Video Gamers Podcast - [Deep Dive] Marvelous Marvel Rivals [REMASTERED] - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: January 23, 2026

(More than ONE YEAR after release lets look back at our original thoughts) Hosts Ryan and Josh are BACK BABY! We ended our break early because the world is abuzz about Marvel Rivals, and we're here to chat our thoughts on it.  Marvel Rivals is taking the video game world by storm, but does it have legs or is it a gaming fad? Is it an Overwatch clone, or something a little more? We break it all down in another awesome video game review episode from your favorite gaming podcast!   Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps and NorwegianGreaser, and Dettmarp   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: HypnoticPyro, PeopleWonder, Bobby S.   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/videogamerspod⁠ Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/kKA7EMyM Follow us on Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/⁠  Follow us on X:⁠ https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod⁠  Subscribe to us on YouTube:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1⁠    Visit us on the web:⁠https://videogamerspod.com/⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, fellow duelists? Well, let's be honest, no one plays strategists or vanguard. And welcome to the video gamers podcast. We're supposed to be on break for the holidays, but we just can't help ourselves. So we're back early and we're going to be covering the new hotness that is Marvel rivals. But first, some introductions are in order. I am your host, Josh. And joining me, he Installox Moot's Moot.

night and he's been staring at more cake than a baker. It's Ryan. Come on now. Come on now. I feel like Martha Stewart with all this cake going on. Oh, the cake shop is open. It is open for business. All are welcome. They're superheroes, man. Of course they do squats. Absolutely. That's what they're here for. Yeah, exactly. This is just a realistic representation of, you know, fictional characters, God bless it. Oh boy. Well, Ryan, here we are. Hopefully the listeners are like, wait a minute. I thought we weren't getting a new episode till 2025. Yeah, right. Syke, this is just a pre-recorded intro. We're going to start the rewind here now. Yeah. Just kidding. No, no, we're back. Dude, we have been playing Marvel rivals. We know so many people that have been playing this game. It is taking the world by storm. You and I have been playing a good bit together. Yes. which has been a blast.

We've been playing with Ace of Shame and some of the other listeners. And I mean, honestly, it's just one of those games that lends itself to, you know, if you want to play with us, come play with us. It's just a bunch of fun, man. But we were talking about it and we said, man, it feels like it's been forever since we recorded a new episode. Yeah, yeah. And it's, you know, Christmas was yesterday.

It was. I think we're in the giving spirit. And we just said, man, we got to do a Marvel ride. We got to get on. We miss the people. We miss talking to everybody who miss sharing our wealth or lack of wealth of knowledge. But we're just like, we're probably just overly excited. So we wanted to record. Us over excited about video games? That doesn't sound like us at all. So, you know, here we are. We're going to be covering Marvel rivals. Don't worry, our most anticipated games of 2025 episode comes out Thursday. Thursday. We are back. Ryan. We are back, baby. We are back. We are back. Yeah, this is not a one-timer. We're back. The show is back on. We've got new episodes. Thanks for everybody that listened to our repeat episodes. Those were good episodes, man. I was just listening to the Pacific Drive one this morning on my way to work. And I was like,

I remember why we hated this game so much now. I saw that when I looked and I saw it because I didn't know what episode you were going to throw up. And I saw Pacific Drive. I'm like, he would put that episode up. I'm not listening to it. I don't want to bring up those old wounds. No, we have always said we are gamers. We're not experts. And I was thinking about like, what's a game that was disappointing to us? Because, you know, we, we do not do the, oh, every game's great. It has something to be praised kind of thing. We're also not rage baiters. So we're not slamming every game that comes out and talking about how terrible it is and stuff like that. We are just honest to goodness lifelong gamers. And so not every game is going to resonate.

with us. And I thought, you know what, I want to play this episode again for people because number one, it came out early in the year. And number two, it was a big disappointment to us. And I wanted to kind of put it out there because it was a game that we were very hyped for. Yeah, yeah. And it just goes to show you that we're not always going to be right on things that we think are going to be great. And that's just part of being a gamer, man. Sometimes a game's not going to live up to the expectations you have. And I think Pacific Drive more so than like Dragon Age Vailguard caught us off guard with how disappointed we were. Like, we knew with Dragon Age Vailgard that there was a good chance that that game was going

to suck. Yeah. Things looked a little wonky. Yeah. I know. And so I was like, Pacific Drive, man. That's the one. That's the one.

And then, yeah, it just, man, it was just such a letdown. Because I don't think our expectations were there, but they weren't to the height that Dragon Age was or you expected to be from your previous play, you know, in the series. But speaking of love, though, and I think we got a lot of people that, we got a, show some appreciation to, right? Oh, my goodness. So, you know, we have always said that we do this podcast because we are passionate about gaming, but, you know, it is the support of the listeners that keeps this show going.

And I think we're going on year four or five now, dude, of doing this podcast. You are a vet. You are a veteran, my friend. Yeah. And so it's, you know, we would not be doing this still to this day if it wasn't through the support of the listeners. And so we have always said if you like the content, if we make your commute better, if we make your gym session better, if we make your chores better, think about supporting the show.

You can do that over at Multiplayer Squad.com. You can sign up for as little as five bucks a month, which is nothing nowadays, but it really does go a long way to help. And Ryan, man, we've been off for two weeks. And in that two weeks, we got seven new supporters. Merry Christmas to us, man. Yeah, I mean, just Merry Christmas to the show. So we want to thank all these people that signed up for our rare status.

And that is going to be Carl Winslow, the one and only. We've got Logan. We've got Riley Dismukes. We've got Nick Eifert, Mario Romo, and Dave Bro. Bro. All signed up for Rare Status to support the show. Thank you so much to every. single one of you. And then we had a fine gentleman by the name of Detmerp sign up for epic status.

Detmerp came out of nowhere, Ryan, into our lives, hopped into the Discord server says, hey man, I've been listening for a while, figured I'd finally check out this community that you guys are hyping up. Do we lie about how awesome our Discord server is, Ryan? I don't think you do. We try to draw everyone in with the pod and people are. like, oh, cool, these guys are all right. They're decent. We're not kidding about the Discord community. Everyone that comes in just absolutely becomes almost part of a family.

It's literally a community where everyone greets each other every morning. We talk about our lives. We talk about what games we're playing, what recommendations. It's just, it's such a cool thing to be a part of and to see. And everyone else says the same that's in there. It's pretty awesome. Yeah. And not to call out Detmerp, but it was funny because he said, you know, I love the podcast. And I've been listening for a while. But once he joined the Discord server, that's when he was like, okay, I'm going to support the show because this community is awesome.

