MultiVersus: Warner Bros.’ Smash Bros. clone might actually be good

Now that Nintendo has announced that there won’t be any more DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the dust has already started to settle on people’s interest in the game and companies have noticed. It seems almost every major media company with a slew of properties is making a Smash clone. It’s only a matter of time before book publisher Penguin Random gets in on this and we get a game where the characters from Ex-Heroes books can finally battle the crew from the Ranger’s Apprentice series, only to face off against the final boss who, instead of Master Hand, will be the Heavy Hand of John Grisham. Oh, I’m sorry, did you not know you were being force-fed literary references? Deal with it.

One of the ones I’ve been keeping my eye on though is Warner Bros.’ upcoming fighter MultiVersus. I was mostly interested in this because of the awful mess that was Space Jam 2. While the movie had absolutely nothing good in it, it was interesting because it was Warner Bros.’ absolutely flexing the properties they have the rights to.

In this movie designed for younger kids, we got cameos from characters of Clockwork Orange to random DC Super Heroes to the Herculoids. In this film, Warner Bros. said, “We own all these characters and we can use them whenever. You have been warned.”

They showed that off today with MultiVersus, their free-to-play fighting game that features characters from various properties they own. In the trailer you can see characters from Steven Universe battling Adventure Time characters. Batman and Wonder Woman facing off against Harley Quinn and Superman. Bugs Bunny versus Tom and Jerry. Arya Stark from Game of Thrones versus…wait…is that…Shaggy?

What’s great is they straight up listened to everyone. The Shaggy in this game, according to the website’s bio, is the Shaggy you know and love but has also found a mythical gem that granted him ridiculous strength. Now, Warner Bros. isn’t “Saiyan” where the inspiration for Shaggy’s powers comes from, but it’s pretty obvious.

The characters also have a bunch of really interesting alternate costumes, such as Black Lantern Superman, cowboy Tom & Jerry, and even Bugs Bunny dressed as a valkyrie, so you and your friend can lay on the roof of your car and debate whether or not you ever thought Bugs Bunny was attractive when he “dressed as a girl bunny.” Yep, you’re getting Wayne’s World references too.

My absolute favorite part of this trailer though comes at the 1:18 moment. In it, the game director talks about how if you’re going to show your love and respect for beloved characters like these you need to have authentic voices. Then they showcase the fact that Kevin Conroy voiced Batman and give us clips of Harley Quinn, Steven Universe, Jake the Dog and Shaggy sounding exactly like you’d want them to. The entire thing was a horribly blatant dig on Nickelodeon after their Smash clone had a bunch of silent characters, much to the dismay of people playing the game only to never hear “Doom!” once come out of the mouth of Zim.

The game is going to be free-to-play, cross-platform, and support single-player play as well when it drops next year. I can’t believe I’m saying this but I’m actually looking forward to this Smash clone.