MultiVersus

MultiVersus may not be a must-play at social gatherings, but its refreshing team-based battles make it a great platform fighter online.

Warner Bros' all-star battle proves to be a worthy contender to the platform fighter throne.

Characterful fighters, a good skill ceiling, and a co-op emphasis with real depth makes Warner Bros. MultiVersus a very pleasant surprise.

A fun Smash Bros. on PC that needs a little more fine-tuning to reach its full potential.

Living games have the potential to go in frustrating directions, but MultiVersus has a strong foundation. If it can meaningfully roll out content and smooth out its rough edges, this could become a new crossover obsession for years to come.

And if you’re a fellow average joe fighting gamer like myself, “MultiVersus” is still a smooth, polished experience with beautiful art direction, zany characters and chaotic but deep gameplay. Grab three friends and give it a whirl. It’s a great way to spend a Saturday night.

It’s the cookie jar. I want to play and praise MultiVersus for everything it does right. But everything it does poorly, or even wrong in a sense, has me wanting to slap my own wrist. MultiVersus has even managed to bungle those aspects of the games-as-a-service model that players have largely come to accept. There has been some course-correcting since launch, but the fact that was even necessary only shows how some forces behind these kinds of games are always ready to push the boundaries on monetization. It feels wrong, ethically, to participate in, and especially to recommend this game to others. But at the same time, it’s so good! Not even in the skinner box kind of way; MultiVersus is a legitimately well-made and lovingly constructed platform fighter that celebrates cartoons and movies I enjoy in effective, gameplay-centric ways. Rick and Morty are there too, I guess.

Even in open beta, MultiVersus is a worthy competitor to Super Smash Bros. While it may not be able to quite match the scope and production values of Nintendo's flagship platform fighter, its gameplay goes toe-to-toe with its incredibly established rival – and its excellent netcode completely outshines it. The most exciting thing is that this release is guaranteed to grow over time, and with the Warner Bros vaults practically bursting with iconic IP, this is one live service that looks to have a lot of life in it.

As someone who was quite high on MultiVersus after playing its Closed Alpha in 2022, I was hoping that its 1.0 release would deliver a polished platform fighter that fully realized its sky-high potential. While it still leaves several features and fixes to be desired, I can’t deny that the game is still deeply fun at its core. Now, it becomes a matter of whether or not MultiVersus will be able to achieve its full potential in an increasingly harsh landscape for live-service games.

MultiVersus feels like a corporate product, but Player First Games gets the most out of its ridiculous premise.