Yeah, you guys were kidding. And I was like, well, take it, man. However, you know, we're not picky. Spread the word. Yeah. Thank you to all of you and to everybody that continues to support this podcast. There is a reason that we are the top independent gaming podcast. there and it is because of our listeners and because of the passion that you all have for gaming, we are very humbled by it. We're very thankful for it as well. And we've got some big things in store for 2025, Ryan. It's going to be a good year, buddy. Good year. So, well, you know, let's do this, Ryan. Let's get into Marvel rivals. I can't remember because we've been, we've talked about Marvel rivals a few times. We covered it when it was announced. You know, we talked about it. it a few times leading up to its open beta that it had. I can't remember. Did you get to play the open beta at all? I did not. I don't remember if I just wasn't selected or with or with I missed the

timeline or the window or whatever, but I know you did, but I wasn't able to play it. And I honestly really wasn't that jealous at the time. You know, I wasn't really that the, you know, it was just kind of like one of those things. But yeah, I was I wasn't able to hop in and check it out. So it's, all right. So then your first playtime was just the actual release of Marvel Rivals then. Yep. Because I do remember getting into the beta and I do remember playing it. I famously am a huge fan of Overwatch. It's one of my favorite games ever.

It's probably my second most played game as far as ours. One not two. You know, yeah. And Overwatch just infuriates me. So when this clone of Overwatch came out, but with Marvel characters, it really drew my attention. There was something instantly familiar about it. I played the beta. I went, dude, this game's actually kind of fun, man. All right. All right. You know, yeah, like, exactly. It was kind of like, okay, this is, this is not bad. And I had a good time. And then the beta went away,

and then it was just gone for a couple months. Well, lo and behold, the game finally releases. You have a chance to jump in. I jump back in because I go, hey, you know, that was a fun time that I had. And we're going to cover it because we've been playing it a good bit. And if you've been living under a rock or you're just not on social media at all, that maybe you haven't seen like the gazillion reels and TikToks that are out about this game now. But it is taking the world by storm. They had 20 million people, 20 million that have picked up and played Marvel rivals.

It's got a huge concurrent player count going on. Like this is, this is the current hotness. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. It's one of those things. Like you said, everything I look at. on Instagram or any of those social media platforms.

It's just all how to play this character, how to play that character. Or, oh, look at this, that happened. You know, just highlights and clips and reels and stuff. It's one of those that you can tell when everybody's on it and everybody's playing it. And it's trending hard when all the Twitch streamers, all the social media kind of platform people just are making content about it. You know that it's pulling in numbers and it's pulling in people. And maybe for good, you know, maybe for bad.

you don't know, but it's definitely, it's trending hard. It is trending hard. And, you know, like I said, we wanted to cover this game because we have seen a lot of people asking if it's actually that fun. Like, so I think the, I think like the general consensus is, I'm seeing a lot of chatter about Marvel rivals, but is it actually fun? Is this just a flash in the pan? Is this the hotness for, you know, the month of December?

But then it's going to just fade away into obscurity in another month. So that is actually the kind of topic that I want to chat about for a second because I know you, you've been playing way more than me. I've still been on that path of exile too, Gride. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I have absolutely been hopping in with you guys when I know that there's, I have friends playing. I've actually hopped in solo quite a few times to just kind of practice a character or something like that.

But fully admitting that we're probably in that honeymoon phase right now, are we in the honeymoon phase. Like, do you think that this game's just a fad and a flavor of the month? Or do you think, based on the gameplay and the merit of the game itself, that it actually has legs to stand on and will be around and popular in another few months? You know, I was thinking hard on this one, because it is, you know, with the way things are and in the way the world is with content and data and just everything is so fast, so fast moving, and everybody's always on to another thing. You know, it's, it's, what's next? next, what's the next best thing, what's the next thing that I can sink my time into?

I do genuinely think that this has a little bit of stain power. I think that the tie-in with long trending, you know, like Marvel characters that have been around for 60, 70, 80 years, you know, however long it's been, maybe not 80, but, but for a long time, you know, you've had these characters that everybody's familiar with. Your parents, your grandparents know the characters. So you can show them and they'll be like, oh, that's Iron Man or oh, that's Captain America. You know, they'll know who it is. And so you instantly have that tie in.

It's not just some random character. And then I think the fact that they can trickle in so many other characters and other skins and kind of use that little bit of the Fortnite kind of type architect to where they can just keep people interested. Because I'll tell you one thing, like I'm a big fan of the Moon Knight character. I love ancient Egypt. That's part of the reason. But me and Ace were talking about the movie from the show. You can get the skin with all the linen wrappings. And I'm like, okay, I usually don't buy stuff on games, but I'm going to buy that.

Like, I have to have it. It's one of those things. And so I think that ability to just draw people in with the recognition of Marvel and then the fun gameplay, I think is really going to give it some kind of legs to stand on for a long time. I agree with you. 100%. And it's one of those things. I have always been a fan of character shooters. Again, I've not hidden my love and disdain for Overwatch and then Overwatch 2 over the years. I still hop into Overwatch a few times a week to play with my daughter because she's huge into it.

But there is something about Marvel rivals that is catching on. And I think people were very hungry for a quality hero shooter. and I think that this is it. And I think people that have been playing Overwatch like myself for so long have just kind of stuck with it because it's familiar and it's comfortable. But it's also grown very stale and it has its aggravations. And with Marvel rivals, it's got that familiarity to it that kind of gives you that comfort, but it's got the newness that is really drawing people in, especially people like myself, where if you ask me, would you, like, you know, right now you want to play, Overwatch you want to play Marvel rivals. I'm going to say Marvel rivals. Rivals. Hands down. Yeah. You know, and so I do think it has staying power. I think with the way that they've set this

game up, with the way that they have just released it with all the characters, they're not trying to monetize this to death. You know, they're not dangling the battle pass and stuff in front of people, you know, like we're not seeing a lot of the predatory stuff that really throws gamers off. Yeah. At least yet. And the fact that people have brought their friend groups over to Marvel Rivals, they're having fun with it, there's something there. I think it's going to stay, you know, maybe it's not going to stay at 20 million players or something like that necessarily, but I do think Marvel Rivals is here to stay as the kind of premier hero shooter out there. I think it's displaced Overwatch and I think it's probably going to

stay there for quite some time, man. All right, Ryan. Now, I've mentioned Overwatch quite a few times. So this is, let's just talk about the elephant in the room. Okay? Because I mean, you'd have to be blind to look at Marvel rivals and look at Overwatch and go, these games seem very similar. And Overwatch has been out for a long time. Marvel rivals has only been out for a few weeks now. So is Marvel rivals a rip-off of Overwatch?

This is hard. Just be honest. I see science. because this is this is what's hard it's like there's a concept for this game as a whole but but like it's a hero shooter like there's only so many ways you can go about it now I will say some of the abilities and techniques that you do and almost the characters are like a direct rip off oh you know it's like copy paste but I think um it is it is something that it is very similar but I think it stands alone with some unique features and the unique kind of play style you can do and the

pairings you can do with the characters. So yes and no, does that count? I'm just going to call it. It's a rip off. It is a rip off of Overwatch. That's not a bad thing. That like I need, you know, there's a lot of people that's look, it's not a rip off, man. It's got the, you know, the team up system and it's got all these characters. Yeah, see, there's some stuff. It's a little different. It's a rip off. And I am absolutely okay with that. The character abilities in this game are literally, like, it's like they took every skill in Overwatch and

said, okay, we're gonna make Star Lord. And they threw a dart and the dart just landed squarely on Tracer. And they went, okay, well, he's got a blink. He can reload. He's fast and zippy. Super easy to kill.

