MultiVersus is Exactly the Gem the Smash Community Loves

Hello, guys, KnockDownJoe here and man, this post is gonna be a doozy for you to read. If you have been living in a WB watertower like the Animaniacs, we can subscribe to Max and watch any TV show or movie. Anyway, you all know that Smash started in 1999 on the Nintendo 64 and ended the franchise with Smash Ultimate on the Switch. Then more Smash clones with iconic characters have come in. Starting with PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale on the PS3 and PSVita to Brawlout, Fraymakers and Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl.

Then there is another Smash clone with iconic characters that I want to point out to on this post; the one that has Warner Bros. characters, MultiVersus. This game is known for its iconic cast of WB characters such as Bugs Bunny, Batman, Shaggy and a ton others. The roster was then cranked up to get more distinctiveness when LeBron James, Rick, Morty and more made their debut.

This year, the player base has skyrocketed when MultiVersus returned for launch with Banana Guard from Adventure Time, Joker, Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th and Agent Smith from the Matrix, as well as the shift to Unreal Engine 5 to produce character lighting. Though these characters have a cult distinctiveness, they became a solid pass. And with MultiVersus' excellent cast of characters, people came forward screaming that they want more characters with the same style.

Then the hype was cranked up to a severe level when Samurai Jack and Bettlejuice were announced for Season 2. Since its inception on the characters department, there has been some requests for Harry Potter, Gandalf, Johnny Cage, Scorpion, Pinky, Brain, Daffy Duck, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Static Shock, Godzilla, King Kong, Johnny Bravo, Barbie, Furiosa, and well, probably the ones that are the loudest of them all, the Powerpuff Girls and Dee Dee from Dexter's Laboratory.

These are great characters, but I am here to make a strong yet creative opinion. I've been talking about this on my previous MultiVersus livestream that didn't turn out well because playing it as long as I want overheated my PS5 to turn it off on me, on social media and on the past post once. But it's time I put my excitement on how I feel about wanting a character to be in MultiVersus. After watching an explanation on how a Crash and Spyro crossover game would work, I am going to do the same.

I have been inspired on how Xena would be freaking dope in MultiVersus and how will she play. I wanted to do this on social media, but it's easier to tell you all in this concrete post for better transparency without using the old Super Mario Blue: Robotnik's Rampage and Sonic Red: The Koopa Konspiracy joke than on social media. Now before I begin with this small pitch, for those of you who are naysayers, yes, I know, Xena: Warrior Princess isn't even by WB. But Warner Bros. Discovery must own the rights of the show first. Also, this is simply my idea, but at least read this as I give you a pitch on what Xena would bring to the table in MultiVersus and how she would be dope.

First off, when you're doing a character pitch, you must announce their class first, so because her arsenal is accompanied with her sword, daggers and chakram, Xena would be an Assassin fighter. Her side special would allow her to throw her chakram while all of her basic attacks would involve wielding her sword like others that wield a sword.

There are a lot of character-specific voicelines she would have, so for example, if Xena teams up with LeBron James, she would be a masochist on his basketball skills. And let's just pretend that it's NOT weird. A warrior princess would be a masochist to an NBA player's basketball skills. Okay, I know this seems artsy fartsy that an NBA player and a warrior princess wouldn't mix, but this is just for dialogue purposes. What would really mix is that a samurai and a warrior princess, so Samurai Jack and Xena would be a perfect duo to have voice lines to each other. Sure, I can hear what about a duo between Xena and Arya Stark. Well, sure, another perfect duo. And if Furiosa makes it into the game, well a perfect duo between Xena and Furiosa would also be established, because they would both be Assassin fighters, right? Sure, if you like Muggshot. No, not the villain on Sly Cooper. But rather, taking a picture. It's MultiVersus. Priorities.

And if she is released on the first week of a Season, you woud have to purchase the premium track of the Battle Pass for 950 Gleamium to unlock her until next season when she is available to purchase in the Fighter Shop for 1,000 Gleamium and 3,000 Fighter Currency.

