MultiVersus – aka Warner Smash Bros, or The Game Where Scooby-Doo’s Velma Punches Batman While LeBron James Decks The Iron Giant – hasn’t quite returned from its self-imposed exile after ending its open beta last year, but it’s already adding more Iconic Characters(™) to its already teetering pile of familiar Licensed IP.
The free-to-play fighter already had the likes of (take a breath) Looney Tunes like Bugs Bunny, Taz and Marvin the Martian; Rick & Morty (of Rick & Morty); Tom & Jerry (of Tom & Jerry); Scooby-Doo’s Velma and Shaggy; Adventure Time’s Finn, Jake and, uh, a random Banana Guard; The Iron Giant’s Iron Giant; Game of Thrones’ Arya Stark; Steven Universe’s Steven Universe and Garnet; and even a couple of Gremlins in Gizmo and Stripe. Oh, plus LeBron James – apparently appearing here due to his role in the new Space Jam – and a whole host of DC comics superheroes and villains like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn, Black Adam and The Joker, with Mark Hamill returning after an absence from Suicide Squad. Phew.
Warner Bros isn’t done chucking familiar faces from film and TV on the list, though, revealing that Friday the 13th’s Jason Voorhees and The Matrix’s Agent Smith – no Neo, yet – will also be finding their way into the platform fighter when it returns on May 28th. Jason will be in from the word go, while Agent Smith will pop up sometime during MultiVersus’ first season of unlockables, which is titled Puns & Villainy.
I’m not sure whether to be impressive or exhausted by the sheer number of licensed characters crammed into MultiVersus, but I’ll at least admit that it’s almost certainly the best shot at doing a Smash Bros-like with recognisable characters since Nintendo threw all their video game stars onto the Nintendo 64 25 years ago. (The less said about PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, the better.) Still, it’s hard not to cast a cynical eye on Warner Bros in particular, given their treatment of other video games and creators in the very recent past.
Misgivings with the publisher aside, I do admire the commitment of developers Player First Games to take almost a full year to bring MultiVersus back, having pulled it from sale and turned off the servers after running an open beta from the summer of 2022 to last June. It was a contentious choice – not least because people had already paid real money to unlock stuff during its open beta – but hopefully the results will speak for themselves, having already impressed with a pretty slick offering in its pre-release form.
We’ve only got about a wait to week before we find out if the wait has finally been worth it, as MultiVersus arrives – with Jason and Agent Smith in tow – in just over a week on May 28th.