It seems Player First Games is pulling out all the stops to convince people to give MultiVersus another chance when it re-launches. Aside from everyone’s favourite clown criminal the Joker joining the roster, a new launch trailer has confirmed two more additions: Friday the 13th‘s Jason Voorhees and The Matrix‘s Agent Smith.
Jason’s inclusion had leaked over the weekend, but Agent Smith certainly took me by surprise. Given the recent teases for The Powerpuff Girls, I’d have thought they’d be the next character reveal. Despite those three seeming like a guarantee, Player First Games has only confirmed Joker, Jason, and Agent Smith for Multiversus‘ first proper season of content, now titled Puns & Villainy. Joker and Jason will be available at launch on May 28, while Agent Smith is only said to be releasing later into the season.
The trailer doesn’t show how either Jason or Smith will play; in fact, it doesn’t have any gameplay at all and is another aggressive reminder of how many Warner Bros. IPs are being represented. The whole thing is still rather amusing (particularly Velma from Scooby-Doo using speech bubbles to fight Bugs Bunny and the Joker), and I can’t help but get a little hyped seeing Joker summon Jason and Smith to his side as he sits on the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones. The game is also meant to be getting Banana Guard from Adventure Time, as confirmed in a trailer from last week, but there’s no mention of whether they’re part of season one as well.
It’s not just new characters, though. Recently, Player First confirmed there’ll be PvE content for all the solo players in the form of Rift Mode. Rifts are essentially different types of challenges that follow a specific theme, and they’re not always traditional battles. Some fights will have modifiers, like infinite jumping, and there’ll be minigames and boss battles too.
All in all, MultiVersus seems to be doing everything right to try and curry back favour after it unceremoniously went offline last year. What’s important is what comes after launch. Having a bunch of new characters and additional modes is great for enticing players, but it’ll need to keep up a steady stream of content that keeps those players invested. I’m especially curious to see how often new characters will be rolled out. While it’s important not to keep fans waiting too long for them, having three or four in one season alone almost feels like too much at once, and risks making each new addition feel not as special. This is only the first season, though, so maybe Player First is starting big and will dial it back with subsequent seasons.
