Still here? Good. The main thing that they are gonna say is that MultiVersus did not appease the Smash community, but Smash Ultimate did. Sure, Smash Ultimate has an insane amount of sales since release and has every character released throughout the franchise, but the game has ceased active development after Sora from Kingdom Hearts came out. Then Smash Ultimate had landed in a very awkward position that makes things unbearable.
Because Nintendo is not gonna deliver future content to the game anymore, it took a turn for the worse when Steve from Minecraft remained OP. Fans that partake in tournaments were going to town as him because he is so OP that they would use him as a trump card to win tournaments. They want him nerfed, but there is no way to fix this because Nintendo is not patching the game anymore. Which means that Steve will stay that way forever. But TOs have taken drastic measures to globally ban Steve from tournaments and that's agreeable, right? Sure, people who partake in Smash tournaments would like to play as Steve as their trump card, but he had to be globally banned because he is OP and the game won't receive future balance changes.
Another awkward spot was encountered for the Smash community before this one. There is an ongoing trend regarding people hating Fire Emblem characters. The source started when Corrin was released on Smash Bros. for the 3DS and Wii U. Then the hate continues when Chrom made his debut to Ultimate and made things worse by sharing his moveset with Roy. Then things took a turn for the worse when Byleth was announced as the final Fire Emblem character and became the most hated character reveal. This hate became the fact that there are a lot of characters who use swords. That became a plothole on Smash. Except that all of this was debunked.
Smash has been a staple of EVO since 2007. But back in 2022, Smash has been taken out of EVO. It's not because Sony bought EVO. It's because Nintendo had to distance themselves and they have no intentions of working with Sony since they purchased the most prestigious tournament of the Summer. We haven't seen Smash being at EVO for three straight years. It turns out that Smash may not be at EVO ever again.
And there is a fun fact to this. Sora from Kingdom Hearts became the final DLC character for Smash Ultimate. Sakurai worked for Sora Ltd. The company name he worked for became a meme that Sora is the cherry on top. It's bold, but satisfying. Not that lukewarm mind you, but it all satisfies the fanbase of Smash. It's sad that Smash Ultimate is the final game of the Smash franchise that has every character introduced across titles.
After the release of Sora to close out the Smash franchise comes other Smash clones with different characters from franchises, like Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl and the critically acclaimed MultiVersus. How is it that MultiVersus has appeased the Smash community in general?
At an end of the Open Beta era, Player First Games creator, Tony Hunyh has announced that they would take down the Open Beta to prepare for launch after he said that they had a lot of work to do and had a clearer view of what they needed to focus on, specifically the endless content cadence of new characters, new maps, new game modes, better netcode, balance changes and more possibilities. This is where you would be disappointed that the servers had to be taken down. Well, it's a wise decision. It's probably one of my most favorite parts during MultiVersus' development and it's considered their moment of silence.
As we approached to the point when we get a big announcement regarding MultiVersus' development, their X account did some testing to make sure things are working properly for the big announcement. Lo and behold, MultiVersus has returned for launch with drastic changes, like the removal of Gold in favor of multiple currencies, the removal of the same attack decay, the shift to Unreal Engine 5, new eight-week Season cadence and Rifts and additional characters like Banana Guard from Adventure Time and Joker. These characters are considered a solid pass. The cast of characters is the main reason why MultiVersus had to be considered the best Smash like game. While this seems like a bold take, MultiVersus is the insanely Smashing game. No pun intended. I have a feedback to give to Player First Games later on this blog post, so you'll have to stay tuned for that.
And now, where it stands, Season 3 is going strong today and the midseason patch got some interesting developments. We got two new queues that I'll go over now. First is the Wacky Weekend game mode. It's a special game mode that have a randomized assortment of specialty game modes like Cart Racing, Volleyball, 3v1, Spotlight, Counter, Splat, etc. It is considered to be the Toys for Bob Labs of MultiVersus. Because it is called Wacky Weekend, the game mode gets available every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And there's another queue that we've been asking since the game launched, which is the Casual game mode. This is a game mode where we play against bots in 2v2 as a practice session for when we are not ready to play against real players yet. I have been using it to grind my Battle Pass and rewards.
Now let's go on to an even more interesting development, which is the release of the 7th DC character, and that is Nubia, Queen of the Amazons. Nubia is a heroine on DC Comics that wields the Staff of Understanding. For those of you who may not know, she is Diana's sister in Themyscira. That's what makes this an interesting development that we now have two Wonder Women, but call her Nubia to distinguish that.
Reason why Nubia deserved to be in MultiVersus is actually not the fact that we got two (four if you split the Powerpuff Girls) more female characters in Season 3. She needs the same level of attention as her sister and she deserves to unite with her sister. All regarding Nubia's debut became beneficial enough to honor the comic book series that feature her available in a comics shop and book store. And that is probably one of the most exciting events since... I don't know, Nelvana of the Northern Lights, perhaps? If we get an 8th DC character, I'll be ready for that. In fact, if the 8th DC character is a female, that would even the DC department by gender.
And yes, for those of you would say what about Iron Giant, well, his default variant tagged him as a DC character because he has an S on his chest. But Iron Giant is not originally a DC character despite his default variant having a DC tag and an S on his chest.
And that's not all. I have finally owned every single fighter permanently before Season 4 releases. It's no coincidence with the part where I unlocked every single Hero and Power in Crash Team Rumble before Season 4 releases because the game has ceased active development due to Toys for Bob spinning off from Activision to be an independent studio. Which means that their future titles will not be published by Activision going forward.
