A casual gamer reviews: the nostalgic pleasures of MultiVersus

metro.co.uk:

A self-confessed casual gamer tries new free-to-play hit MultiVersus, the latest release from Warner Bros. and First Player Games.

If you missed my recent article detailing my dwindling love for Fall Guys, due to the changes made to the game since it went free-to-play, then let me introduce myself. I’m a casual gamer, a non-gamer almost. I’m not loyal to any particular console, I tend to play the same game for years at a time, and my skillset is mediocre. Video games are something I appreciate but only play to unwind.

So when I approached MultiVersus – the new crossover fighting game featuring various characters owned by Warner Bros. – I was daunted. In the trailers and gameplay previews, all I saw was another Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I suddenly experienced traumatic flashbacks to the summer of 2010, when I’d just finished my GCSEs and spent hours as Jigglypuff, cluelessly hammering buttons while my friends picked their specialist characters and wiped the floor with me.

Here went nothing.

I realised within seconds of loading MultiVersus that the list of available characters was just a line-up of the attendees in the final basketball showdown in Space Jam 2. Warner Bros. owns the rights to DC Comics, HBO, and Cartoon Network; as a Game of Thrones fan, watching the White Walkers cheer on LeBron James in that (awful) movie’s climactic scene was uncomfortable and surreal. So, attacking Arya Stark with Shaggy’s comically large hamburger gave me that funny feeling Bo Burnham sings about.

Once I silenced the creeping concern that every story I’ve ever loved is simply ‘intellectual property’ to be traded between the same exclusive group of mega-corporations, MultiVersus struck a nostalgic chord with me. Its design and format have