Okay. And then who's next? Who's next? Ooh, let's do Thor. And they threw a dart and it kind of landed between like Doomfist and Reinhart. And then they went, okay, well, we'll give them this ability and that ability. And so it, I feel like it is a rip off of Overwatch. But I think that that is actually a very smart thing that they did.

And I don't fault them for it at all because, number one, Overwatch was the premier game. People are comfortable with that. If you can take that level of comfort and import it into a game for people, it's going to be a win. It's a win for me. when I'm playing Marvel rivals, guess what? It's instantly familiar to me. Like, I'm like, oh, this guy's got this leap ability. Okay, cool.

Like, I know how to use that. I've been using it for years. Oh, this guy's just a pure shooter. The Punisher? Soldier 76. Yeah. What? Like, okay, I'm instantly know how to play that guy.

And so it's, like, I think that it was very, very smart that they borrowed all this stuff from Overwatch and just instantly made it comfortable. But, like you said, I do think that they improved on a lot of things. in a lot of ways as well. We'll get into the gameplay and some of the character stuff here in just a little bit. But, you know, we've seen that question too

is this is just a rip off of Overwatch. Why should I play it? And it's like, because it's different enough that it really makes you want to play it. And it's, whether it's in that honeymoon phase or not, it's in that honeymoon phase. So it's just a blast right now. Either way, you'll have fun.

Like, you'll have a good time. It's literally the kicker, right? You're going to have a good time no matter what. So, okay. one difference. And this is a big difference for a lot of people. My daughter, who I mentioned earlier, who has been playing Overwatch just a ton, is she tried Marvel rivals. And she said, Dad, I don't like the third person perspective. I think it's a great game. It plays kind of like Overwatch. Like, I think it's a solid game, but I can't get past the third person perspective.

Does that alter anything for you? Do you like it? Do you wish it was first person? Let's talk about that for a second. Because it feels different enough to like see your whole character and have that view. And it changes some of like the viewing angles on corners and stuff like that. So what do you think about that? I like both.

I'm a big first person guy. I played a lot of shooters growing up, especially in the time of Half-Life Counter-Strike. you know, Battlefield, all those first person shooters. But I also, some of my favorite games ever is these third person games that you're just kind of have that little kind of over-cocked-right angle and it feels comfortable to me. And so to have a shooter like this that I can use the abilities and I can use the angles that I can stay out of sight. You know, I've done it before where I'll stay just a little off cocked left and I can see

where they are, pop out, shoot, pop back in, you know. and you can do that without having to use any sort of kind of real cover mechanics. To me, I like it. I do enjoy it that way. It just feels good, especially with the abilities, the different characters that I prefer to use have. It just all melds right for me. So, yeah, I'd like the third person, you know, personally. It's really a non-issue for me.

Like, I can play either. I think if you ask me, like, I prefer the first person, viewpoint, but I will say when you have a game like Marvel rivals, it would look really funny as me to just see like Mulder in my hand as Thor and then me just swinging it in front of me. You know, like seeing these fantastic superheroes in these villains in all their glory kind of makes sense to me from that third person viewpoint. And so I get why they did it. It actually works in my opinion as well. So for somebody like me, it's a non-issue. And I, and I'm fine with either, but it does matter to people.

Like there are people out there that just go, dude, I can't stand the third person viewpoint. And that's what's throwing me off. And it's like, I get it, but it doesn't really, it doesn't matter to me. You know, I would say I prefer first person, but in this case with Marvel rivals, it doesn't change anything as far as my ability to hop in and enjoy the game or play the game for that matter. And I think real quick, too, I think that's part of, um, there's a reason I think, because you see, every character is recognizable.

Every character is somebody's favorite Marvel superhero. You see the character on the screen. You're playing that character. So I think that's part of it is your Iron Man or your Thor, you know, and you can see yourself being them. Whereas in first person, it's not as much, you know, that you get to see. But I don't know. Yeah, you're only their fists or their hands or their gun at that point, not like the actual character themselves. So, all right, Ryan, well, talking about the characters, we are.

going, there's 33 characters in this game. We are not going to dive into 33 characters. We'd be here for two hours. But we are going to talk about a few of those right after this short break. All right. We are back. You know, what's a hero shooter, Ryan, without heroes? Right. And, you know, we call it a hero shooter, but I love the fact that there's villains in this game as well. And that you can be the villains if you want. You know, so let's get into a little bit about the characters and the way that this game is set up. Now, you know, a hero shooter, I love, I absolutely love when you have a role to play in a game

because it lets me find what I'm good at and it lets me fill that role and play the game kind of the way that I want to play it. And then on top of that, if I start to get bored with one of those roles, I can hop into a different role and it feels like a completely different game for me at that point. And this is one reason that Overwatch I have stuck with over the years And it's one reason Marvel Rivals is so enticing to me right now is because I want to learn the roles.

I want to be a good tank. I want to learn how to heal. Let's be honest, I already know how to DPS, you know, but in this game, you know, it would be too simple if we called them tank DPS in support, Ryan. No, change it up. We can't call them that. What can you do? Come up with something crazy. The Hulk's not a tank.

What is the Hulk? He's a, what's a word we could use to describe? What's a good one? That's just kind of like a tank, but totally different. Somebody that leads the charge maybe. Oh, what about that word, Vanguard? Oh, those are the guys up front, right? The Vanguard leads the charge, right?

There you go. Okay, so we're going to call them vangards. And then DPS, hmm, you know, these guys, we don't want to just put them in this niche role where all they have to do is damage. They're going to be fighting other heroes and villains. and maybe even 1 v1 or something, you know. Yeah, like, I mean, it's important to win those 1 v ones. Yeah, almost like they're dueling or something, you know.

Let's call them duelists, right. Oh, that's brilliant. I love it. Oh, my goodness. Okay, well, wait, wait, now do the healers. Okay, well. Wait, oh, we can't call them healers. Nobody calls them healers anymore.

Even Overwatch calls them supports. Yeah, you got to do something that there's, there's something behind it. Why, why they're doing what they do. Almost like there's... They're usually in the back, like, seeing everything that's happening. Create, like, something in their head. They're, like, strategizing what they have to do to heal everyone.

What if we call them healers? No, no, no. I just said we can't call them healers. You said strategy? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's call strategists. Perfect. I love it.

I love it. We did it in America. All right. We should be in a board room, man. I was going to say this is the board meeting that happened where they're like, we can't call them just tanks, healers and DPS. We got to come up with these weird terms. I'll be honest.

I had to look up the terms. Like, I know the icons. Like in game, right? Where it's like the fist and it's the open hand. And then I was like, I don't know what these things are called, man. I still just call them tank dealer, he PSS. I'm like, oh, we're all DPS. Dang it.

