The brawler style fighting games were, of course, made famous by Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. series, but it wasn’t until recently many other developers have attempted to make their mark on the genre. The first real attempt that comes to mind was 10 years ago with 2012’s PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. With that game unfortunately not doing as well as many had hoped, competition for “Smash Bros.” lay dormant for some time. Just in the last year specifically, there has been a large resurgence. First we got Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl (which I reviewed and you can check out HERE). There was also LEGO Brawls, which was on PC for a couple years and is finally making its way to consoles. None seemed to equal or yet to have strong potential to even match the ones that started it all, until now, with WB Games’ MultiVersus. Developed by Player First Games, their first game ever and they came out swinging ready to take on the big boys.
This Free-To-Play fighter consists of using Warner Bros. owned IP, such as characters from DC Comics, Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo, Game of Thrones, Adventure Time, and more. I’ve always loved the library of content from Warner Bros. So, it’s really cool to see it utilized in this fashion. The art style is really well done to make all these different world’s feel cohesive to one another. As far as the story goes, it’s nonexistent at the moment. It’s just a mindless and fun fighting game with characters you love to see. It’s really all about fighting players online. There are a few different modes (1vs1, 2vs2, and Free-For-All), but the game really encourages a team based 2 vs 2 system that is arguably the most fun way to play.
The current roster sits at 17 playable characters. The latest addition during the current open beta was none other than Lebron from Space Jam 2. During San Diego Comic-Con it was also promised that Rick and Morty (From Rick & Morty, of course) will be joining the roster as early as next month in August. With its Free-To-Play style of handling things, you can expect new characters and maps to be added pretty regularly. While the roster is already decently sized, it’s the maps that MultiVersus could really use more of right now. You can essentially count the number of maps on one hand and most are fairly generic. And like all Free-To-Play games, a lot of the content in the game is blocked with a paywall. Fortunately, Player First Games has learned many of the right lessons on how to successfully launch a Free-To-Play game and only cosmetic related content are the only items to be used with their in-game currency called “gleamium,” which can only be acquired by spending actual cash on. Everything else, like unlocking characters and character perks can be purchased with the other in-game currency “gold,” which you’re able to get just by playing the game. So, the “pay to win” of some free-to-play games is nowhere to be seen here and that’s great.
While it can be a bummer that some really cool items are only attainable with actual money, the bones of this game are really solid. Right out the get-go, there is obvious love put into these characters and playing them feels really balanced, the matches are fun to play. If you’re going into this not wanting to spend a single cent there is still a lot to enjoy, even if some characters are locked away and will require you to do a bit of grinding to get some gold. I’m excited to see what MultiVersus will look like a year from now, five years from now. Momentum in just this beta alone has been pretty amazing, with the love it’s already getting, I expect to see more love to be reciprocated back to the players. While it currently as it is now, may still not be the best of the best in the genre, it’s got all the fundamentals down very well, that it’s only a matter of time until this becomes a classic fighting staple. Not just in our homes, probably in the eSports space as well. The open beta is playable now, with the first season starting in August.
8.5/10
For more information, visit: https://multiversus.com/en
Related: Nick Navarro Reviews
Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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