Seeing how successful the MCU’sGuardians of the Galaxywas at putting Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot on Marvel’s map, it’s truly odd that Eidos-Montreal’sMarvel’s Guardians of the Galaxyunderperformed. It’s doubly strange, then, thatMarvel’s Guardians of the Galaxywas apparently beloved by nearly everyone who played it and yet it didn’t do as well as those claims suggest it should have. If the Guardians of the Galaxy were going to have any decent chance of skyrocketing in a video game adaptation it was during the MCU’s heyday—with James Gunn’s trilogy wrapped up andMarvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy’s sales falling below Square Enix’s expectations, though, a sequel seems unlikely.
In many ways,Marvel Rivalsis the first Marvel game in a long time to fully embrace its comic book source material rather than the recency bias and familiarity of the MCU.Marvel Rivalscertainly has its hand in the MCU cookie jar when it comes to skins, MVP cinematics, and interactions between characters, of course, but its selection of characters and maps—not to mention rich, original lore peppered throughout—is unmistakably novel. Either way, withMarvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy’s future in jeopardy,Marvel Rivalsis easily the next best outcome players could have hoped for as its roster at launch already pedestaled the intergalactic band of misfits by featuring five Guardians affiliates who are all fully developed with unique kits.
Marvel Rivals Gives the Guardians of the Galaxy a Ton of Love
Star-Lord is the lead protagonist inMarvel’s Guardians of the Galaxywith Gamora, Drax, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot being reduced to simple input commands and behaving as NPCs. This is arguably disappointing as the Guardians are best as an enmeshed group where all of their abilities and traits can be profound rather than having one character dominate the rest, and even though they’re all still prominent in the story that dissonance is felt during gameplay when players are waiting for one Guardian’s ability to finish its cooldown period.
Marvel Rivalsisn’t a single-player game. Instead, as individual playable characters with their own kits,Star-Lord, Mantis, Adam Warlock, Rocket Raccoon, and Grootshine brightly with or without their beloved companions.
In fact,Star-Lord, Mantis, and Adam Warlock share a Team-Up abilitywhile Rocket Raccoon and Groot share their own.
Marvel Rivals Has Room for More Guardians of the Galaxy in the Future
As far as the team’s most ubiquitous and iconic line-up is concerned, the roster’s selection of Guardians of the Galaxy characters is only missing Gamora and Drax. Mantis and Adam Warlock making it intoMarvel Rivalsbefore Gamora or Drax would seem strange if not for Gamora and Drax both realistically vying for roles as Duelists, which the live-service hero shooter is already oversaturated with.
Of course, Gamora and Drax would now make fine candidates for a single season’s two new characters with one launching at the beginning of the season and the other releasing halfway through. Plus, all it would take now is for one of them to be added and a full team of six players could role-play as a Guardians of the Galaxy line-up and it wouldn’t be all that unbalanced, either, with multiple healers, a tank, and a DPS guaranteed.
Cosmo the Spacedog has a viable chance considering how popular Jeff the Land Shark is inMarvel Rivals, but a character like Fin Fang Foom orMarvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy’s Lady Hellbenderwould be an exciting and unprecedented addition. Either way, the Guardians of the Galaxy play a massive role inMarvel Rivalsand it’ll be interesting to see if more known affiliates eventually join the roster alongside them.
