Sony's take on the mascot fighting genre popularized by Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. franchise has been in a closed beta for some time (I've seen a friend playing the beta on my PlayStation Network friends list; you know who you are — don't deny it!), but now the PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale beta is opening up a bit with access coming to PlayStation Plus members now and everyone else with access to the PlayStation Store next week.  Now everyone can check out Battle Royale and see if it might live up to its competitors' legacies as a finished product.  The PlayStation Blog has the rundown on what the beta offers:

[A]s a special treat, PS Vita users will be able dive right into the multiplayer beta starting tomorrow – no Plus subscription required. The Beta will support Cross-Play, so PS3 and PS Vita owners will be able to fight with and against each other.

So what will be in this limited Beta?

• You’ll be able to play as Kratos, Sweet Tooth, Colonel Radec, Sly Cooper, PaRappa, and Fat Princess.
• You’ll be able to play in both the Metropolis and Hades stages.
• You’ll be able to try out four-player online tournaments and 2 v 2 online tournaments. For the 2 v 2 games we’ll be supporting friend invites, so you and a friend can fight another team online.

Don't hesitate if you want to get in on this one, as the beta ends on October 30.  I'm especially curious if this game lives up to the hype, and while a beta is a terrible way to actually evaluate a game, it can give a glimpse of what will end up in the final version.  I've found that most betas end up pretty bland even compared to the eventual polished demo.  Betas aren't supposed to be for the players, but for the developers fine-tuning the product before release.  Over the past few years, however, they've become more of a marketing tool than a real development aid.  Let's see how this one compares, shall we?