Summary
In an era of video game clones, it’s surprising that there aren’t more attempts at creatinga competitor toSuper Smash Bros.As one of the most popular fighting games of all time,Smash Bros.has been in the gaming conversation since the days of the N64. Yet there are really only a few triple-A alternatives on the market.
A new entry will soon be added to that list, asMultiversuswill enter into open beta later this week.Multiversusis developed by Player First Games and published by WB Interactive, who also supply the vast majority of the characters on the roster. Iron Giant, Shaggy, Batman, Bugs Bunny, and many more Warner Bros. characters are included in the game’s playable fighters,with more characters on the way.The learning curve of each character varies wildly, here are the best ones for beginners to pick up and learn.
Updated July 28th, 2024 by Jacob Buchalter:Multiversus is in a very different place than it was on release, or even in its open beta state. The game has already added a whole handful of new characters, each new patch attempts to address issues with different characters, and it does feel like the developers are actively trying to listen to their community. As a fighting game, Multiversus is deceptively complex. The game looks like a simple platform brawler on the surface, but it has a lot of intricacies like parrying, unique character effects, dodge timing, animation canceling, and more that make it a lot harder to master than it might first appear. However, certain characters are easy enough to pick up that it makes this complexity a lot less overwhelming, so let’s go over some of the best examples on the roster.
10Superman
A Super Tank With Too Many Tools
True to his comic book counterpart, Superman is a pretty straightforward character to get the hang of. He’s considered a ‘Tank’ class inMultiversus, meaning he has a lot of moves with Armor and he’s tough to KO at anything less than 100+ percentage.
Unlike some other tanks in the game, Superman is a great starting character because of his versatility. He has a ton of very strong regular attacks but also a command grab, a debuff ice breath attack, and more. Frankly, when fighting against someone who has played a lot of Superman, it can be incredibly frustrating, as it feels like the character just can’t be stopped. He’s not difficult to learn, his general gameplay loop is pretty simple, and he’s a lot of fun to play, what else really matters?
9Finn The Human
Highly Aggressive & Very Fast
Finn,the hero fromAdventure Time,is what’s known as an ‘Assassin’ class, which essentially makes him a glass cannon. He can’t take a ton of damage,but he can definitely dish it out. He has a ton of very fast sword attacks that chain into each other well, and it’s very easy for him to dive back in after creating some distance. Players can actually just pick up Finn and start pressing buttons and they’ll find relative success, but once they want to learn more than that Finn does have some more mechanics that make him strong.
For one, Finn has his whole coin and backpack shop system which can give him different buffs. But, that’s not all, Finn also has unique charged attacks that gain more damage and charge as Finn moves while holding them. This allows Finn to still stay mobile while also stockpiling a devastating hit. And, if worst comes to worst, players can always just rely on Finn’s Backpack Attack to almost always get the KO if the opponent is at a high damage percentage.
8Bugs Bunny
Just an Absolute Nightmare
Bugs Bunny is an absolute menace, a nightmare, a gremlin, and a bully inMultiversus, and that’s no exaggeration. This character has so many tools at his disposal at all times it can sometimes be overwhelming trying to pick which absurdly strong option to go with. Anyone who has fought a decent number of experienced Bugs Bunny players knows just how frustrating it can be, as Bugs has a lot of power, a lot of utility, and a lot of mobility with seemingly no downsides.
Obviously his aerial attacks are strong, with his Up Aerial attack in particular being a fantastic KO and damage-stacking tool. But even outside of that, Bugs Bunny has his Safe to trip up his opponents with, his pie-throwing, and even his Side Aerial Dropkick. In all honesty, a lot of people still feel like this character is a bit too strong inMultiversus,but this is also exactly why he’s such a great character for newcomers, as they’ll have a much easier time getting used to the game with such a powerful character at their fingertips.
7Jake The Dog
Floaty & Stretchy in All the Right Ways
Jake the Dog isone of the most unique characters to playinMultiversus. His description says ‘Brawler’, but that doesn’t accurately describe how he plays. Jake the Dog is floating, he has a ton of range, a whole host of different confusing attacks, and he even has Kirby’s fearsome Down+Special from theSuper Smash Bros.games.
In all honesty, Jake is one ofthe more difficult characters on this listto learn. However, just because he’s more difficult doesn’t mean that he’s a ‘hard’ character to learn. Once players get an accurate sense of the range of all his stretchy attacks, they’ve pretty much gotten over the hump in terms of learning difficulty. Just be aware that he has literally 0 projectiles, so if the opponent gets used to Jake’s range, the rest of the match is going to be pretty difficult.
