The Super Smash Bros. franchise has become something that went from a fun side project on the N64 to its own sub-genre of fighting game. The platform fighter has led developers to create games that did their best to create a Smash-like experience for many years - with varying results. Games like the Melee developer-led TMNT Smash-Up did a good job, but didn't have enough content to provide long-term fun, while games like the recent Nickelodeon Brawl worked in theory at providing a platform fighter with the license, but lacked the heart that made Smash so endearing. Sony's PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale came the closest at delivering a Smash-like experience that stood out with instant-win super moves, but still felt lacking in polish.  MultiVersus is Player First Games' first outing and aims to bring a ton of Warner Bros. IPs together in something of a dream game -- and it's impressive even in an early state.

The open beta allows for quite a few characters to be used alongside three primary modes: one-on-one, two-on-two and free for all. Each offers a fast-paced experience and feels polished already. The fun factor is high and the core gameplay feels fantastic. Those wanting some Smash-like gameplay will be in for a treat, as will those wanting a roster that plays completely unique to anyone in that franchise. If someone's main Smash character is Link, then Finn and his sword will feel like a natural evolution. Players have a lot of freedom with movement through the stages and traversal is easy.

Jumping is done with a single button and if you want to slam down into the crown faster,  you can with the quick descent option that will put you in position to attack a foe on a platform faster. It's always a risk/reward to use this because it will put you right next to a foe on the ground, but if they jump up, then you may be left vulnerable. That one mechanic adds a lot of speed to gameplay and makes chaotic free for all battles even more insane.

The quick pace and large amount of things going on can seem daunting, but boldly-colored outlines help make it easy to tell where characters are at in the stage even when things like smoke effects block them. This is something that makes the experience more user-friendly across the board because there's never a moment where the player is left flying blind. There's always an easy way to see not only where they're at, but the exact outline of the character to plan attacks. If two are stuck behind smoke, then you can just see where the outlines are at in relation to one another and attack the other player.

Even this early on, it's clear that a lot of effort has gone into making Multiversus a user-friendly game for as many people as possible. The ability to fully controls is in alongside a couple of pre-sets, including one that sticks to a classic Smash setup and one that refines things a bit for modern controllers. The effort pays off when it comes to the tutorials as well since they guide players through things in a video so you can get an idea for the timing and then move on into doing the actions yourself. There may be some trial and error involved, but the player is given a lot of tools to succeed and enjoy the experience.

Every available mode features unranked, ranked, and bot play to help players of all experience levels enjoy the action. It would be great to have a full campaign to enjoy down the line too, something akin to the original Smash on N64 where you have mini-games and a wider variety of enemies to battle like giant-sized foes or maybe even a Fighting Pixel Art Team. There's jankiness so far and Taz is iffy on PS4 due to glitches, but everyone plays like a dream on the PS5 and the DualSense feels natural for a game like this. Loading times were great across both the PS4 and PS5, but there were framerate issues on the PS4 that weren't present on PS5.

The core game plays wonderfully and is largely smooth, although it does have issues on last-gen hardware. The clean look of the art style helps a lot and enables it to look solid on any device. Animations are far more robust in Multiversus than most platform brawlers, with Taz and Bugs having elaborate animations for attacks that do a lot of damage at the expense of leaving them more open to attack. Stage variety is diverse and every area shown off so far manages to fit the theme nicely while still working well as a platform fighter stage.

The soundtrack is also great, with a diverse lineup of songs and a ton of voice work. It's impressive to see so much voice work included in a closed beta given that even Nickelodeon All-Stars Brawl didn't have much to work with as a final product and that led to it feeling hollow. It's clear that a lot of care went into this even at an early playable stage. It's promising to see that this is already feeling like a Smash-level game in terms of sheer quality across the board, albeit one that can benefit from more content.

Over time, it would be great to see things like a full campaign added in and if it does well, maybe we'll see that. As it stands, for a free-to-play game, it does seem generous when it comes to unlocking new characters and it could get better or worse in that regard after launch. It would be fantastic if a battle pass of at least all future characters is unlockable with in-game currency and that would allow players of all ages to enjoy the game without having to spend real-world money. No matter what happens with the battle pass model, at least the core experience is fantastic and finely-polished. When the final version of the game hits, platform fighting fans will be able to enjoy something that's on-par with the best in the genre and even manages to top Smash in some regards thanks to its accessibility options baked right into the game design.