Now that I’m a good number of hours and days in I feel comfortable forming an opinion on Multiversus.

After the initial gimmick it loses steam real fast

· The game feels flubbery as all hell. Despite all attacks being telegraphed the lack of weight and follow through doesn't make it feel like hits are connecting when they should be, it takes forever to get ringouts, and the gamefeel just doesn't feel right.

· Matchmaking is stupid where deep into your mid 20s you get paired with level 6 Little Timmy who just taunts with Jake the Dog and when they lose they switch to Finn which you think is their main but they're level 8 and somehow even worse when playing seriously. You can only invite one friend to play at a time even tho 2v2 is the main focus of the game and custom matches are barely customizable.

· Unless you play the way the dev “intended” a character is useless leading to roster wide setplay that works better than actually trying to play the game, some of the most unga bunga press buttons win game characters I've ever seen.

· Some characters in general are made TO be useless outside of 2v2, leading to Support characters in general feeling weaker than the rest. "But they're support characters they're not supposed to be solo!" Cool tell that to the TF2 team when they made their Support classes, they make the team stronger but still had their kits work in their favour if they ever had to 1v1.

· Perk system and rotating roster, welcome to the Season Pass MOBAzation of fgs.

· Online play has hella input lag that I thought I was playing vanilla SF IV at times with how my character was doing inputs I did seconds ago.

· Stages are all lame and no way to pick online leads to matchups being affected significantly at random.

· The F2P friendly element that the beta players said was good turned out to be a lie much to the surprise of (I hope) nobody unless you decide to treat this game like a second job.

· Judging by twitch and the discord the community in general is dipshit zoomers. I don't think this game is in any danger of falling off like Nick All Stars, but I see it becoming a game that everyone who plays it regularly hates it and is miserable about it a la League of Legends, Dead By Daylight, Valorant, etc.

· Overall presentation is esports as hell and considering they’re pitching this to esports that just bodes bad for its future imo. Graphics don't look bad, but they definitely don't look great, it's the bare minimum to make a shared style where everything looks "just good enough" because matching different art styles is actual work. It's a stale committee designed spectators game except you can't spectate online lmao.

· Can't wait for all these youtubers who "love the game" stop making videos unless new content comes out and sponsor overlords demand another one.

· This roster isn't that great and you all know it. You got the DC Trinity because in a multi series crossover you can't have just one without the other two but you have Bugs without Daffy? Gandalf, one of the first leaked characters, seems to have been left on the wayside judging by how much work was done on him compared to other characters found in the code? Also Harry Potter always sucked but controversy be damned, the fact they couldn't get the perpetual Millenial icon in while having gaming rights to it (film rights seem to be a tossup) is a sure sign that something is happening behind scenes about them "having access to all these great characters." There are more cases but those are me specific nitpicks (Samurai Jack, any of the Powerpuff Girls, any horror movie character, etc) so I can't fault on them that much but man what a mid final launch roster.

There’s fun to be had offline and the character personality is strong and if a cool character is added later or if it's on at a party I'll pick it up from time to time but man after the honeymoon phase all I'm left with is “this is what I was so hyped for?”

The most bang for your buck single player DLC I've played a long time. Cut out the fluff of the main game (the subpar run and gun stages) and left you with nothing but boss fights where the "worst" are still better than some of the more mid tier ones in the base game. Contains MORE TOTAL FRAMES OF ANIMATION THAN THE BASE GAME and it shows.

I'm not the biggest fan of Miss Chalice's dash auto parrying, I've had it put me into disadvantageous situations more times than I would have liked and I never really used her invincible roll but she's the perfect middle ground for people who struggled with the base game to play a character that's easier without seeming too overpowered making the game's difficulty too trivial. My only real complaint is that the new songs don't stand up to most of the base game's.

Also, was that a Silhouette Mirage reference I spotted in the secret boss fight? Normally I would chalk it up to coincidence, I don't think it's too original a concept that nobody else could have thought of it on their own, but considering these devs, I wouldn't doubt it!

We're starting to see the return of old Mikami.

This is a total asshole nitpick on my end, but I am pretty disappointed that this game stays in 4/4 time signature most of the game. Mechanically, it's the best way to introduce the core Stylish Action (or Character Action, if you prefer, but I'll take my nomenclature from the people who actually made the genre) combo systems, 4/4 measure of a two quarter notes, quarter rest, then another quarter note doing the classic "X, X, nothing, X" styles of combos. Not having any penalty for getting off the beat ensures that it's not too demanding, there's no chance of failure and only rewards via an increase in damage.

But by the fifth or so mission the novelty was wearing off and all I was left with was an above average Stylish Action game that's gimmick isn't as defining to the game as it wants you to think. How cool would it be to have a stealth mission in a 2/2 time signature where you need to use slower and more deliberately placed presses for dashing, or a hectic boss fight in 6/8? It feels like a major missed opportunity for a game that's whole identity is rhythm.

Is it a copout to say my current contender for GOTY is a collection of a bunch of arcade ROMs from the 90s / 00s? Not when it's arguably the ultimate love letter to an entire genre.

Ignoring the specific games included for a second, this package is od. First home release of many of the games here, ALL games have a training mode (even those that never did in their old console ports!) completely themed around them, online with rollback netcode for EVERY game instead of Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, unique banner art for every game instead of just using stock art of characters (many of which were not from the specific game you were playing), first releases of artwork that has been thought to have been lost in time, and the cherry on top: all perfect arcade emulation where you can choose the USA OR JPN version of each game when available! This goes beyond characters changing names or some different sprites / animations, some games contain small balance changes between them. For example: the JPN version of Hyper SF II's Super X version of Zangief has the 90% guaranteed stun on Zangief's air 8HP, where the US version of Hyper SFII's Super Turbo version of Zangief doesn't have any special properties for that move.

For specific games: this is the first home release for Red Earth PERIOD, this is the first time Hyper SF II, arguably the best version of Street Fighter II, has gotten a home release since 2003, this is the first Western home release ever for Cyberbots, the first Western non-PSX release of any post-Night Warriors Darkstalkers game (the main appeal for many I am sure), but with that there is the one major missed opportunity. I know I just praised this for using Arcade ROMs instead of home ports, but there's this specific home port of Vampire Savior in Japan that has all characters from every version plus Dee, the non-canon character of Donovan succumbing to his vampire side and Demitri's dying body fusing his head on Donovan's body a la Dio to Jonathan Joestar (in what """""may""""" be a """""coincidence,"""""" Capcom produced a Jojo fighting game around this time [sorry for the run-on parentheses and brackets but I've seen a lot of complaints about Jojo's Venture and Heritage for the Future not being here. I get it, would be truly "complete" with them but they don't have the license, it's unfortunate but was unrealistic to expect it along with the Marvel licenses imo.)

Now that I've 100% completed this with every achievement, I would be completely OK with this replacing fightcade for these games. The convenience is too good to ignore, Capcom still gets financial support for something they absolutely deserve, but the only thing I have an issue with is that I have noticed sometimes after unpausing that it can take a second to get control over your character again or if you're holding back or down you'll have to go to a different direction before it reads going back or down again. Really makes playing Boxer or Dee Jay in Hyper a drag if you need to pause lol.

I didn't want to rate this until I finish every game here but not even halfway through completing them, this blows Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection out of the fucking water. It's a very good sign for Street Fighter 6 that its in the hands of the people who put this collection together, they clearly care for and love fgs a lot.