When you hear the words MultiVersus what do you think of? Arguably, the first thing that comes to mind is Marvel’s Multiverse; this is especially true in the recent release of Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. If you have yet to watch that, you probably should or wait until comes to Disney +. However, DC, Specifically Warner Bros, looks to play off Marvel’s notoriety with the release of MultiVersus. So what is MultiVersus? MultiVersus is an upcoming fighter developed by Player First Games similar to Super Smash Bros, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, and Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl.
Comparison
So how is MultiVersus and could it potentially take a portion of Nintendo’s Super Smash Brothers player base? Going into MultiVersus, it should be noted that the game is currently in Alpha. Knowing this, we expected a few bugs when playing the game. Oddly, the bugs that we experienced weren’t in the actual gameplay but in the menu area. The gameplay was responsive, fair, and felt well balanced. Yes, we could get our ass kicked by another player, but we would know why it happened. Most of the time it was because we would miss an attack or not try to dodge.
The core gameplay of the game felt more forgiven than other platform fighters. If a player’s reaction time is there, they could avoid attacks and even ring-outs. While playing online, there is a clear distinction between those who played through the tutorial advanced levels vs those who have not. Those players could survive devastating attacks and rebound to the arena rather than being eliminated.
Choices
MultiVersus Alpha offers three game modes for the player to pick between either online or local gameplay. The player can choose between teams, 1 on 1, and coop vs AI. For the majority of our time playing, we played teams online. After each match, players can choose to play again to have a best two out of three.
While we played online, once we selected our character we would be matched with an opponent. Before going into the fight, players can select their enhancement perks. These enhancements can increase a player’s damage, resistance, power-ups, and other factors. Players can unlock perks by unlocking them through character level or purchasing them from the shop.
Unlockables
At the moment, MultiVersus offers only 15 characters to play as. Out of the 15 characters, only 10 are playable immediately. The other five characters must be unlocked in order to play as them; those five characters are Batman, Superman, Garnet, Steven Universe, and Arya Stark. Each one of these five characters falls under one of the fighting categories. Arguably, the teams that used teams from the same universe had better synergy than mix-matched teams.
Additionally, players can unlock different announcers, badges, skins, emotes, banners, and ring-out animations. These different audio and visual aspects can be unlocked either through the Battle Pass or Character Mastery. Most characters in the game offered an alternate skin that could be unlocked.
Overall Thoughts
The overall gameplay can be a lot of fun. The roster is equivalent to that of the original Super Smash Bros but more well-rounded. No character in the game seems like a clone of other fighting game characters. Most of the characters are not overly complex and can be picked up by any kind of player. The battle pass feels fair and not like a cash grab while offering a decent amount of content.
The game could use a bit more characters when it launches as well as some additional levels. While playing the MultiVerses Alpha, we only experienced five levels. We only experienced one variation of an area level and that was the Wonder Woman arena; in this variation, a whole was inserted into the center of the arena. If Player First Games can add more variety to the game and fix the interface bugs, they can have a Smash hit.
Warning, while playing on the Xbox Series X, the game would crash when trying to access the lab or when returning from a match to the main menu.
