WB Games’ upcomingMultiVersustitle seeks to bring characters together from throughout the Warner Bros. catalog. Fighters from countless properties are set to come together in a free-to-play platform fighter to team up and beat the stuffing out of each other. Out of all the companies approaching platform fighters, it makes sense for Warner Bros. to be putting forth such an effort. Several of its films in the past few years have leaned heavily on the manydifferent properties that Warner Bros. has access to. Seeing them in a crossover fighting game like this is the dream of many a fan, and hopefully, the roster will continue to bring in favorites for the foreseeable future.
One particularly popular pick with the internet is Shaggy from theScooby-Doofranchise. Shaggy has been around since the very beginning as Scooby’s owner and best friend. The two of them are like two peas in a pod, sharing personalities and interests to the point of being almost a single character. It feels odd to see Shaggy inMultiVersuswithout Scooby, but the door is still open for the rest of Mystery Inc. to show up. As it stands, there are reasons why Shaggy is here by himself, and many of them point to internet memes as inspiration.
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Why MultiVersus’ Shaggy Seems Like Goku
Shaggy’s design inMultiVersusis not like the other characters. While some like Arya Stark have slightly exaggerated abilities, Shaggy does not normally fight in his home series. There could have been an attempt made to simulate his cowardly personality, love of food, and cartoonish ploys and traps. He could have even been approached as a dual character with Scooby like Tom and Jerry were.
However, Shaggy was instead made to fight in a manner reminiscent ofDragon Ball’s own Goku. Shaggy can charge himself up in a manner visually identical to ki charging inDragon Balland can acquire yellow, red, and blue auras, which allcorrespond to Goku’s super forms. This is justified in the game’s lore by having Shaggy eat a mysterious crystal, but there is another real-life reason why he’s like this.
In 2017, footage of the 2011 filmScooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaurwhere an amnesic Shaggy gets into a fistfight with a gang began circulating online. It was paired with the theme music used inDragon Ball Superformoments where Goku entered Ultra instinct. This spiraled into years of jokes and image edits of Shaggy being absurdly powerful, on par with the strongestDragon Ballcharacters, and using tiny fractions of that power to accomplish incredible feats. This “Ultra Instinct Shaggy” is the interpretation thatMultiVersusis using for the character, and it can only be described as a stroke of genius.
Why Ultra Instinct Shaggy’s Appearance is So Significant
Super Smash Bros.fans have been asking for Goku inSmashfor a long time. Even after Masahiro Sakurai made it clear that only video game characters would be considered for the roster, this did not stop some fans from genuinely wanting him. Several fan projects designed different takes on Goku, but withBattle Stadium DONandJump Super Starsgrowing further and further away, it’s looking like fans aren’t going to see Goku officially appear in a platform fighter anytime soon. This take on Shaggy may be the next best thing, and it’s clear that he is meant to be deeply referential tomartial arts works thatScooby-Doonormally has little to do with.
There’s also the fact that fans often get excited when an official workacknowledges a fandom in-joke or meme. WB properties have plenty of experience with this already, with manyBatmanworks being deeply self-referential nowadays, and Big Chungus showing up in recentLooney Tunesmedia. It’s pretty easy for this sort of stuff to come off as pandering, but in a game that’s already a crossover fighter and with a character who is so finely tuned to be this reference, Ultra Instinct Shaggy is probably one of the better memes to appear in an official capacity.
TheScooby-Dooproperty may not be tripping over itself to reference something like this, butMultiVersusis the perfect place for it, and it can only benefit the game to throw in a little something extra for the fans.
MultiVersusis set to release in 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
