Man, Phoenix is in Marvel Rivals now, and I might actually dust off Overwatch 2 and dive back into that NetEase game. But not ’cause I’m a Phoenix superfan or anything. Honestly, all my intel on her comes from a quick Wikipedia read after her big announcement for Marvel Rivals season 3. Oh, and her trailer. She’s moving like an actual human—mutant, whatever. It was kinda thrilling, you know? Rivals, before her, never quite nailed that.
Ever since the game kicked off in December 2024, the Reddit crowd’s been grumbling about the characters’ speeds, or lack thereof. Seriously, it’s like they’re wading through molasses. Others brushed it off, saying it’s just the first-person view from games like Overwatch that makes them seem faster. For real, I was on the slow-mo side of things and got tired of the snail’s pace. My gaming sessions just slowly faded as my patience wore thin.
Now, with Overwatch 2’s third-person Stadium mode out there and seeing Phoenix dart around, I thought, hey, maybe my whole “Rivals is slow as heck” theory needs testing. And yep, I was kinda right.
So I hit up the practice arenas ’cause they’ve got these distance markers perfect for testing out pace. Turns out, Rivals characters take about half a step longer to hit five meters compared to Overwatch 2 peeps. It sounds bad, right? But here’s the kicker. Rivals’ scaling is odd — five meters there is like 11.5 inches or something, while it’s about 10 inches in Overwatch 2. Go figure.
“Why’s that such a big deal?” you’re probably wondering. Well, Rivals folks actually move as quick — maybe even quicker — than the Overwatch crew. It’s all about the look and feel, not raw speed.
Characters like Cloak and Dagger, Namor, Spider-Man, they strut around like they’re in some Baywatch episode, all slow-motion drama with dramatic poses. The attack moves? They’ve got gaps, like a wanna-be dance recital, unless you’re Iron Fist, who at least has some pep. Gunshots and spells are kinda meh too. Like, Winter Soldier’s gun sounds like a toy. Scarlet Witch’s magic drain? Nada life in it. Understated and elegant, sure, but not exactly superhero.
But Phoenix? She flips the script. There’s this wicked whoosh with her attacks and BOOM, get a little explosion every three hits. She can go all firebird mode to zip around, mixing it with some cool mobility move without waiting forever to use it again. When she switches it up, dodging or whatever, she has this energy that’s just right. Even when she’s not actually speeding up. (Spoiler: She isn’t. Cloak and Dagger cover the same ground faster — go figure.)
Finally, NetEase got this style and function gig down without making me feel like I’m trudging through pudding. Phoenix fights how you’d think a real fighter should, which keeps things exciting, you know? And for me, that’s more than enough.
