Nobody expected it but it happened: Warner Bros. joined the platform fighter video game genre with their own entry called MultiVersus. How will the upcoming game compare to Super Smash Bros., the newly released Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, and other games of the genre? From crossovers to mechanics and everything in between, a million things separate each game and subgenre of the overall fighting genre. Commonly, especially lately as seen with the hype surrounding the pre-launch of Cyberpunk 2077, all expectations of a video game can fall through on release day with empty promises. While fans hope that this never happens to any game, especially games they are looking forward to, it does happen and hopefully, the same fate doesn’t fall upon MultiVersus. Luckily MultiVersus will be free-to-play, but we’ve also seen that even free-to-play doesn’t always build an audience. Below we’ve gone into detail on MultiVersus and how exactly it can be compared to other games in the platform fighter genre where so many others have failed.
The Platform Fighter Genre
Regardless of if you consider them one of your favorite games or genres, the platform fighting genre took over behind most of our backs and you’ve more than likely played at least one title within the genre. The best example of this subgenre of fighting games is Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. series of games. While the usual fighting game, such as Mortal Kombat or Tekken, have their own unique twists on the fighting genre, they aren’t considering platform fighters. When it comes to the move sets, abilities, hitboxes, and map design make a huge difference to every player, and each game is criticized heavily on those aspects. Most gamers don’t care about pre-licensed material as much as a solid game. When Brawhalla first launched the game only featured characters original to the game but grew as the game itself grew and acquisition by Ubisoft. One of many core aspects of platform fighters that separate them from the traditional fighter game is the most complex arrangement of characters on screen at once, making it a more chaotic scene with much more than a lot going on at most times. Platform fighters can also include things such as battle items, transforming stages, and various other elements that truly vary on the game itself as the genre has evolved.
Super Smash Bros and Other Platform Fighters Explained
Super Smash Bros is the most notable platform fighter, featuring an absolutely huge roster of characters from not only Nintendo’s own properties but other properties such as Sonic, Mega Man, Sora, and even Final Fantasy characters. While there are many games within the platform fighter genre, Super Smash Bros is certainly the most popular but the style and art of MultiVersus was immediately reminiscent of Brawlhalla. Brawhalla itself wasn’t a huge game but has a pretty large following and also had its own stack of impressive collaborations such as Rayman and Hellboy, among others. A big difference between Super Smash Bros compared to other platform fighters is the actual system the games can be played on as most games are available on Nintendo Switch these days, yet Nintendo doesn’t allow their own games on other systems so in order to play Super Smash Bros a Nintendo system is required. Over the years Nintendo has released a Smash Bros entry for nearly every system they’re launched since the series inception, with the second incarnation released on GameCube.
MultiVersus
Unlike most platform fighters, except Brawlhalla, Mutliversus will be free-to-play, which has become more than a means to get a starting basis of players for a game these days. Even games as large as Call of Duty and Halo have free-to-play multiplayer game modes available that carry large numbers of players consistently. However, free-to-play games tend to have more microtransactions than games that are expected to be paid an average of $60 for. Aside from the free-to-play aspect of MultiVersus, the game also has one very noteworthy feature: Shaggy memes brought to life. When it comes to crossovers, it’s hard to tell what could happen with MultiVersus as Warner Bros. is not only a giant company on its own, but the amount of properties the company owns the right to could give this game even more massive of a lineup than Super Smash Bros Ultimate. The already-announced roster includes a large variety of characters from Shaggy to Batman and Superman to Tom & Jerry and Finn & Jake. Right away just expanding upon the characters listed above, we can expand the roster to those universes and get an incredible, mix-matched roster.
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