Yeah. Come on. Somebody go tank, man. So they do call them Vanguard's duelist and strategist. This is everything you have come to know and love about hero shooters. Every character is placed into a role. And they're very good at whatever that particular. role is.

What's your favorite role, Ryan? Man, one could only imagine. I want to roll Moon Night plays. Moon Night for Life. I am a duelist for sure. That is my go-to. I love to just hit that 15K, 17-K damage and just pepper people with damage. Yeah.

I default into the dualist role. so the DPS role because I think I'm pretty good at it. It's actually not the role that I prefer, believe it or not. So I like playing Healer and I like playing Tank. The problem for me is that I'm having a hard time coming to grips with the tanks in this game because they're so different that I need to learn a tank. And it's funny because literally over the last 24 hours and in our Discord server, I even said, like, I just started playing Thor last night to dabble in this guy.

Like, I need to learn a tank. because that's the role that I really enjoy playing, but I'm just getting wrecked. And so it's been hard, but, you know, I think that's where I want to land up as being a very good tank, but I'm also very happy playing support or strategist in this case as well.

This is another thing that this game has nailed is it is fun to play a support class. It is fun to play the tanks. You know, just because you are healing people doesn't mean that you're not having a ton of utility or even DPS capabilities and stuff like that. I think that's a masterful way to make it fun to heal and tank at the same time for those classes. But let's be honest, you get five duelists and maybe one healer or maybe one tank. You know, I was trying to learn tank last night.

I hopped in and it was I instillocked Thor and then I saw five DPS and I just went, come on. Oh, no heels for you, buddy. I swapped a healer instead just because it was like, we don't need another DPS. But yeah, I mean, that's the way it goes. I like, I personally, I like being heels too. I enjoy the, almost a challenge because it's kind of wild in this game, especially too, because it is so chaotic. You have to be pinned on your guys and you have to heal them.

And it is tough. And it's just one of those things where like in Battlefield, I was, I loved going medic because I would just drop med packs everywhere. I'm running over with the crash card, bringing back guys and let's go, let's go. So, but I do just love melting faces. So it's fine. And they make it easy to do that with some of these characters as well. Okay.

So there is a roster of 33 characters in this game. They were all available at release. Again, no buying a character nonsense or anything like that right now. We don't have time to dive into 33 characters. But what I do want to do is maybe. just pick one or two and why they stand out to you or maybe what it is about them that makes this game fun or you kind of unique or something like that. So Ryan, I've been teasing you about Moon Knight this whole time. I have not played a single match of Moon Night. What? I have no clue

what Moon Knight plays like because I know that that's your guy. And as your bro, I'm not stealing your guy from you. What a bro. I would give you the opportunity as long as you wanted, man, to test them out for sure. I'm going to talk about my girl Hela here in a minute. So, you know, but so like, let's talk about Moon Knight for a second. You know, as your favorite character, he is a, we're just going to call him DPS, right? He is a DPS character. But what is it about Moon Knight that makes him stand out to you? What are some of his abilities? Like, you know, how does he play in the game, so to speak? So the one thing that's cool about this is a lot of these different characters also have, I mean, your mobility is pretty substantially different between,

different characters. So with Moon Knight, I love you have a grappling hook ability. You have this kind of almost Arkham Batman kind of glide ability where you can glide through the map. And it's something that you can move quickly to the area. And then if the team, you know, I've noticed people are starting to figure out, this is part of the thing where everyone's starting to figure out characters, what they can do, their abilities, how to defend against it. And that's the nice part about there being so many is there's always a counter. Even if someone, but he's O.P. There's a counter to it. So with Moon Knight, the stuff that I loved is if you get in the right spots, he's a little bit of a kind of a mid-range. He's not, he's not up close. You got to get

mid-range or further back. You can throw these onks, which are just like these little symbols you can throw. And then everything you throw to that will 100% damage and hit anyone in that cone of five yards and then you can pair them up within or five meters then you can pair them up within seven meters you can have two out at a time so if you get in the right spot at a choke point you can just do insane damage and if people don't shoot them and damage them from the other team you just wipe them every time they come into that area and it's just everything is an automatic hit so it's one of those that i don't know maybe just hits my dopamine right but when i get in a right spot and i can just wipe a team and just get four or five kills, like just like that from my regular attack,

not even my ultimate. I love it. So, so Moon Knight with the mobility and just the, the crazy DPS you can do if you do it right is, uh, is awesome. His angs are like traps almost, right? Like I see them and they create like an area of effect around them. But if do they do anything if you're not shooting them? Like if I'm just standing in this field of an onk, like nothing happens. It just sits there. It's, it's benign. It does nothing at all unless I throw my attack at it, then it will transfer it to whoever's in that kind of cone of damage. But they can damage them and break them so they're gone.

But other than that, they just kind of sit there and do absolutely nothing unless you're attacking them and people are in them. What's funny is people don't pay attention to the Aux very much. Like, I put around last night, there was literally two of them on our cart. Like we're moving the payload. I always do that. There's just an enemy Aks sitting there. And I'm like, does nobody see this thing?

So I turned around and shot it, but I was just like, come on, guys. I was just this morning, I was playing as Jeff, the healer, you know, and I see the onks on the cart and nobody's attacking. I'm like, what do you guys do? So as a healer, I'm taking out extra things, like, and then trying to keep everybody healed. So it's one of those things you kind of got to know what the characters do I knew because I play Moon Knight.

But yeah, it's just, oh, man, it's, it's, I'm an instant lock unless I have to do something else. So grapple hook, the ability to flow these AEOE kind of ability, uh, ability skills. Every character has an old. So Moon Knight, you know, you can do a lot with him. Yeah. You know, as far as the getting around the battlefield, setting up these traps, you know, everybody just has a standard basic attack where, you know, you just shoot people and then that does a chunk of health and stuff like that too. For me, I really enjoy playing like a wide variety of characters until I find who I kind of land on as far as, oh, I like had a really good

match with that person. Hela to me is, is my girl. She is so, simple in theory, but she is so effective if you can aim. Yes. So Hella is a DPS character. If you've ever played Zen Yada in Overwatch, that is basically like her attack, right? It's like Zen throwing the orbs, which I'm terrible at Zen Yada in Overwatch. But for some reason, Hella just throws these swords and they wreck people. So much damage.

Wreck people if you can hit them. or if you hit a headshot. So she is a kind of mid-tier to even longer-range character. And I just sit back and I throw these swords at people. And I have decent aim. And I think that pays off in this game because I just- Don't tell yourself, sure. You got good aim, dude.

