If you aren’t aware of it, it’s a Warner Bros-themed Smash Bros-alike.
You choose from a bunch of familiar characters, and then fight on 2D stages.
Best of four wins.
Not simple, obviously, and here’s where an admission comes in.
But I am thick and slow and these games have always looked fast and complicated.
I think there are two reasons MultiVersus clicked.
The second reason goes in the opposite direction a little.
you’ve got the option to play as Bugs Bunny in MultiVersus.
And Shaggy from Scooby Doo.
This makes a real difference.
It makes the game - for a person like me in their 40s - particularly easy to get into.
I know Bugs Bunny.
I know Batman, and Shaggy, and Wonder Woman.
With MultiVersus I just learned: directional attack button, directional special button, dodge, jump.
And then I let my deeper knowledge of the characters do the rest.
And weirdly it’s worked.
I know that Batman’s going to be fast and use gadgets.
Bugs was nerfed recently, but he’s still a badass.
Nobody messes with Bugs.
I know that all this is true of Nintendo too, but there are a few differences.
There’s a sort of superpositioning.
It’s easy when it’s Mario, sure.
The guy drives a car.
I guess I’ll be jumping a lot?
With Warner stuff, though, I go straight to the personality.
There’s nothing else to confuse me and overlap in my mind and get me in a muddle.
They own Batman, which I have known and loved since I was 11.
They own Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera stuff, and I was loving this stuff before I could speak.
I’ve known Bugs Bunny longer than I’ve known both my younger sisters.
Bugs Bunny was my wife’s first crush.
Is this how I became good at MultiVersus?
And actually I’m still terrible at it.
If you play me, it’s going to feel like a vacation for you.
But it’s given me a foot in the door.
The rest comes later - but I feel like I’m ready for it.