive to commands, his or her position on the screen was unpredictable. I would frequently run towards an opponent and jump to avoid an attack, only to be suddenly warped back to the ground and hit, as if I had never leaped at all.

Even when the online connection wasn't having problems, I found it difficult to follow my character on the screen. Arenas in All-Stars Battle Royale are big and full of moving parts, which is great. But no matter which character I chose, I felt tiny by comparison.

The most frustrating part of combat, more so than lag or losing track of my position, was that I never understood who was winning or losing. There are no "life bars" in All-Stars Battle Royale, just an energy bar that builds up during the fight. Players use that energy to execute special attacks that kill opponents in one hit. These attacks have three levels of escalating power: The strongest triggers a mega-powerful attack with a cinematic sequence, but even level-one special moves are enough to kill an opponent.

From an offensive perspective, this design forces players to choose how and when to spend their energy for optimum kills. Regular attacks may send opponents flying across the arena, but unlike Super Smash they'll never kill someone. As far as I can tell, using the special meter is the only way to score points, save for the occasional environmental hazard like flying golf balls or giant cream pies.

But when you're trying to defend yourself, it's a nightmare. All the characters are tiny on the screen, and the meters that show which players have reached what level of power are barely visible. I couldn't tell if my own character was at level two or three, let alone keep tabs on my opponents. This means that throughout the fight, I didn't know when my opponent might just tap the R2 button and slay me.

Of course, this is merely a beta, and PlayStation All-Stars is still under development. All of the technical shortcomings can still be repaired, the HUD can still be improved, and the zoomed-out camera can still be adjusted.

What's not so easy to fix at this point is the lingering question of why we need a Super Smash Bros. game full of characters that lack nostalgic appeal or charisma.

There are plenty of Super Smash Bros characters from games I've never played and thus have no nostalgic attachment to – Captain Falcon from the racing game F-Zero being the perfect example – who are presented in such a colorful, loopy manner that they won me over.

By contrast, my time with All-Stars Battle Royale has felt dark and uninviting. Even the cartoonish elements like Fat Princess, Parappa the Rapper and the Little Big Planet playfield lack vibrant colors.

One more glitch in this beta: At the end of each match, no matter who wins, all four characters go into their sad, dejected losing animation. It's as if they can't understand what they're doing here, either.