But what about a Xena: Warrior Princess stage? Is it gonna be left behind? What? Of course not! Ancient Greece would be a perfect stage to not have any pirates invading the structure and that is not as common of the situation today as largely applied to what I experienced on Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. But can have hazards and be playable on all formats. Townsville handled the part where we defeat Mojo Jojo in game, so Ancient Greece would have the villain we have to defeat.

There is one TV series that starred a female pirate and is an anime TV series. That is Fena: Pirate Princess, which was actually owned by Warner Bros. Discovery since Cartoon Network and Adult Swim are both under the Warner Bros. umbrella. That's why Rick and Morty made their debut. The only two popular TV shows that have female protagonists are Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Xena: Warrior Princess. There is literally one show Warner Bros. Discovery should own the rights of to give them a chance to be in MultiVersus.

So this is my small pitch on how Xena would play in MultiVersus if Warner Bros. Discovery owns the show and all of its entirety to stream it on Max with either a TV-PG-V rating or a TV-14-V rating and pave the way for an HD and 4K remake. Since we got PS1 emulation on the PS Plus Premium tier, I took the liberty of adding the PS1 adaptation of Xena: Warrior Princess to my wish list, so if it gets released on the catalog, I will purchase it rather than subscribing to the Premium tier and showcase on how a warrior princess would play in MultiVersus and submit my moveset to Player First Games.

Warner Bros. to own Xena needs to happen soon so that she can make her debut to MultiVersus and it's not common today. And it's largely applied to PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale with their entry of Spike from Ape Escape, which is already on the catalog, along with the second game, which is the European version. Ape Escape 3 might have a likelihood of being released to the catalog. Ape Escape and Xena: Warrior Princess being two great platformers is a coincidence. Which means that Spike and Xena can team up with each other as they have to save Jake and Gabrielle.

Furiosa, though hit closer to becoming the highest priority for her to be in MultiVersus as Dee Dee and the Powerpuff Girls after her movie's excellent Rotten Tomatoes score piggybacked off the bombing of her movie's box office that put the brakes on future Mad Max movies despite her movie's positive reviews, would also be dope as Xena would be. And I know chances are that there is a high probability for her to be in it. You have to remember that Furiosa would be an Assassin fighter like Xena would be.

MultiVersus and all of its forms have been a product of hype and I am already excited for Beetlejuice's arrival. So let's give him some beetle juice (no pun intended) and some Rice Krispies Treats to celebrate his debut from the afterlife. I am putting my Gleamium on hold for him in a process of owning every single fighter permanently before a future season releases, like I did to own every single Hero and Power on Crash Team Rumble before Season 4, which was scrapped. The reason why it was scrapped is because Toys for Bob has spun off to be an independent studio from Activision. What this means is that future Crash and Spyro games will not be under the Activision umbrella going forward.

In terms of characters, MultiVersus' cast of characters became so distinctive and iconic like Smash and Nick All-Star Brawl, becoming a supreme gem for the Smash community. The difference is that the roster in MultiVersus will grow endlessly like Brawlhalla, so we get 2-3 characters each Season, which lasts eight weeks over the course at launch. And there are Rifts for when you are not ready for PvP matches. The upcoming free to play fighting game coming out next year is 2XKO and we don't know if the roster is gonna grow endlessly post launch.

You could be a part of this massive community like I am. People seem to care much about this game as much as I do. I have never been this emotional. What I'm trying to say is that MultiVersus will change you. Again, looking forward for Beetlejuice's arrival and I am hyped to see what Season 3 has in store for me. Let's all look into the future of MultiVersus together as friends and family.

Joe's Monologues - 8/6/24

It's that time again for the next Joe's Monologues and the first one of August. We are four months away from 2025 and time sure flies. Not only that because I have turned 30 over three weeks ago and boy, I am out of my 20s. Anyway, let's get started with the latest scoop on this post.

Visions of Mana:

The demo version of the upcoming new Mana game came out not too long ago and I am already excited for Visions of Mana. But there is something about this upcoming Mana game I'm excited for. But why would I be excited for something I don't know anything about? Well, there is one thing we do know one thing's for sure. One that is completely factual is that this is the first Mana game of the franchise to have an original story. If you played Trials of Mana, then Visions of Mana is where it's at.

