Marvel Rivals feels like Overwatch and Ultimate Alliance had a baby
By Brian Allen
"NetEase Games is manipulating your love of Overwatch and Marvel Comics," someone told me in discussing Marvel Rivals. "Dr. Strange is just Marvel Symmetra, and Peni Parker is just Marvel D-Va." I'm fully aware that everything they said is true. But I don't care, Marvel Rivals looks insanely fun.
The Overwatch influences are obviously there, but Activision Blizzard did not invent that wheel. Overwatch owes a huge debt to Counter-Strike, which wouldn't exist without Half-Life. Overwatch's characters unabashedly show their influences, as Captain America and Soldier 76 could easily have been separated at birth. The similarities between Overwatch's heroes and existing pop culture favorites were apparent before the current era in which each season's skins are influenced by Transformers, Cowboy Bebop, etc.
Also, another underrated game series is a pretty obvious influence.
The Ultimate Alliance games were action RPGs that focused on the various combinations of superhero powers, such as Iron Man bouncing his lasers off Captain America's shield. I don't know how or why that makes them more damaging, but it looks cool. One of my favorite parts of the Ultimate Alliance games was combining all the different heroes to see which team-ups were the most overpowered, or the prettiest.
The Marvel Rivals launch trailer gives a glimpse of Hulk and Wolverine doing a classic, the "Fastball Special."
Yes, I know it's traditionally Colossus who yeets Wolverine around like that, but he didn't make the launch lineup. I look forward to seeing him and so many of my other favorite Marvel heroes and villains down the road.
Marvel Rivals launches Dec. 6 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S and Microsoft Windows.