Warner Bros. is Crackin' Skulls with Multiversus

Brawlers have made it to the forefront of the gaming world thanks to games like Super Smash Bros. Brawhalla, and Brawl Stars. The WB games title Multiversus is turning It up a notch. With every likeness within the WB wheelhouse the sheer amount of playable characters in the near future is enough to shake the genre up a little bit. It also allows you to finally answer the age old question: Who would win in a fight, Bugs bunny or Superman?

The roster starts off with a deep and pop culture fueled bench: The Iron Giant, Taz, Velma, Arya Stark, Batman, Superman, Harley Quinn, Wonder Woman, Bugs Bunny, Finn the Human, Jake The Dog, Steven Universe, Garnet, Reindog, Shaggy, and Tom and Jerry. They tease Lebron James (I’m not sure why this is a thing, but whatever), and Rick and Morty for the near future. The game works on a season pass basis and though some people don’t like the pay to play for certain characters, capitalism is here to stay unfortunately. This season pass model has become the norm for “free-to-play” games and honestly its trash but hopefully it helps in getting developers paid and in WB’s case it might be kind of justified knowing that they have characters that have spanned through decades to share with their audience. The season pass in this case make me a little excited for the future of this game. Characters like the Powerpuff Girls, and Gizmo from Gremlins make me ecstatic to see what other characters to pull from their legendary repertoire.

The gameplay is smooth and nostalgic as most characters have move sets that are comprised of their episodic charades. For instance, for Jake’s downward attack he turns into a car before crashing to the ground, or Taz who can eat you and gain health. Each character is so vastly different that there is no copy paste move sets here. Each character feels like themselves thrown into a brawler instead them being brawler molded, and I love this. It makes the game feel authentic for me personally. A lot of the thrill of the game is learning all your favorite characters moves so you can beat foes just the way that character would do it. Couple this with some really cool variation skins for characters and you can add your own flare to dominating your opponents.

Most of the original characters voices are present to add a more nostalgic feel to playing with some of your favorites, hearing Jeremy Shada as Finn and Estelle as Garnet is so satisfying and the quips between characters that normally do not interact with each other is sure to get a good laugh out of you.

WB games has thrown their hat into the ring and they are showing that they have a lot of cards of their sleeve with Multiversus. They’ve kicked the door in with a great first attempt at a brawler and I think it will be around for a long time. It might even take games like Brawlhalla off the table completely. The full version of Multiversus releases July 26th, 2022 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. It’ll definitely be worth your coin if you like pop culture like I do.

8.5/10

Pros

• Nostalgic, and fun to play

• Future characters are going to be legendary

• Most original voice actors present

Cons

• a few glitches can cause you battles at times

• pay to play is a drag