Just late last year, Marvel Games had a collaboration with NetEase to produce the new third-person PVP (Player vs Player), Marvel Rivals. Marvel Rivals’ roster is varied and interesting, made up of characters that both movie and comic book fans would recognize. Not only are the characters varied, but they also come with diverse abilities that fit every playstyle and entice players to try every character. Luckily for players, Marvel Rivals offers a variety of game modes outside of the usual Quick Play or Ranked options such as Practice mode, Doomatch, and Practice vs. AI, all of which players could practice or perfect characters without the hassle of dealing with real players. Additionally, because Marvel Rivals compares similarly to Overwatch 2, a first person PVP, many have speculated that Marvel Rivals will render the game obsolete due to Rivals’ steadily growing fanbase full of Marvel fans as well as the interest in updates and refreshing gameplay aspects.
Unlike Overwatch 2, Marvel Rivals has the benefit of having eighty-five years of comics and movies to add to its roster of playable characters. This means that Rivals will never run out of characters to add to its game as exemplified by the recent addition of the Fantastic Four members. Thus, the question arises of who they will add. The question excites Rivals’ player fanbase, possibly incentivizing them to continue playing for their favorite characters to release, which is similar to that of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s DLC. On the topic of incentives, Marvel Rivals utilizes the comic/movie character’s large influence to capitalize on skins and customization. Because Marvel Rivals’ characters take more inspiration from their comic designs than they do in the MCU, Rivals has made their cake and eaten it by making skins of their movie versions as well to incentivize movie fans. As President of the Gaming Club, Nico Lawes ‘27, speculated, “I believe Marvel Rivals is a fairly good game for both beginners and veteran players of the standard third-person shooter. And it is a great way for Marvel to show their gaming department as they have taken the time to properly research and input ideas from the Marvel comics.”
Like Overwatch 2, Marvel Rivals is facing post-launch growing pains as players move past the “honeymoon” phase. One major issue has been character balance. In Season 0, Hawkeye and Hela dominated both Quick Play and Ranked matches—Hawkeye’s oversized hitbox made landing lethal headshots too easy, while Hela’s damage output and ultimate ability allowed her to take down multiple opponents effortlessly. Many damage-dealer characters share this problem, with overpowered ultimate abilities requiring minimal effort. Meanwhile, support heroes like Luna Snow create the opposite issue—her ultimate grants near-invincibility to teammates for 12 seconds, making her a must-ban in high-level play. While Hawkeye and Hela were patched before Season 1, Luna remains unchanged. On the flip side, some characters—like Black Widow—are rarely picked due to their lackluster abilities. Last season, Storm and Wolverine also struggled but received buffs in Season 1. Whether Marvel Rivals will consistently fine-tune its roster remains to be seen.
Though Season 1 seemed to be the start of a “real” season after the launch of Marvel Rivals, it still received some backlash with how it handled its Ranked game mode. Marvel Games added a new tier in-between two high ranks: Grandmaster and Eternity, as well as making the decision that all ranked players, no matter their rank, had to decrease seven tiers at the start of the season. Seven tiers are the equivalent of two full ranks meaning that if you were in Gold, you had to restart back to the lowest tier: Bronze. As a result, many had to climb up the ranks to get to their original rank, pushing through new, low skilled players and similar experienced players trying to do the same thing. This was especially tough for players who played without a full six team as current Grandmaster tier and self-proclaimed “best Marvel Rivals player in Bishop O’Dowd”, Ethan Tam ‘27 expressed, “I was sad when I got pushed back to Silver because I was Diamond rank and then when I tried to go back, I had to go against sweats; it became a sweat-fest. In my opinion they need to derank players one tier at most.” Luckily for players, Marvel Games had recently announced that they are halting tier resets midway through the current season so players are saved from grinding the Ranked gamemode for now.
In conclusion, Marvel Rivals will prove the test of time to be a success for Marvel Games and Netease. With a combination of rapid new characters and skins and an active fanbase, Marvel Rivals is sure to beat out the PVP competition and keep players satisfied for a long duration of time. It is up to time to tell whether Rivals will grow out of their fanbase of Marvel fans and PVP enjoyers and out into the wider public.