I've been obliterating people as hella. And it's just been so glorious. And then on top of that, I figured out that one of the most OP hated characters in the game by the name of Iron Fist. Yes. We'll talk about him a little bit later

when we talk about balance. He can counter Iron Fist very well because she gets a stun ability and then I can just throw a sword straight into his stupid face and it almost one-shots him and it just completely shuts Iron Fist down

and we figured this out and it was the greatest thing ever because now it's like, oh, okay, I'll deal with him. You know, let him come to me. But she's just a simple, just hit your shots from far away roll and I love it because it's just that really satisfying sound when you hit the headshot that tink, tink sound. And then it's like, oh, they're dead. And then it's like, I'll just start

counting like, okay, one's, there's two, there's three. Oh, I got four boys. You know, and then it's just, it's a good time. So, okay, we can't spend forever on characters, Ryan, but we, we have to talk about Jeff because Jeff is taken over the world. Jeff is a land shark. I had to idea that Jeff actually existed in the Marvel universe. I thought this was just a play by the developers to have the cutest freaking creature you could imagine in a video game that is a hero shooter. Jeff is a freaking shark. He's just a land shark, dude. But Jeff is the happiest the shark you have ever seen. Jeff is a fantastic healer. Absolutely great. So you instantly love Jeff because he's healing the crap out of you. And then Jeff's old.

allows him to swallow everybody in an area and then run them to the edge of the map and then spit them all off into oblivion. And so he gets these crazy play of the games as well. The reason I bring up Jeff is because I saw quite possibly the best cosmetic in a video game that I have ever seen in my life. And you were there. I think you were there when we hopped in and I don't remember if it was ace or who it was, but had Jeff, but Jeff was wearing a fuzzy pink dolphin costume in game. Yes. And I went, is, what is that? And then everybody started laughing.

And it's like, oh, it's a dolphin costume. And I went, why is he dressed up like a dolphin? He's a shark. And they said, yeah, he doesn't want to scare people. So he dresses up like a dolphin instead. And I, like, I'm an old grizzled dude, man. And I literally just went, oh, that's fine. the cutest thing I've ever seen in my life. And he does all those things, too. He like rolls on his back

like a dog, like, a little like happy puppy. And that's Jeff. Like, you know, and he just got a good heart. That's all he wants to do. He just wants to go around and heal everybody. Little tons hanging out half the time. And oh my goodness. This is, listen, this is an indicator of a good video game and good character design because some characters you instantly love. And then some characters you instantly hate. Like Iron fist. Screw that guy. You know, anybody. that plays iron fist man you just you don't deserve to play this game okay because everybody hates you yes i will i will purposely like avoid the point if i see an iron fist and i'll save my onk and i'll go after him because this is the one thing uh moon knight can do crazy damage with your onks

you have to hit every shot if you don't have one but if you do you can bait them in and they'll come into your little kind of cone of death and i'll just melt them and it just makes me so happy. It brings so much satisfaction once you get one. Yeah. It's just it's so this is where it's masterful because if the other enemy team has a spider man, you are looking up in the sky. And you know, he's zipping around and he's going to try to land on one of your healers and punch them in the face. Uh, you know, giant Hulk, you know, Hulk's going to jump into your team and try to punch somebody. Uh, you know, hella sitting in the back and just shooting swords at people, man, you can't just leave her low. Hawkeye. Hawkeye just sniping everybody. Oh my goodness, Hawkeye slash Hanso is, is the word.

because you don't even have to have aim. Josh did kept calling him Hanso like the whole time. He's like, oh, Hansa on the back. I won't call him Hawkeye. I just call him Hanzo and everybody's like, he's, he's Hawkeye. I'm like, it's Hanzo. This is one of those characters where there's no difference whatsoever. It's the same thing.

Yeah, and they play exactly the same. They do. Peek corners and shoot arrows randomly. And then you get some head shot and the guy dies and you're like, oh, I'm so good. No, you're not good. You just shoot arrows blindly everywhere, man. I know that feeling. Oh, man.

So, but, you know, kudos to the. team that developed this game. They captured the feel of these heroes. They captured the essence of a lot of these heroes. Spider-Man feels like freaking Spider-Man. You know, Hulk feels like Hulk. You know, they just, they did a masterful job with this. Even Star Lord, which is Tracer, but he feels good, man.

Like he's fast. He's zipping around. He's got his twin little pistols. And it kind of fits. And I will say, too, one thing that I just kind of preaching to the dev team, like the communication in game that's not prompted, that's not anything. When you just have characters that are next to each other, sometimes it'll just start a little kind of dialogue conversation.

That's awesome. They're talking. There's one that I've seen going around on Reels where Venom and Grude are there and Grude and Grude and Venom's like, I think I'm going to go to a plant based diet. And I'm like, what? That's great. Like to come up with this kind of stuff is just hilarious. And they have them for like every character.

So you can tell they really put a lot of time and thought into not only like the design and the kind of playability, but but the interaction between all these characters too. So it was just, it was awesome. All right. Before we move on, because this wasn't actually something that we thought we were going to talk about, but you mentioned the interaction. So let's touch on the team up mechanics real quick. Yes.

Because this is one of those things that I think is phenomenal. Yes. And I remember the first time we heard about this game, we, I remember talking and saying, dude, if you can, like, throw Thor's hammer against Captain America's shield and it admits like a shockwave or something. Yeah. You know, that would be the coolest thing ever. Or, you know, Iron Man deflecting his beam off of Cap's shield or something like that.

Like, the possibilities are endless. And then, lo and behold, the devs are not dumb because they absolutely came up with these team-up abilities. Now, maybe it's not something as glorious as like ricoishing Iron Man's beam off of Cap's shield. but there's equally glorious stuff. Like if you're Hulk, you can pick up Wolverine

and chuck him like a missile of people, man. It's so good. If you're rocket raccoon, you can ride Groot and just stay on Groot's shoulder and shoot people, man. Like there's so many of these interactions and sometimes maybe they're not as flashy

as chucking Wolverine like he's a, you know, he's a rocket somebody. But it's little things like when you're Moon Knight, Who does Moon Knight team up with where you get to go in Viz? I can't remember the character. Cloak and Dagger. Cloak and Dagger. So I was playing Cloak and Dagger.

And because they have this team up ability, you can now go invisible. Yes. Because I am playing Cloak and Dagger, you can trigger the team up ability that lets you go in Viz for a little while. And this exists in every character in the game. Now, not every character interacts with every other character, but the game will tell you, hey, these characters have a team up ability. So if you pick Hela, like I like to play Hela, Hell is from the Norse mythology.

So if somebody is playing Thor or Loki while I am playing Hella, if I get a kill while they are dead, it will insta-res them. Yeah. You know, and this goes for every character in the game. They have one or two team-up people that they can play. It is an absolute game changer in the sense of it just makes it fun to have certain characters on your team. The team-up abilities are not O-P. They're not like ultimate abilities or anything like that, but they're just a little bit. a flavor that when you use it, it's super cool to be able to say like, oh, I can go in Viz

now? I was playing Thor last night trying to learn tank and I died and Arhella got a kill. And I see myself getting right. And I'm like, oh, I'm back, baby. I'm back, baby. That's, yeah, that's a cool thing. And the visual effects of it too. Like, if there's a venom and you have a Spider-Man or like a Penny Parker, you have symbiote

like on you and you get an extra attack. So you like, do this symbiote attack. type thing as you're kind of cruising around. So it's, it's, again, just they put so much time and thought into these extra little tie-ins and these extra things to just, because, you know, everybody knows Marvel, everybody knows these characters, everybody knows what they can do and who's in what world and what universe and whatnot. So leaning into that, I think they did a really good job on just making it fun.

