Marvel Rivals is a third-person hero shooter video game that came out last year on December 6th. It has some of the most popular Marvel characters like Iron Man, Spider-Man, Captain America, Wolverine, and many more to come. Its gameplay is a 6v6 shooter with roles such as Vanguards(tanks), dualists(damage), and strategists(support). There are multiple possibilities when forming your team. You could be a full tank team which, surprisingly, some people pull off; or you can be the one everybody chooses, which is 2 Vanguards, 2 dualists, and 2 strategists. Currently, the game has seven maps and 3 core game modes.

Now it is no surprise that every game that has come out over the last two years has a battle pass and Marvel Rivals isn’t an exception. Its battle pass isn’t something new, you have your game currencies and skins with some sprays and emoticons too. The game is full of missions that help you unlock in-game currency and free skins for characters.

Marvel Rivals Season One was released on January 10th, 2025, introducing Ms. and Mr. Fantastic with Johnny Storm and The Thing being released later in the season. In case you haven’t heard, a new Fantastic Four movie is releasing this year. The fact that Marvel Rivals added the Fantastic Four means that we can expect more Marvel characters to be released because of some MCU movies coming out this year. The game even promised to add a new character every month and a half to keep everyone excited. There are over 80,000 characters in the Marvel multiverse; the possibilities are endless on who we’ll get next.

With the arrival of Marvel Rivals, it has only grown in popularity. The game has great gameplay that will improve with each update. We can’t talk about Marvel Rivals without talking about the infamous Overwatch. Overwatch was originally released in 2016, but later on shut down in 2022 to start the release of Overwatch 2, which came out later in 2022. The game has been active ever since and is currently in season 14. Overwatch originally began as a 6v6 but later changed into a 5v5. Although they added a new game mode that allows players to experience the 6v6 experience, it’s not the same as it used to be.

The game has been active for many years, and having Marvel Rivals against it may be negative, but competition might help Overwatch improve. The games have very similar gameplay because they are both hero shooters, but there are clear differences between both games. One of them is the queue time; Marvel Rivals’ queue time has been nothing but spectacular, with some queues lasting over a second. But when it comes to Overwatch, some queues have lasted over an hour long with the usual taking 5 to 10 minutes to load into a match.

Ever since its release, it has been doing great with players and the community has been nothing but active, but with its popularity there also comes controversy. Ever since Marvel Rivals was announced, the Overwatch community has had split opinions over the game. Some people call it a clear copy while others are quite interested in trying the game.

Before it even came out, a Black Widow reveal trailer was posted online, it caused an ex-president of Blizzard to go onto Social media to state that the popular Marvel character Black Widow was a clear copy
of Widowmaker. Ex-president Mike Ybarra said, “I mean even the character name – Widowmaker in OW vs. Black Widow in Marvel and NetEase Games Marvel Rivals lol.” What Mr. Yabarra forgot to look at is that Black Widow has had her name since 1964, more than 54 years before OW was released.

It was discovered and later announced that Marvel Rivals would put players against bots if they were on a losing streak this had the community with mixed feelings although the intentions are sincere wanting the players to feel like they finally won after so long it does remove the fun of playing knowing you just won against bots.

Let’s focus more on what goes on in the community, many fans of both games have made social media videos just throwing dirt at each other. Some have come to accept both games and still play them but others are strictly chained to only one of the games and constantly fight with different people for wanting to play both games. Toxicity will always lurk around in video games, which is no exception with Marvel Rivals. Having the freedom to choose between 3 different classes in one match might lead to some teams without any healers, leading to some players getting a bit angry even with Overwatch. Although you already preselect your class, players will still be mad if they think you aren’t doing enough heals or damage.

With both games being free to play, there is no right or wrong choice on which one you choose to play. If you play Overwatch, you might enjoy Marvel Rivals. If you play Marvel Rivals, you might hate Overwatch. But you never know, they both might impress you. Don’t let this rivalry get in your way of thinking, feel free to try whatever game is in your mind, and remember to have fun while doing it.