CLOSE COMBAT

MULTIVERSUS is an unexpectedly great matchup – even if it does whiffa few attacks

- Mollie Taylor

NEED TO KNOW

WHAT IS IT? A platform fighter with an eclectic, iconic cast of characters.

EXPECT TO PAY Free-to-play

DEVELOPER Player First Games

PUBLISHER Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment

REVIEWED ON Nvidia GeForce RTX3070, AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, 16GB RAM

MULTIPLAYER Yes

LINK multiversus.com

I’m Adventure Time’s Jake the Dog, standing on the edge of a Rick and Morty-themed arena. I’m about to beat Shaggy from Scooby-Doo into a bloody pulp while my teammate Arya Stark is casually stealing Batman’s face. A few years ago this would have given me severe whiplash, but in a world where tennis star Naomi Osaka is throwing hands at Naruto in Fortnite, nothing surprises me anymore. Well, except for one thing: MultiVersus is actually pretty damn good.

Believe me, I never expected it either. The initial reveal left me disinterested – it looked like another weaksauce attempt to be Smash Bros, and I’m not much of a platform fighter gal anyway. I much prefer my fighting games in a tight, enclosed 3D arena a la Tekken and Soulcalibur. I came into MultiVersus not expecting much, but found that Player First Games has begun to lay the groundwork for something remarkable.

Don’t get me wrong,