Like having those little things, they're not game-breaking, they're not going to change the map like in the dynamics that much but they just make it more fun and more enjoyable and I think that was such a good choice I do too I love it and I love finding new team up abilities as I play yeah yeah exactly so all right you mentioned maps Ryan um you know the honestly I don't really have a lot to say the maps work man I think they're all fine I don't know that I like have gotten to where I prefer certain maps over others um they are fine yeah I have certain ones where, like, if I can get a bird's perch, like, up top and I can, you know, hit the point hard. And the one thing I do think is cool is one, it has destructible environments to where you can actually open up different areas to give you a new lane and a new kind of angle on the enemy or where they're coming through, which is neat.

And then some of them do fluctuate where they'll stuff will shift. Areas will move. Platforms will raise or lower. So I think that is pretty cool that they have. in there, but there's really nothing like kind of to sing home about. It's just a map, you know. Yeah. As far as modes go as well, this is everything people are familiar with, you know, move the payload, capture the point, fight over the center point, try to capture two, three points kind of thing. A lot of times if you capture a point and hold it, it will then go to like a round two. And, you know, this is everything that people are familiar with. There's really nothing new

here. But again, sometimes that comfort and familiarity is all you need. And they didn't try to change a lot in this regard. And it works for me because these are modes that I'm used to and know how to play. And it's like, oh, hey, everybody, get on the payload. Let's move this thing. And so I think that those work as well. You did touch on, you hinted at it, Ryan. So let's talk about one of the glaring, glaring issues with this game right now. And that is the balance. Any new game that comes out, like this, when you start getting a million, three million, four million people playing a game, humans are crafty and they are going to figure out which characters are good at which things. They're going to figure out certain strategies and the synergies and all this stuff.

And, you know, this is not a thing that is unique to Marvel rivals. Overwatch, when it first came out, had huge balance issues. And I don't know if people remember that far back, but they were there. Bastion had a frontal shield. You know, I mean, Sim could put six turrets down and her beam would lock and you didn't even have to aim at people. I mean, there were issues, right? So the main thing, the main complaint, I should say, that I see from people is there's

zero balance in this game. Some characters are just super oppressive and they're too easy to play. Hela being one of them. I started playing Hela early on and then come to find out as, you know, people are, oh, Hila is one of the most OP characters in the game. She needs an Nerf. And I'm like, oh, I just thought I was really good at her, but you might be right, you know. So how do you feel about the balance in the game?

Is this a detriment to the game like a lot of people are saying? Or is it a little bit of the magic? I think that it's the magic, my man. I think that I'm so sick of everybody crying and whining about, I want it to be fair. I want it to be balanced. This character's too good. We'll get good, scrub, man.

Like sometimes like a character's going to be good. Find it, find something that counteracts them and take them out. Like, I'm not good against Ironman. It's so hard for me to hit him flying around in the air. If I have a hella or somebody else, they can take him out. But I'm not crying to, like, limit Iron Man's mobility, you know, in the air. Okay, but back up just a second. You were crying about Iron Man the other night.

And then I was like, okay, I'll switch. And then I started wrecking the Iron Man and then you were all happy about it. Well, yeah, because that's what teammates do. I mean, you're going like, dude, this Iron Man just keeps wrecking me, man. I said he kept wrecking me. I didn't, you didn't have to switch. I would have been fine if you didn't, but I'm just saying. I just, I like that there's characters that do things a certain way.

And it gives passion and almost not an anger, I will say, but like, it just makes you want to kill that character even more. Like I hate Iron Fist. I won't play Iron Fis because I hate them so much. Yeah. You know? In the same way. And so being able to have that ability to, to just, it creates that kind of diversity and craziness within the game to where. I don't want it to be all perfectly balanced and then everybody plays the same thing.

And, you know, it's just something that to me, it feels more old school to where people who want to play these other characters are going to play them. People who want to easy out are going to play them. But if you want to challenge, you can play these other guys and see how you can do. And that's what I like. I will say that I think that the lack of balance is a little bit of the magic that is going on right now. Yeah. And as frustrating as it can be, because it can be.

frustrating. When you see an enemy, Iron Fist, and he's just obliterating your support characters, and there's nothing you can do. And you're like, dude, this guy is like Velcro. This is a stupid character. Who designed this guy? You know, it's infuriating until you learn, oh, well, this character kind of counters him because this character has a stun. And if you can stun him for a half a second, you can kill him because he doesn't have a lot of life. Yeah. Well, lo and behold, guess what? Now Iron Fist isn't so much of an issue anymore. And we're seeing this, it's, it's, it's, it's literally happening before our eyes where people are figuring out different characters. Like Winter Soldier looks like the dumbest, like simplest, like simplest character in the game because

he's got an arm and he's got a pistol. And you're like, well, this doesn't seem fun. Oh, good. Yeah. All of a sudden, people figured out that his old, if you kill somebody with his old, that you get your alt refreshed. Yeah. Right. And so, and then he goes, oh, God. Oh, good. You're seeing these videos of Winter Soldier obliterating an entire enemy team over and over and over again because they keep just streaming out of their spawn. Yeah, and he just smashing them. He like follows them like breadcrumbs all the way back to the spawn.

Yeah. And so, but, you know, Winter Soldier, if he's not, if he doesn't have his old or you kill him, you know, now he's not as effective. And so, dude, I was playing last night. Does Wolverine scare you in the least when you see an enemy Wolverine? Not often. I usually have the mobility to get away. Right.

Okay. And so I have always loved Wolverine and I have said, man, I need to learn how to play Wolverine. Dude, but Wolverine, every time I've come up against one, I'm like, this guy doesn't do anything and I wind up killing him. I came up against an enemy Wolverine last night that was so freaking good. It was unbelievable. And now all I want to do is learn how to play Wolverine like that guy. Because one thing I learned is Wolverine is a tank shredder. He's not a 1v1 guy. If you try to take on another DPS as Wolverine, you're probably not winning that. But Wolverine will obliterate tanks in this game. And that's his role. And that's

what this guy was doing. I was playing tank. And this guy is just shredding me. And I even put in our chat, I was like, bro, what's with this wolverie man? But like, that's the fun of the game. That's part of the balance or lack of balance is that people are figuring things out. And part of that is is that there is balance there. But you have to figure it out. And I think that is part of the magic and the fun is saying, okay, this character seems like they're very, very strong. who counters that character because they do exist. Now, that doesn't mean that there's definitely not some tweaks that they probably should make at some point,

but there's just this kind of happy chaos that is happening in Marvel rivals right now that is, I think, a reason that people are actually really having so much fun with it is because it's not homogenized like Overwatch is to where no character stands out at all. Yeah. No, I agree. It's fun to all group up and hate on Iron Fist.

