If you’ve ever played a Mortal Kombat game, you’ve probably heard the falsetto voice of game developer Dan Forden singing out the word “toasty!” If you cracked your opponent on the chin with a particularly brutal uppercut, a little pixelated portrait of the sound designer would cheekily pop up in the corner of the screen, sing ‘toasty!’, and disappear again. It became something of a Mortal Kombat staple, it’s been made into memes, and it even gets sampled in a Skrillex song (sorry to carve open that memory for you).
It’s no surprise, then, to see a reference to the Jurassic-era gaming meme referenced in Player First Games and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s take on the crossover fighting game genre, MultiVersus. Mortal Kombat developer NetherRealm publishes its games via Warner Bros, and a couple of datamines and leaks point towards Scorpion and Sub-Zero coming to the game in the future, too. The announcer even says ‘TOASTY’ in a booming voice when you get toasted, sometimes. The link is there – but MultiVersus’ toast is a world away from a little man shouting at you in the corner of your screen. It’s one of the nicest innovations in fighting games in a long while.
There’s something really special about ending a round of MultiVersus – after wrestling with a Shaggy that won’t stop hurling sandwiches at you, and a Taz spamming that infernal spin move – and seeing a little notification pop up in the top corner of the screen. “Womanlicker99 sent you toast!” Thank you, Womanlicker99! How pleasant of you. Thank you for toasting the way I played (get the pun?)
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