Shit was so pathetic and irrelevant that the last post about this slop on rDrama.net was 8 MONTHS AGO LMAO, either way, Multiversus, the failed Warner Bros. version of Smash, which was the pinnacle of 2020s "live-service" cancer, ridden with more MTX than Gook MMOs, and that got rebooted 3 times, is shutting down for good this time, and r-slurs who spent hundreds of bucks on battleseasonstreamingcuck editions are feeling scammed because the game is going to be taken offline

The appeal of smash bros is getting together with your buds and doing a few rounds in front of a frickhuge TV while talking shit. It was big for milennials growing up so it'll hold fast for a little while longer. The only thing clones have an advantage of is being online. But that's not why people play these games.

The only market you can truly appease with an online fighting game is high skill-cap 2d fighters and that playerbase gonna stick to those

I don't play Smash, or any of these games, but Nintendo does generally maintain a pretty high standard of quality and doesn't nickle and dime you after the sale. Most of these competitors screw those things up in one way or another, even if they do offer something specific that Smash doesn't.

It's better. There's a gameplay and character feel issue that most of the competitors get wrong. Their games are usually some combination of too floaty, too slippery, the hits don't feel impactful, not popular enough IP, too gimmicky, etc. Smash has that old school Halo "party game feel", where you can play it with friends/randos and have fun but the neurodivergent can treat it as a hyper competitive game as well.

Nintendo has screwed up too though, when Brawl came out (Wii smash bros), a lot of people hated it so much they still played the GameCube version instead.

Libertarians don't want to spend the effort cultivating a new grooming ring

It's almost entirely fanboy obsession. If Overwatch fans were as dedicated simps as Nintendo fans, Marvel Rivals would've flopped just as hard as Multiversus.

Smash is not at all well designed as a competitive fighting game (that includes Melee, nerds). And by the later games, the casual experience they try to push is absolutely unplayable (8 players, giant maps full of hazards, every item completely stops the gameplay). However, as a competitive party game for 2-5 moderately skilled people to frick around for a few hours, with or without alcohol, Smash is evergreen.

The competitors always tried to make "their own Smash" instead of starting with basic design questions that could have allowed them to make a better game. The most intentionally designed ones usually erred by trying to create a hardcore fighter with zero casual appeal. Smash is smart for catering to an intermediate skill level. It's not really playable as baby's first game, and it starts to fall apart if everyone gets too good at it, but for the majority of g*mers it will always be fun for a few hours.

Multiversus at least had some thought put into its gameplay design with a focus on team play, which could have created or expanded a niche. But WB slaughtered it with the nickel and diming business model.

With Smash just about anyone can go in and find a character they recognise and would want to play as, and with a group of normie players you'll get all different picks

And then those characters feel a lot like they would in their original games, so even if you don't know how to play you feel like you know how to play

So it's very good for keeping normies entertained once in a while at parties or whatever

But also there's a frickton of collectables to unlock, so an neurodivergent can play for ages even if he has no friends