Yeah, it's true. So, all right. So enjoy the lack of balance, I think, is the takeaway there. But also, and I want to touch on this real quick right now, because I have seen people saying that they feel like they've missed a Marvel rival's train already, where it's like, oh, well, I see all these people playing it, and learning these characters and I haven't touched this game. Now is the time to jump in and start playing.

Because nobody has things figured out yet. You know, there are people that have been playing nonstop since this game came out, 14 hours a day. And yes, they're getting very, very good with some characters, but it's still early. They have not even done a balance patch, you know, like anything like that. So if you're one of those people that's thinking, oh, I missed the train, you have not missed the train. Hop on because this is a fun ride to be on right now. Yes. And there's so many different characters and so many types of characters that you will find a role for you and people that you like playing. And so come play with us, man. Yeah, literally. Literally. Literally come play with us. We'll

Hop in the Discord, say we're playing. And if we're able to, we'll get on and we'll play with you. I've played with a ton of people. I've got probably over 50 hours. No, no. I have 40 hours on my Steam and then probably another 20 on my PlayStation out in the living room. And so I got a ton of time in. I'm always playing with people.

So hop in and play with us. Yeah, it's just fun. I mean, it's a competitive game, but nobody, I have not seen anybody being like overly, like competitive. Well, don't go to comp. Comps. Well, yeah, I'm not playing comp. Comps. All right, Ryan, a couple more questions, or actually one more question, then we'll kind of get in our overall thoughts on the game.

But should Marvel rivals institute the 2-2-2 role cue? And so for those that aren't familiar, that means this is something that Overwatch did because they were facing too many balance issues. And so basically that means that you, a team is required to have two tanks, two healers, and two DPS. and the reason that they do this is for balance and kind of fun and stuff like that, do you think that Marvel rivals should institute that so that you don't wind up with these matches where you have five DPS in a tank and then it just spirals out of control?

I'm going to give a nod to Michael on this one, and I got two words for you. No. No. That's part of, we just talked about the chaos, the craziness, the unbalanced nature of this game. I don't want a cue. I've played in matches where I've had five or six DPS characters,

and we maybe have a tank if we're lucky or kind of a half tank. And we walked a team. We just straight up destroyed them. And then I've had others the same way where we got absolutely crushed because we had no heels. Our guys weren't as good. And you get destroyed. And so like it's just that balancing act of, again, I kind of harken back to like old school before they did all this balancing type stuff is you just have.

have to find what works good for your team and how you're playing in the moment. I don't like the mandatory nature of being told you have to be this character or that character or you have to wait till this amount of time to play them. So I don't want it. I hope they don't mess with it. I think that's part of the magic and I hope it stays the way it is. I'm with you as well. I think it should be up to the team in this case. And again, I talked about homogenizing everything and turning this game into current Overwatch. I don't think is going to be beneficial for it. And, you know, in that case. So I'll let people be the, again, I played last night.

I was trying to learn tank. I had five DPS on my team. And I'm like, dude, I'm not going to play tank with no healer whatsoever. So I just switched. And I went healer, you know? And it's like, I still had a blast. We got steamrolled, but, you know, but it was still a fun match at that point. And it let me play healer instead.

But yeah, I think I'm actually against the role cue where initially I thought it was for it. But the more that I play, the more I kind of relish this, just let people play how they want to play. And if they want to work it. out they can. And if they don't, that's okay too. All right, Ryan, we got to wrap this episode up because we got some Marvel rivals to play here. Yeah. Overall thoughts on the game, what's the best and worst part about it? Oh, man, this is a hard one. So like I said, I got a pretty good amount of time in in two, three weeks so far. I think that there's some things that like are good

bad. I think that it's, it's, it's good that people are starting to still figure out their characters. So it's good if they're on your team. Not so much if they're on the other team. But, um, I think that there's, this game just offers fun at the end of the day. Like, you get to get on and you can have a match. And if you're not liking the character, if you're not viving with it, it's not feeling good at the moment. You can switch. You can switch back in your little, uh, home base lobby. You can, you can, um, do what you need to do. to play a character that maybe fits you in the moment. You want to heal.

You want to tank. You want to do something like that. I think they did such a good job on creating the versatility and the options to suit every player type, you know, to where you can pick what you want to do in that moment. So I think that was really good. Other than that, I mean, as far as the bad goes, there is some balancing things, but we think that that's kind of the magic of it and a little bit of the mystique. and then I will say,

and this is maybe just a personal thing, but as far as the bad goes, I played some comp matches. It almost makes the game not fun because all you comp players, if you're listening, I know you're listening to our pod, so first I want to thank you

for listening to the podcast. Secondly, I want to say, quit whining like a little baby. If the healer's not healing you enough, they're trying. If the hell is not killing Iron Man, he's trying.

Guys, everybody wants to play the game, everybody wants to have fun, and everybody wants to do good. So just chill out, man. Just have fun. Play the game and have fun. I will say I am the sweatiest, most aggravated person when it comes to Overwatch. And I am like absolutely like I refuse to be that way with Marvel Rivals.

Yeah. You know? Because it's like I don't like that Overwatch makes me angry. And it's like, I just want to have fun. And Marvel Rivals has been 100% fun to me. So you mention it and I'm going to second what you said. the best part about this game right now is every single match that I play. Whether we get steamrolled or not, I have a good time because the characters are unique enough and have neat enough

abilities. And I feel like I can solo influence the match by how I am playing. It doesn't mean we're going to win. But at least if I look at, you know, if I'm playing DPS and I'm like, dude, I'm 17 and 4. And the next best person of my team is 6 and 8, at least I am doing well. And I can kind of, you know, view myself against the team in that regard. It's just a blast right now, dude. It really is just so much pure fun for a free to play game. Free, yeah. We never mentioned that.

It's free. No, we haven't. This game is free, everybody. Yeah. And so, I mean, it is, I just have a darn good time, like every single time. And even the matches where I'm like, dude, I have not played the first round of this character. Let me hop in.

I don't know what the heck these abilities are, but I'm spamming them all and figuring things out. And it's like, okay, well, this is kind of neat. For me, I will say the worst part. Yes, there's balance issues. But like you said, I think there's a little touch of magic in that. The worst part is just matchmaking. And that is part of it. And I think I would like to believe that this will work itself out as more people play longer.

And the game hopefully develops like an MMR system or something like that. But there are a few matches where, We get in and we have played, and it's like within the first 60 seconds, I'm like, dude, there's no way we'll win this match. You can just tell the other team is coordinated, advanced, and knows what the heck they're doing, and nobody on our team knows what the heck they're doing. And we don't stop the payload once. We don't even touch the point.

We get spawn camped or whatever it is. That's just the nature of these kind of games. And as frustrating as it is for somebody like me who is naturally very competitive. and I hate getting steamrolled, it's just part of the game, man. And thankfully, it's quick and it's over and then the next match is usually a lot better. But it is just, that's the worst part.

