The premise seems totally absurd when you read it: the all-powerful Superman teaming with cowardly and perpetually hungry teenager Shaggy to throw down against a shape-shifting dog Jake and a face-stealing assassin Arya Stark. This is real, however, and it's MultiVersus, the upcoming Warner Bros. platform fighter and the latest game to challenge Smash Bros. for its platform fighter throne. We got an early look at the upcoming closed alpha test, and so far MultiVersus is not only a viable challenger to Nintendo's all-star smasher, but it could be a glimpse at the future of fighting games in general.

On the surface, MultiVersus looks very similar to other platform fighting games, as the combatants zip around a stage with multiple ledges, throwing out attacks and trying to knock each other off of the screen. The names on the marquee may be different--Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman from DC Comics, Bugs Bunny and Taz from Looney Tunes, Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, etc.--but the action at a glance stays with the tried-and-true Smash Bros. formula.

It's not entirely the same, however, and nowhere is that more apparent than in 2v2 team battles. Teams are split into red and blue teams, and the first team to score four knockouts wins. This is a slightly different approach to the stock battles of Smash Bros., as knockouts act as a scored point rather than one player losing a life. This scoring format allows both players to stay in the match the entire time, rather than one remaining player being at a disadvantage. Even with this change in scoring, the team battle mode sounds similar to other games that offer it, but there's a deeper level of strategy to consider here that sets MultiVersus apart, elevating it from potential Smash Bros. clone to a game that can stand on its own two feet.