With that out of the way, here is the main point I like to make. Player First Games have been seamlessly giving us new content since the early access launch. They went from the extra mile to make MultiVersus the best game it can be without the need to cease active development, from chaging the currency output to shifting to Unreal Engine 5 and better netcode. That included making Season 3 more developing that we are getting more female characters, starting with the Powerpuff Girls to Nubia.
Because Smash Ultimate has ceased active development after the release of Sora to not patch the game anymore, Steve is gonna stay OP forever. But Player First Games is differentiating their enigma and approach from Nintendo's, meaning that they have the resources to endlessly deliver future patches for years to come, including new characters, new stages and new game modes and balance changes that nerf overpowered characters and buff underpowered characters. Endless possibilities to make MultiVersus the best game it deserves to be, meaning that Season 4 is inevitable to release on November 17. I am hyped to see who are the new characters coming in Season 4 and what will it have in store for me.
I was hyped to see who are the new characters coming to Crash Team Rumble Season 4, but it fell short and ceased active development at 13 Heroes and 10 Powers. But on MultiVersus, it will never be the case, which means Season 4 is inevitable to expand the roster to 33 characters. So is Season 5 to expand the roster to 35 characters and launch early January. Season 3 is winding down as it enters the 7th and penultimate week, meaning that Season 4 is fast approaching and we're a week away from getting a Season 4 trailer on who to expect. If I plan to livestream both Crash Team Rumble and MultiVersus, it's gonna be a fun moment for me. Except that Crash Team Rumble is not free-to-play that I need to have my PS Plus Essential membership and there is no PC release.
And because of the reasons alone, MultiVersus has literally appeased the Smash community by having an endless content cadence of new characters, stages, game modes and balance changes. We are approaching the end of 2024 and the New Year. I am already excited to see what PFG has planned for MultiVersus in 2025, and we know that Season 5 will release early January. It's gonna be an intense moment we've been waiting for. As a matter of fact, MultiVersus will not be the only 2v2 fighting game because the next 2v2 fighting game coming for this generation is 2XKO, and that's something we'll look forward to.
Before I wrap up my monologue, I want to point out that Player First Games is currently accepting feedback, so I have feedback to give to them. And the first thing I like to see implemented is end of match victory dialogues between two certain characters in 2v2s and 2v1s. MultiVersus has a plethora of character specific voice lines that are fun to hear. To make the game more enjoyable, I like to hear some victory dialogues in 2v2 matches and I believe that they are gonna be in a form of BBTAG where two certain characters have a victory dialogue between them. A perfect example for two certain characters having a victory dialogue could include Wonder Woman and Nubia having a victory dialogue between them as sisters. Stuff like that.
To forward this, I also like to see character specific victory lines in 1v1s. They are really fun and awesome to hear and I know you guys love those as much as I do. Now, an example would include that if Batman defeats the Joker in a 1v1 match, you would hear his voice line specific to the Joker. In total, in the voice department, I like to see post-match victory dialogue between two certain characters in 2v2s and 2v1s and character specific victory lines in 1v1s.
And next, the sorting options in the Fighter Gallery. MultiVersus has an ever growing cast and each character is gonna have their mastery level. What if we sort the gallery alphabetically, by ownership and by Mastery level? It's gonna work for sure. It makes things easy to tell. And also the role filter that filters characters by role.
Now for the third thing I want implemented, the overhaul of custom game lobbies. Currently, you can create a custom game lobby, but currently, because they are private, they are only for friends to join, not anyone else and it's a bit lukewarm to create custom game lobbies only for friends to join. Now, we can overhaul the behavior of custom game lobbies so that not just friends, but also anyone can join, making them really public
The fourth and penultimate thing, the pre-match lobby screen. Ever since the game launched, the UI received some drastic changes from the Open Beta era. But there is a Change Fighter button. Every time I select it, it takes me to the Fighters page and that flow doesn't make any sense at all. I feel like that the button should be removed along with the button with a picture of a hanger in favor of the pre-match lobby screen. Imagine queueing up for a match. If a match is found, we would enter the pre-match lobby screen where we select a character and their skin afterwards. If we choose a character, then we would select their skin afterwards. We had that flow in the Open Beta era, so we want it back.
Also, the fighter select screen in the pre-match lobby would look different for the Open Beta era so that it can be similar to Hi-Rez's games, by having role filters and three rows that have ten fighters on each row. Since we currently have 31 fighters, the scroll bar would appear on the right side of the selection, making a new row. So you would see the first three rows.
And last but not least, ultimate abilities. Since we entered the Wii era, the first Smash game that started having super moves was Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The super moves are called Final Smashes and they are performed when one of the characters cracked the Smash Ball open. That's one of the coolest things about it. And in Smash Ultimate, the Final Smashes are very very intense as some characters have cinematic Final Smashes.
However there is something to forward this on my feedback; cinematic ultimate abilities for all characters. Instead of thinking Smash Ultimate, let's think a little in line with Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 where the ultimate abilities were implemented. The ultimate abilities in MultiVersus would be far far too intense and all characters would have intensely cinematic ultimate abilities. How would they use ultimate abilities? Good question. We know that each character has a gauge that is consumed for dodging, parries, teching and the newly announced shielding mechanic, so I believe another gauge for ultimate abilities would suffice. They can fill the gauge up by collecting particles that appear when dealing damage to opponents. Once full, we simply press the special button without inputting a direction.
And this concludes my feedback that I am giving to Player First Games. Here's to a brighter future of the game we all love.
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