So why am I excited for Visions of Mana, you ask? It's actually not the fact that this is the first Mana game in its originality in 15 years. But it's the aspects. First off, the demo version allows you to have two Elemental Vessels in four levels each, go straight to the part where you have Val, Careena and Morley on your party and that progress you see in the demo version will be in the full game. You need to be aware that Palamena and Julei are not featured in the demo version and you'll see them in the full game.

That's when I'm gonna use the Palamena: Water Princess and Morley: Renegade Moon jokes. I know this seems weird and all, but the jokes I'll be using will not be dark. If Xena: Warrior Princess, Fena: Pirate Princess and Xavier: Renegade Angel are a thing, then Palamena: Water Princess and Morley: Renegade Moon would be a thing. Again, these are jokes, not real TV shows.

I can hear them say what about Careena: Wind Princess. And well, that's another good joke, but doesn't ring a bell as much as Palamena: Water Princess. I believe this joke, along with the Morley: Renegade Moon joke, is gonna be funny and not dark. The I can't breathe joke Mike Z made four years ago? Nope! That's dark and it's NOT funny.

Square Enix has teamed up with One Tree Planted to plant 25,000 trees globally. In order for them to do that, they must tune in to any Twitch channel streaming the demo version of Visions of Mana for 60,000 hours. Once the goal 60,000 hours have been reached, 25,000 trees will be planted globally to fight deforestation in a process of reforestation. I agree with the process because trees can produce oxygen, so if we get more trees, we'll have more oxygen in Earth. In fact, if they planted a Tree of Mana in real life, that's gonna be a miracle. I always wanted to meet the Goddess of Mana in real life.

There are common denominators between Trials of Mana and Visions of Mana, so let's take a look. Trials of Mana and Visions of Mana are both action RPGs. They involve combo attacks and defeating all monsters in any area to earn EXP, Lucre and items and bonus values occur when defeating all monsters within a certain amount of seconds and defeating a monster with a Class Strike. They both have Class Strikes. They have a star on the map to represent your destination. They have a border you can run against to escape from battle, but certain battles can't be escaped when the border is red. So that's it. These are the common denominators between Trials of Mana and Visions of Mana.

Both are action RPGs. But both games have a different mindset. The Trials of Mana mindset involves characters each having their own Class Strike gauge, switching their classes up to three times at the altar in the Goddess of Mana's humble abode and choosing three out of six characters to go on an adventure. Then you have the Visions of Mana mindset that involves only one Class Strike gauge for the player that controls any character, putting three characters in the battlefield and two outside of the battlefield, Elemental Vessels that vary by class and hearing the map BGM play its beats during combat like in the .hack games.

I am loving the game's demo version so far. Once the full game comes out, it will be a phenomenal experience since Xena: Warrior Princess and Ape Escape for the PS1. Even in the case of Fallow Steppe and Rime Falls, traversing through these areas literally made me think of the one trail that Xena and Gabrielle walked through at the beginning of the game, and Frozen Mammoth from Ape Escape. I can't wait for the full game of Visions of Mana to come out. I am planning to purchase the game digitally, but I'm gonna rent it first. There might be some Johnny Test vibes too.

Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics:

Over to the compilation we have dreamed of being a reality for an update. It was showcased during EVO 2024, but three games were available to play there. There has been some exciting stories about Marvel vs. Capcom we already heard. UMvC3 was last year's throwback game. Capcom has finally made our dream into a reality and I am excited for the compilation.

What makes me excited for the collection? Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection offering every game of the franchise is actually not why I am excited. But better yet, it's one of the games in the compilation that a lot of people in the FGC want freed. That is Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes. So why is this exciting? Good question.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is known for its 3v3 battles to have two assist buttons and four attack buttons and its huge roster. This is the game that people, including me, in the FGC want freed from jail, so what am I talking about? Sure, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 became phenomenal with its large roster of 56 characters. Capcom did something amazing.

