Double Take: MultiVersus

Alana (aka retrogamergirl) and Artura Dawn (Retro Dawn) have teamed up to check out a demo for a new game coming to Steam. Did the demo leave them wanting more or did it make them want to move on to the next thing?

Today Retro Dawn is doing a Double Take of MultiVersus.

Retro: We finally have time to check out a title together at the same time! It’s amazingly hard to coordinate sometimes! The other day I saw that there was an Alpha test available to sign up for the chance to try out the new Warner Bros. fighting game called MultiVersus. This game pits characters from multiple WB properties against each other in a Smash Bros. type brawl. I have always been a fan of Looney Tunes, and the animated DC superhero movies are pretty good, so I was curious to see if this would bring anything new to the fighter game table that we haven’t seen before.

The day after signing up for the Alpha, I was lucky enough to receive a code, and with that, you had a chance to receive up to three other codes to give to whoever you wanted. After speaking with Artura, I knew this game would be a great one to do a double-take article on. One of the most exciting parts is the option to do cross-platform multiplayer. The Alpha didn’t have local multiplayer available, but by putting the game on two different systems, you could still have a local battle; in my house, the Xbox One and the PS4 both have the game installed. Plus, this also gave me the option to play against Artura and Spooky_one online!

Looking at the roster of characters, it looks like a crazy mix of characters you would never expect to see together; Shaggy and Velma from Scooby-Doo, Bugs Bunny and Taz, Steven from Steven Universe, Arya from Game of Thrones, and superheroes Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are just some of the available characters to check out. I thought that there was no way that Shaggy would be able to hold his own against someone like Wonder Woman, but I was pleasantly surprised! Each character has their own unique attacks that are true to their character, like Shaggy throwing sandwiches and Taz sprinkles salt and pepper on his opponents getting ready for a snack. I’ve recently seen a leaked list of characters that may appear in the full game once it’s released; I have to say I will be super excited if Godzilla is a playable fighter!

The graphics in the game look really nice, and the characters, even if they are traditionally 2D, look like themselves and not creepy 3D models. The colours are bright, and the few stages we got to try out looked really cool too. When I was playing by myself against a bot, the game wasn’t laggy at all, but once I was playing online against Artura and Spooky_one we did experience moments of lag, so hopefully, that will be resolved before the full game is released. Though I have to say having a battle with the three of us and the bot all playing as Wonder Woman was pretty awesome and not as confusing as I had expected. The game has the character you are playing as displayed as normal, but your opponents have a red tint to them, making it easy to spot where your enemies are.

The controls for the game were very easy to learn, with no difficult combos and if you haven’t played the game before or haven’t put in much time, you will be able to jump into a battle with your friends and still have fun. This is exactly the case when I battled online, they had played the game for hours and I had only completed the basic tutorial; I thought I would get destroyed! I was actually able to hold my own and even win a couple of the battles; I guess all my years mastering button-mashing really paid off!

One of my favourite things was being able to play on the console of my choosing. I love Smash Bros. on the Switch, don't get me wrong, but if you are playing with multiple people you can’t all have the Switch Pro controller and you are stuck using the Joy-Cons, these are definitely not my controller of choice. I enjoy using the controllers for the Xbox and PlayStation 4 a lot more so I was very excited!

I had a great time playing MultiVersus, and I can’t wait until the full game is released and I can battle against friends locally or online no matter where they are and what console they are using. Plus there is such a crazy mix of characters to battle with it will be fun to discover their unique attacks and how well they do against fighters from so many different franchises! This is definitely a must-play title for me, even if the rumours of Godzilla aren’t true.

Artura: Welcome back to Double Take! I've been excited to do another one of these for a while, but the truth is, I've been incredibly busy. Thankfully both retrogamergirl and I got to play through MultiVersus and see how we felt about this Smash Bros. competitor.

The Alpha test already had 15 characters to choose from, as you'll be able to play characters from the DC universe all the way to famous cartoons, such as Adventure Time. Having Shaggy beat the crap out of Superman with a sandwich while turning into ultra instinct was a wacky and fun experience. One of the characters I did not expect to see in the playtest was none other than Arya Stark from Game of Thrones, as it opened the possibility for other great characters to join the mix (I secretly hope Tyrion Lannister becomes playable)!

In my experience, after having played all of the characters numerous times to assure I had a good knowledge of them, they felt predominantly balanced. I didn't groan at the appearance of any character (aside from Bugs Bunny, screw you, doc!). Despite most of them feeling balanced, I couldn't say for sure as one of the things I was most battling in MultiVersus was the lag.

Throughout my experience with the test, I couldn't enjoy a single round without excessive lag. Naturally, you could attribute this to me being located in Colombia, but even when playing in the South American region I couldn't get anything above a bar of connection. Foes teleported around, I couldn't see where I was going at times, and I'd die because I didn't know where the lag had teleported me to. I hope this was part of the test and not that I was an isolated incident, as I'd be heartbroken not to be able to play the game on its release!

Despite most characters feeling balanced, a trend started to set with the ones picked. Players seemed to love selecting Arya, Shaggy, and Garnet early, as Superman joined the roster of most-played characters shortly after that. Meanwhile, Reindog, Steven Universe, and Velma went predominantly unnoticed — possibly due to them being support roles. The most picked characters didn't fluctuate much between the modes, as they were picked equally between the 1v1, 2v2, and Free-For-All choices, but some characters did become more prominent, like Jake in 1v1.

Each character has a set of traits they can learn, along with being able to train new ones for gold after reaching mastery level 10. These traits increase your damage with certain abilities or offer defensive bonuses to some attacks, which was a good way to vary the playstyle. That said, however, it felt a bit lacking. The major trait for each of the characters is supposed to change their playstyle so that you focus on one of the many ways to play them, but some weren't as great, while others felt pivotal, which could mean the difference between a balanced experience and dominating characters.

For the modes available, the playtest offered us the capability to play 1v1, 2v2, Free-For-All, Co-op vs AI, and Custom matches. I spent my first day in 1v1, most of my days playing 2v2s with my wife, and occasionally joined Free-For-All to get a taste of the game mode. 1v1 and 2v2 felt like the most balanced, though some characters lose their shine in 1v1, as MultiVersus was built around the 2v2 mode; characters like Reindog and Steven Universe felt almost impossible to use in these. This isn't a complaint in the slightest, as it makes sense that the game can't be balanced around all game modes, but rather informative. Now, the game mode that felt most disappointing was Free-For All. While 1v1 had two lives, 2v2 used a shared-stock system where players can die a total of four times, which was a great system that I didn't expect to love nearly as much as I did. Meanwhile, Free-For-All prioritises ringouts (taking life from your foe) as the main form of point gathering. While a player might have done the most damage, whoever killed the most won the round, encouraging a cowardly playstyle and stealing the kill from players.

Customs felt a bit limiting, especially for a mode called "custom". You can play between all of the modes, but you can't actually choose how many players or any handicap options. This was MultiVersus' weakest point, as it doesn't really offer anything aside from "co-op vs AI"; I looked forward to fighting 1v2 against retrogamergirl and my wife, but that option wasn't available.

Despite that, however, MultiVersus is a phenomenal game, and easily one of my favourite releases for 2022 already. I had a lot of fun throughout my playtime, and I cannot wait to be able to play more! retrogamergirl gave me a run for my money when we fought, but next time she won't have that same luxury. See you on the battlefield, retro!