You can tell that MultiVersus is made with love. Every move, taunt, and voice line is precise to the source material, but the most important thing about any platform fighter is that it controls well. And indeed, it does. However, some issues plague the experience, like the rocky netcode that flips between awful connections and fantastic response time. MultiVersus has so much potential, but Player First Games needs to implement some changes and fast.
Game Name: MultiVersus
Platform(s): PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5
Publisher(s): Warner Bros. Games
Developer(s): Player First Games
A wide selection of characters (already) in MultiVersus
From day one, MultiVersus hosts many characters from different forms of media in the Warner Bros. library. You can beat down foes with Bugs Bunny’s hammer or Arya Stark’s trusty needle sword, while Steven (from Steven Universe) places a bubble shield around his ally and himself.
MultiVersus blends both live-action and cartoon characters into a consistent style that successfully merges the two together. The visuals are bright and engaging, while each character’s animation is so detailed. For example, this video from Glickstick shows every movie reference that the Iron Giant has in his moveset, and it’s impressive.
The developer Player First Games dug deep and propelled MultiVersus forward with a riveting moveset for each character that makes complete sense. One instance of this is when Wonder Woman uses her lasso of truth to pull her ally back onto the stage and uses her braces for a large area of effect attack.
In addition, each of the characters is mostly voiced by their original actors or talented performers who fulfill the role to a tee. You can hear Kevin Conroy voicing Batman as he calls Taz a furball, and Shaggy a hippy. He also references when he teamed up with Mystery Inc in a direct-to-video DVD; Player First Games has done their research, and the voice lines are likely to crack you up.
How is the combat of MultiVersus?
In the past, most licensed platform fighters, similar to Super Smash Bros., have failed to grasp a decent physics engine; sloppy controls are often felt. MultiVersus is thankfully one of the few platform fighters to nail the controls (when the online works). Each jump, dodge, and attack feel responsive, and you feel like you always have a grasp of what your character is doing.
The physics of MultiVersus also feels accurate to the percentage attached to your hero (or villain). The knockback effect from hitting your opponents at 90-100% feels spot on, and, most importantly, as satisfying as watching LeBron James landing a three-pointer (yes, he’s in the game). With the air dodge system, you also feel you can recover better than most other platform fighters.
Overall, each battle feels fair and intense, despite there being a few favorites like Bugs Bunny and Velma that have slightly more effective moves than the rest of the cast. However, we did see Tom & Jerry and Wonder Woman win EVO 2022 (played by NAKAT and VoiD) and beat the top-tier characters six rounds to nil, so we assume there’s not much of a difference.
While some of the stages wouldn’t be competitive, MultiVersus presents a few thrilling locations to fight in. You can duke it out in a mansion from Scooby Doo, which references the original show, or spike your opponents in the Batcave. Just like the characters, Player First Games has been attentive to the stages’ design and look accurate to where they come from.
To conclude our coverage of the MultiVersus combat, each move feels precise, satisfying to pull off, and is genuinely fun to experience match after match.
The poor online experience of MultiVersus
That’s until you realize that the online functionality often fails. The game can make you fall without any chance to react, and it can zip you from one side of the stage to the other if it’s incredibly bad. I tried to team up with a friend from Eastern North America while I was in a Western region, and time after time, we had connection issues.
Currently, the regions are super wide with a North American option only; it would be cool if they include more areas, so players can get a better connection. Hopefully, this can be improved when Season 1 officially releases with the addition of Morty to the roster.
However, MultiVersus does make it easy to play with your friends. You can utilize the game’s crossplay features between PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, and the process is simple to figure out.
A few other notes about MultiVersus
With a small selection of stages available, it can be annoying to hear the same songs over and over again. The orchestration is great, but there are only so many times you can hear the Steven Universe theme song before it gets grating. Instead, a more varied music selection process like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate would be ideal. Rather than having two different themes for each stage, it would be cool if Player First Games could implement more themes to the stages, such as Steven Universe’s menagerie of original songs and the many Batman tunes over the years.
Something else to note is the micro-transactional system. As it’s free-to-play, MultiVersus needs to get its money from somewhere. The additional costumes can be expensive at $20 worth of in-game currency to unlock The Animated Series version of Batman, but some can be cheaper.
Not all the characters are unlocked, with a few being available through the Free Rotation every week. You’ll have to gain them by earning coins in-game, which may take a while. If you enjoy the grind, it’s good enforcement to keep you playing matches for hours.
There is a Founder’s Pack to keep in mind as well. At varying prices from $39.99 to $99.99, you can get up to 30 characters unlock tokens and 2,500 Gleamium. It’s expensive, but it may be worth the purchase if you’re digging the game after playing it for free.
In conclusion, MultiVersus is an exceptional fighting game to keep your eyes on, and with it being free-to-play, it’s very easy to access. However, Taz would be angry about the poor to mediocre online connectivity as of the time of writing.
If you need to learn some of the characters in MultiVersus, we have a few handy guides you can follow below:
- Multiversus: How to Play Batman
- Multiversus: How to Play Bugs Bunny
- Multiversus: How to Play Harley Quinn
- Multiversus: How to Play LeBron James
- Multiversus: How to Play Shaggy
- Multiversus: How to Play Superman
- Multiversus: How to Play Wonder Woman
- Multiversus: How to Play Taz
A free review code for the MultiVersus Premium’s Founder Pack was provided by Warner Bros. Games to the writer.
Summary
MultiVersus succeeds at making this crossover an epic clash, but the online needs to be improved across the board to keep players invested.
