Fighting Games Friday: A Likely Successful Post-Smash Bros. Game

In seeing the success of Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. games and comparing them to other titles inspired by them, it’s become apparent how difficult is for developers to make one that even comes close to capturing its accolades. I won’t pass that observation off as stunning analysis. The aspect that’s continued to perturb me, however, is the number of publishers who couldn’t even be bothered to let their development teams give it an earnest shot.

Take PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, which could have been the PlayStation equivalent to the Smash Bros. franchise without its amateurish missteps. The roster was chief among them, which gave the impression that the marketing department’s picks were valued over those players actually wanted.

Sony characters popular at the time and in then-recent years were represented, like Kratos, Cole (from Infamous), Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, and Kat (from Gravity Rush) were there. But others associated with the Sony brand like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Lara Croft, Cloud Strife, and Solid Snake were MIA. Meanwhile, curious choices like DmC Dante, Revengeance Raiden, and Big Daddy (from Bioshock) were there, all of whom were clearly present to advertise games releasing at the time. If there was ever a question as to whether the roster mattered to players, this game remains the prime example.

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl came closer to nailing it, with a good and sizable roster that’s expanded over time. But this was the game to show that voice acting also matters as part of the presentation. Players like to feel as if they’re controlling authentic versions of the characters, even if that particular element is irrelevant to the overall gameplay balance. The wider audience that plays Smash Bros. cares just as much about presentation than gameplay, if not more so. Voice acting was eventually added through a post-game patch, but the buzz had already left by then.

I’ve blogged about the missteps both these games made before, so let’s just add this one to the list. They’re worth noting again because it’s possible — possible — that Warner Bros. MultiVersus could be the first non-Smash Bros. game to nail the formula and attract a big audience. It will be an important experiment considering the potential absence of future Smash Bros. games if director Masahiro Sakurai no longer has ideas for future installments or doesn’t feel like helming them.

The open beta for MultiVersus started on Tuesday, and will remain available until Warner Bros. Games decides to end it. The game is already resonating with a big audience, rising up the charts to become by far the most popular fighting or versus game on Steam at the moment. There were around 153,000 Steam users playing the game simultaneously yesterday, a number that could climb even higher as word-of-mouth continues to spread, the weekend kicks into full gear, and the developers fix the server issues to ensure that everything runs smoother. Clearly, all these players found something attractive with this game.

The roster has a lot to do with this, with nearly every character anyone would expect from a Warner Bros. Smash clone present. That includes a number of notable characters who starred in Space Jam: A New Legacy, which likely advertised this game with its sheer number of cameos. This applies to Bugs Bunny, and others that most know are owned by Warner Bros. like Shaggy and Velma from Scooby-Doo and DC superheroes like Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. They even found a way to add Arya Stark from Game of Thrones (who may not be the only character from the franchise if rumors are to be believed). Hell, even Lebron James himself is here, though he’s unfortunately not voiced by him.

Not every character that could be here is currently present, for reasons I hope don’t pan out. Scorpion is conspicuously absent, despite becoming a kind of mascot on par with Shaggy for WB in the last few years. The presence of Arya Stark is proof that characters from adult franchises aren’t off limits. It’s still possible for the newly-cutthroat Warner Bros. Discovery to sell off more of the company, and Mortal Kombat series developer NetherRealm Studios could be among them. Hopefully that doesn’t happen.

MultiVersus is, of course, another game that shows how important presentation is, with an appealing art style and solid voicework, and gameplay that’s fun enough while not being a total rip-off of its clear inspiration. For as much as I personally don’t like it, the free-to-play nature will help attract an audience that simply wants to try it out, and will spend money within it if they find the game addictive enough. The pecuniary success of the full(er) game will depend on whether the microtransactions heavily encourage whales or at least makes an attempt to discourage that type of behavior for money from “normal” people.

Successful open betas don’t always lead to successful products, but I’d rather bet on this game doing well than against it. It could very well be the first wildly successful Super Smash Bros.-style game that’s not, you know, a Super Smash Bros. game.