6Banana Guard
Simple is Best
Banana Guard isone of the newer characters added toMultiversus, but the funny thing is despite being a newcomer he’s incredibly simple. In fact, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Banana Guard is one of the simplest on the roster. To explain Banana Guard’s playstyle as a Bruiser in as few words as possible, he simply stabs with his spear. That’s really it.
Yes, Banana Guard has a gimmick where he does some dumbbell curls and buffs himself, but outside of that, it’s all just different spear stabs and slashes. In a pinch? Charge forward with his Side+Special. Need to punish an enemy off-stage? Use his Side+Aerial Attack and see how strong it is. Need to recover off-stage? Use his Up+Special and gain an absurd amount of height. Geniuenly, Banana Guard is probably the most accurate description of a ‘simple is best’ character in all ofMultiversus.
5Harley Quinn
Playing The Game at a Different Speed
After the full release of Multiversus came out, fans of the game had a bit of an adjustment period to get used to the new speed of the game. To put it simply, the game was a lot slower. Combat was slower, combos were slower, and everything felt slower. It seems like the developersare steadily trying to address this, but it’s going to take time. During this period, Harley Quinn is stronger than ever.
She was already a force to be reckoned with and arguablyone of the strongest characters on the rostereven in the Open Beta of the game, but now she’s simply ridiculous. The main reason for this is that it feels like Harley Quinn isn’t really affected by the changes in the game’s speed much at all. She feels just as fast as she always did, but her opponents are slow. Add that on top of the fact that Harley has a pretty simple playstyle (outside of her Stuffie Bat and Jack-in-the-Box) and new players can pick up this character and almost always find immediate success without much effort at all.
4Iron Giant
It Should Be Obvious at a Glance
Another ‘Tank’ character like Superman, the Iron Giant can take a punch. Actually, he can take several, and barely even flinch. His attack combos are very straightforward, with little to worry about beyond making sure an enemy is in range before hitting them. There is his fuel mechanic, which governs the Iron Giant’s mobility and special attacks, but the fuel meter refills quickly, and it’s really the only thing players need to worry about when playing as him, aside fromsome conflicts with his backstory.
The trickiest part about Iron Giant is how big he is. While he can take a lot of hits, his size means he’s going to frequently get caught in the crossfire of other battles. It still won’t take him down, so it doesn’t matter too much, but players might find it frustrating how often they get knocked around playing as this character. Still, when landing just a few hits of his own can launch an enemy off the edge, it makes the minor quibbles about this character matter a lot less.
3Wonder Woman
A Tank That Has Speed & Power
Probably the most basic ‘Tank’ character in the game, Wonder Woman is extremely easy to pick up and play right after downloading the game. Her Defence of the Gods ability can shield both her and her teammates from damage, all while building up her Brace meter to unleash a special attack.
The trick with this character is monitoring her cooldowns. Her basic attacks are strong, and she can take a ton of damage so resorting to them isn’t the end of the world, but most of her special abilities come witha cooldown timer. Still, even with her abilities on cooldown, WW’s basic Attack are absolutely strong enough to keep things covered. In particular, her shield bash Side+Special can be an absolute nightmare if utilized properly.
2The Tasmanian Devil
A Simple & Pure Bruiser
Taz has dropped down in notoriety when it comes toMultiversus.When the open beta for the game was out, Taz was an absolute nightmare online, as his Side+Special felt so exceedingly cruel to deal with and there wasn’t much downside to him spamming it. However, in the full release of the game, he’s not nearly as infamous. That doesn’t mean he’s a bad character by any means, just that his easy-to-abuse tools were tuned a bit and the rest of the roster was steadily buffed over time.
As far as Bruisers go, Taz can be a bit difficult at first. Outside of his Specials, a lot of Taz’s basic attacks are pretty constricted to his body, which is pretty small, meaning players have to be relatively precise with their attacks. But, once they get used to this, they’ll find that this character feels pretty natural to pick up.
1Shaggy
The Mario of Multiversus
And finally, there’s Shaggy. The subheading for Shaggy above says that he’s the ‘Mario ofMultiversus’and at first that might seem a bit ridiculous, but let us explain. Every fighting game has its Ryu, Jin Kazama, Liu Kang, or Mario. Essentially, every fighting game (of any type) has a main character that it feels like the rest of the characters were built from, as a sort of ‘foundation’. Mario in theSuper Smash Bros.games, for example, has an incredibly basic moveset to the point that it feels like picking up and learning any other character will be more complicated.
The same is true for Shaggy inMultiversus. While he’s not painfully simple, he’s one of the most simple-to-learn characters on the roster, and that’s both a good and bad thing. On one hand, it does make it a bit easier to counter Shaggy, but it also means that it’s easier for new people to pick him up and get to a certain level of skill with him. Overall, as long as players get a good handle on the fundamentals ofMultiversus, they’ll find that Shaggy will feel incredibly smooth to use.
