Marvel Rivals drops biggest free update since launch and it's another huge improvement

The free-to-play Overwatch killer Marvel Rivals has just launched its biggest season yet, bringing new characters, gameplay mechanics and reworks to almost 80% of its expanding roster.

Marvel Rivals is arguably the best hero-shooter available at the moment and it’s easy to see why it’s still demolishing Overwatch in player numbers.

New content is both consistent and high-quality, with the developers constantly taking onboard player-given feedback to keep the game as engaging and enjoyable as possible. Though the gooner skins are also doing a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to keeping it relevant…

Marvel Rivals Season 9 brings huge changes to the game; here’s everything included

The biggest addition is obviously going to be the new playable characters. Two new characters are launched per season and in Season 9 it’s Jubilee of X-Men fame The Hood, a supernatural supervillain MCU fans should recognise from Ironheart. By the end of the season this will bring the playable character roster up to 53 heroes and villains.

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Jubilee is a Strategist who’ll be playable on July 10 whereas The Hood will be added some time in the following weeks. A new map will also be introduced to battle on.

Marvel Rivals Season 9 is also overhauling and balancing around 80% of its roster. A good example of this is Black Widow, who’s undergone the biggest changes out of any other character in the game. Her moveset has been refreshed giving her more options in a close-quarters fight.

Character team-up abilities have also received a significant change. Now every hero and villain character has the choice of two team-up abilities, which is great for competitive players seeking to create strong and consistent strategies.

Previously these were rotated between select characters, so you could go a whole season getting used to one only for it to be taken away later.

The final change that might be hit-or-miss amongst players is regenerative health. Characters designed to zip and zoom around the map like Spider-Man can now get a portion of their health back by simply staying out of combat.

This change was apparently implemented to make the life of healers easier, as anyone who’s playing a healing character in the game would know how annoying it was to get the web-head back to full strength when he’s skimming the ceiling with his swings. On paper it sounds like a good change, but ultimately it’ll depend on how it plays out in practise.

Like a fine wine, Marvel Rivals just gets better and better with each new update. It even has offerings for those who’d like a PvE experience too, such as a new mode centered around Ultron inspired by the MCU films.

Now’s the perfect time to jump in if you haven’t already, and as always it’s free-to-play on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC and soon the Nintendo Switch 2.