Possible future developments for fighting games have been discussed for years. On paper, this genre would have all the credentials to hack the net and produce gigantic societies, but the general complexity of the mechanics, combined with a fairly classic sales model, has always confined the genre’s advocates to more or less substantial niches, with a few rare exceptions. Able to become a bat phenomenon.

So far, the primary discussion seems to be focused on monetization: since the vast majority of titles of this type now use Season Cards with additional characters to keep the community active and constantly renew the show, there aren’t a few who consider this potentially useful. to the temple Free to play. On the other hand, removing the cash barrier to entering and betting everything on updates and getting characters seems almost a natural move, mostly blocked due to the weight of some historical names, however, still able to move the market (like Tekken or Street Fighter), And by justified mistrust of the titles with an in-store for a good segment of the players.

Many developers and publishers are expected to move to trial in this area, with Riot for example grappling with the promising Project L, and a number of smaller teams trying to catch on without much luck. But now he’s trying too Warner Bros. And not outwardly. With endless licenses, in fact, the entertainment giant has decided to pull Multiversus out of the hat: a fighting game with an exceptional roster, which includes characters of the caliber of Batman, Bugs Bunny, Finn, Jake, Steven Universe, and Shaggy.

Central idea? Not only to let anyone play it for free, but also to draw inspiration from one of the most successful fighting game series of all time: Super Smash Bros. we’ve got Tested in a Multiversus preview And in all honesty, we expected something more derivative. We see.

pure gold list

As mentioned earlier, the main strength of Multiversus lies in List of fightersOn the other hand, Warner Bros. licenses guarantee. Field figures are incredibly popular. It is almost impossible that there is not (or will arrive in the future) at least a really interesting player for this or that player.

However, different fighters are not just smoke and mirrors: the developers have tried to give each one of them set of movements Unique and iconic, with diversity as remarkable as it appears in the best characters in Smash Ultimate. Basically every option belongs to a type subcategory – Tank for the most defensive, Striker for the most offensive, and some more exotic as Wizard or Assassin – and follow the classic Smash directional action style, for both normal and special strikes.

Unlike Sakurai’s titles, every normal attack outside of the multi-hit combo can be loaded as a smash attack, and many of the special moves require some Rechargeable Resources Over time or by activating some skills. So a Bugs Bunny expert will have to decide when to use his Acme missiles (which return to Earth after being launched as a trap), since anyone using Batman has to take into account the batarangs fired and the explosives used.

The uniqueness of the system depends not only on these characteristics. First, in fact, Multiversus is quite balanced around clashes two against twocomplete with already named support classes designed primarily to offer comrades upgrades or to give them an edge in battle.

Apart from the more aggressive fighters, almost every fighter has at least one available “Help” skill, which allows him to offer bonuses to his partner, catch him on the fly, or even retrieve him while he’s flying down (yes, eliminating enemies always depends absolutely on screen and on damage percentages). Obviously, the fact that these abilities often don’t translate to one-to-one—while usually retaining some utility of some sort—leads this method to be less pleasant and polished.

Another feature of the game that noticeably distinguishes it from Smash is admiration traffic of the characters. Multiple maneuvers in the air, including double dodges, jumps, rebounds or one-by-one moves, can be used for an overall agility much higher than that seen in the Nintendo series. According to the developers, the thing was calculated to avoid the frustration of falling after a wrong move, but at the same time it is an option that makes the fights more chaotic on the sides of the squares, because the only way to eliminate the opponent at first is to hit him to perfection with the so-called escalatethis is a movement that is capable of bringing it down immediately without cancellation of any kind.

all in all? The Play I enjoyed. Defense depends entirely on dribbling, with times of weakness that gradually decrease and constant movements that make everything full of adrenaline. The only thing that didn’t quite convince us was the general management of movement: Multiversus undoubtedly required a good general command of systems and accurate calculation of distances, but at the same time the movements of the characters seemed drier and less intuitive. Manage from the smooth and technical movement of Smash Ultimate. However, we appreciate the fact that Warner has given his little boy some personality without doing a simple imitation.

Battle Pass, see you again

as well as for technical level The game convinced us enough, even if it didn’t completely captivate us from a technical point of view. The readability of the movements is excellent at the end, the wonderful, precise animation and the cartoonish style with very vivid colors do nothing but help the eye follow the movement better (which is very useful in a title that focuses on a situation like 2v2, which is often not easy to keep up with). However, the stylized design of the characters didn’t quite captivate us, and though they marry well with each other – mainly superheroes, they look a lot like modernizing their looks in the ’90s cartoons that saw them as heroes in the ’90s. Doesn’t seem right to others. The arenas, in turn, do not boast who knows what the character is and it would probably have been better to risk more in style.

Nothing to say about netcode: Games maker have always been very stable and smooth, and backing down The ones that the game used seemed to us to be of excellent quality (even if its strength still needs to be tested with fans of gamers in the early days of launch). Since it is a game that focuses solely on online competition, this is a very important factor to manage properly and therefore it is good that Live Guide did not disappoint us.

and the liquefaction? Well, it doesn’t seem particularly predatory at the moment. There’s the almost inevitable Battle Pass, which seems to award rewards in a rather honest way, and starts with a handful of fighters that can be unlocked with in-game currency without necessarily having game carnage. Thus, from the eye’s point of view, the gain seems to be mostly related to the alternate costumes of the characters (very accurate, it has to be said), and the willingness of players to get any new entries right away without having to collect coins. A system that is in all probability the most effective free-to-play system of this type. Of course, it will not hurt more coin to raise the level, and fear the characters that are gradually becoming more difficult to unlock in the future, but there is no point in holding your head together in advance.