During the development of Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Capcom's genius team came with making original characters on the Capcom side. This is when Ruby Heart, Son Son and Amingo were born. These are the characters that never starred in a single Capcom franchise. That's why these characters were original. When the developers put in original characters on the Capcom side, they also put in characters on the Marvel side we don't know much about, Marrow, Blackheart and Silver Samurai, because these Marvel characters are low in popularity and didn't get that much attention.

It doesn't take a professional developer to understand the release of MvC2, because it first came out on 6th generation consoles, then released on 7th generation with all content unlocked by default and will be available to play in Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection along with others on 8th generation consoles. So MvC2 came out and it became such a phenomenal vs. Capcom game, right? Sure, it can be, if you like Spider-Man web swinging and walking on the walls on a building in the city.

The date as to when we can pre order it is unknown. We do know that it's coming out this year. But sadly, Xbox has had an omission from the collection for some reason. Regardless, I am excited for the collection we've been waiting for years since Marvel vs. Capcom Origins. Again, no release date just yet. If Capcom plans to make a new Marvel vs. Capcom game, I'll be ready for that, if they knock the netcode out of the park and make it the best game it can be, unlike UMvC3 where we are restricted to playing on Bonne Wonderland and MvCI where we are restricted to playing on the training stage like on Street Fighter V. It's annoying.

The Meme on My Career:

An update on my Wrapper Offline career is obvious. I shifted to the 3.0.0 build and it has a huge selection of assets to update my characters. But that is not relevant. What is really relevant is a meme I came up with that involved having things that they are not allowed to have, which is the Sierra Mist.

One of the British YouTubers made that meme about the characters not being allowed to eat Walkers Crisps because they can make them sick. It's just for fun and entertaining purposes. They don't really make them sick in real life. I came up with the Sierra Mist meme. In real life, Sierra Mist was rebranded into Starry, but not in my videos. I had to make that entertaining because one of the defunct companies that published the Crash and Spyro games in Universal Interactive's stead has "Sierra" in the name. It's to pay homage to the company.

Broken Saw:

And speaking of Sierra, it's time to talk about and go into detail on one of the YouTube channels that did a great job covering logos from media, which is Broken Saw. Broken Saw did a great job covering logos from media. I'm basically into the ones from video games because of how logos flow. It's common for all generations. But I preferred the ones that are outside the game and also silent, like the one that is from Dragon Ball Z: Budokai showing the old FUNimation logo and the one that is from the 6th generation WWE games. The one from Budokai 2 is ten seconds shorter than Budokai 1. The logos from Budokai 3 haven't been covered yet. While they are known for covering logos, they also covered copyright screens with logos on it.

Broken Saw's way of covering video game logos from the back in the year hit me with nostalgia. It's among those games I played from back in the day. Especially the Ape Escape 3 one when the two kids read "Sony Computer Entertainment America". It's a game that I want to revisit and now that PS2 emulation has reopened, it's likely to happen if Sony released Ape Escape 3 on the catalog, and also re-released Ape Escape 2 and other older PS2 games on the catalog to have both NTSC and PAL versions, quick saves, rewinds (PS5 only), up rendering and video filters.

The logos from Crash Bandicoot games, though became a starting point to cherishing old logos mostly from video games. The remasters have also been covered, though they said that they can't make any promises that they are gonna cover the remasters. Especially the original games. 

July's additions on the classics department was revealed and they turned out to be an utter disappointment. I never played any of those classic games before. And there wasn't a single PS1 game on the previous month. It had none of the games Broken Saw has covered and that's why I am a bit disappointed in that. But let's hope August's additions won't be so disappointing as July's and has at least one retro game I played before Broken Saw has covered like June's additions did to have at least one retro game I played before. Well, two because Days of Play has offered us new PS2 games.

Conclusion:

So this wraps up today's Joe's Monologues. The end of 2024 is almost upon us. I hope you all have a fantastic day. And now that I'm settled after the long haul, I'll be able to work on posting future posts.