Like, honestly, it's just sometimes you're going to get absolutely boat raced by some team and you're like, dude, what the heck? You got like the whole cinematic where the Marvel, like the Avengers movie, the first one where they all kind of come out. That's what you have is the other team. And you're just a bunch of like,

derpy do, do you know, and you're like, oh no, we're going to get. We're like Walmart heroes and they're like the Marvel heroes. We're the Offran Kirkland, Kirkland signature. Oh, man. So I will say too, real quick, we're quick. Just heads up, everybody, be patient because this is Marvel, because there is superheroes, you will have little kids in your games.

That's very true. They will be crawling around as Spider-Man, back by your spawn somewhere on the wall, AFK, going around, just be ready for it. It's just going to be one of those things. All right, we're down to guy. let's keep going. So just a heads up. That will happen, but that won't take away. You will have fun. The other thing is that it's just as likely that the enemy team has one of those. Exactly. And then there's nothing more fun than just wrecking that poor kid and then just teabagging them over and over again, you know.

You get scrum. Yeah, good. All right, Ryan. Well, people have heard us kind of gush over Marvel rivals. It's time to go to the leaderboard, Ryan. We've been playing this game enough, and we are going to rank this game on our leaderboard because it deserves to be on the leaderboard, and so people can actually get an idea of how we feel about this game overall. So why don't you start us off, Ryan? You know, people can see our leaderboard at video gamerspod.com. This is where we rank every game that we have done a deep dive on. And so you can look at this if you want to pick out a game to play, or you want to see what's great, or what games to avoid, or just kind of our thoughts on some.

of these. But Ryan, start us off. Where are you ranking Marvel rivals on the leaderboard? So if you can't tell, I kind of like this game. I've had, I've got about, you know, probably like I said, about 60 hours probably within three weeks or so. It's very enjoyable. I think that it is one of the first games I've had in quite a while that I'm like, man, I just want to hop on and play. I'll play a couple matches, you know, and go. This morning, we were headed to go see some of my wife's family there in town and we're going to go visit them for like an hour or two this morning before we did some other stuff. Me and my son hopped on. We played for 20 minutes real quick before we left, but it's like every time you can fit in that nook of rivals time,

we hop in, we play a match, then we get out. So having said that, this is something that it's going to be quite up there for me. And I haven't had an experience like this in a while as far as the shooter goes, I'm giving this bad boy a 9.1. 9.1. 9.1. It's in the nice. I wanted to do 8s, but I'm like, I just can't do it. I have way too much fun with this game.

And I think I'm going to continue having fun. I already have skins that I plan on buying in the future that I have leaked. I'm going 9.1. Just to give people context, 9.1 on Ryan's leaderboard is equal to Hogwarts Legacy, Hollow Night, Fallout New Vegas, Tears of the Kingdom. Grand Theft Auto Online, Call of Duty War Zone and Destiny 2. Yeah. Dude, it's...

Ooh, baby. I can't stop. It's so much fun. Every time, I haven't booted up anything else. All I play is this. Now, I will say that, you know, we, again, we may be in the honeymoon phase of this game and the fun of it and stuff like that. You know, we're on a break as far as games that we have to play for the podcast, which has been very refreshing for us. And so it's nice to just have this game that I want to play.

play. Yes. And I can, and like you said, this is one of the nice things, too, is if you got 10 minutes, you can fit in a match. Matchmaking is instantaneous. Match found. It is like the second you click, you click play, it's like match found, boom, you're in. Yeah.

You know, and so that's actually really nice as well. Ryan, I'd call you crazy, but I am going to rate this in 8.8 on my leaderboard. Dang. Yeah. All right. I thought I was going to be way further, but that's good. I will qualify this by saying, I am a huge. huge fan of hero shooters. I always have been. I get excited about them. Not all of them pan out.

You know, Concord, I dove into Concord. It was terrible. I said that right away. I said, this game sucks. You know, I've loved Overwatch since the day it's released. Marvel Rivals is legit, you know, and maybe that honeymoon period will end after 100 hours or 200 hours or 1,000 hours or whatever it is, but we can only rate a game on how we feel playing it right now. And right now, this game is just a ton of freaking fun, man. Every time I hop in, especially if we hop in with people. And how many times have we had a group of four, five, six people? Yeah.

And it's like, dude, if you're playing with buddies, even if you're getting your butts destroyed, you're still having fun with your friends, man. Yeah. Because there's always one good moment in every match too. Even if you're losing that, you're like, you did some crazy, crazy squad wipe or something something crazy happened. So there's always something too to talk about. Yes. And so I mean, I am just absolutely loving this game. I'm putting it at an 8.8 on my leaderboard. That puts it equal to Metal Gear Solid 5, Resident Evil 4, heavy rain apex legends, actually one spot above Blackmiff

Wukon, because I have that in an 8.7. So it, you know, all this to say, if you are not checking this game out, you're missing out on something because it is free to play. it's crossplay. You can play it on your console. You can play it on PC. It's, it's kid friendly in the sense that it's like easy to pick up, you know, and just hop into. Don't let the cast of characters intimidate you. You'll find somebody you like to have actually a very robust training ground. The training ground's awesome. I'd love, dude, I will go and spend like 30 minutes in the training ground just learning the characters, buttons and abilities and stuff. So that's a huge thing, in my opinion. Yeah, I mean, play this game, man. There's nothing to not like about it unless you just,

if you're the kind of person where you're like, hero shooters are not for me, fine. I get that. But you at least understand why people are liking this game right now. And it's kind of taking the world by storm as well. So yeah, high praise from myself and Ryan. I'm right. Damn some high scores, man. That is a real high score. Yeah. You know, like I said, maybe that'll change down the road. But for right now, man, I know we're both just having an absolute blast in this game. So, Ryan, it's good to be back, baby. Yes.

2025 is going to be a phenomenal year for the podcast. We have so many things in store for people. For those that have been with us over the years, thank you. Your support means the world to us. It really does. It's the reason that we turn these microphones on and the reason that we play these games and the reason we keep coming back to do this. If you're just tuning in, stick with us.

I mean, you know, you're going to find that we love video games. We are gamers. We're not experts. We're not industry people. We're just dudes that love playing video games and talking about them. And so we're happy to have you with us. If this is your first time listening to a show, make sure you click that follow button or that plus button in your podcast app. So you get all of our shows the day that they release.

We are going to be back Thursday, Ryan. Oh, what are we doing? What are we doing? I don't know. Just probably some random episode. Or maybe we're talking about our most anticipated games of 2025. And there's rumor we're going to have a special guest with us, Ryan. Oh, okay.

We'll just keep that on the download. It's not just going to be me and you for that episode. Oh, a little extra extra. Yeah. So that'll be Thursday. So if you have no idea what games should be on your radar for 2025, boy, we're going to gush over all of them and talk about them in which ones have us excited. It's always fun to revisit that episode later in the year because we realized just how right we were and how wrong

we were a lot of these games too. So that is it for this episode. We'll see you Thursday. We're back everybody. Thanks for sticking with us. And until next time, happy gaming. See ya.