Mom! Bucky’s evil again as Captain America and the Winter Soldier join Marvel Rivals

Marvel Rivals dropped a whole slew of new information at Gamescom Opening Night Live yesterday with it’s Stars Aligned trailer and the biggest might not even be the two characters who are in the spotlight!

The Netease developed Hero Shooter featuring ultra-stylized versions of your favorite Marvel heroes, the newest to join the roster being Captain America and the Winter Soldier. Steve Rogers and James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes Jr. worked together during World War II until the latter was lost as the duo attempted to stop a rocket from hitting the continental United States. Unbeknownst to Steve and frankly the world, Barnes survived the incident and was indoctrinated into becoming an Russian assassin, one which would be thawed out of cryogenic stasis when he was needed. The two would cross paths again and the latter’s memories would be restored due to some cosmic cube chicanery on the part of the good Captain. Since then the Winter Soldier has played a pivotal role in Cap’s life and even took the mantle for a brief while. However in Marvel Rivals it looks like the two haven’t reconciled at all and Steve is still hopeful he can bring his old friend back to the side of light.

The Winter Soldier’s mechanical arm (The one that replaced the arm he lost during that fateful mission…) seems to have the ability to fray into tentacles that can extend to pull objects to him or close the distance. Otherwise Bucky is armed with a pistol which he can fire with deadly precision. Captain America sports a more bulkier armored look and his trusty shield is both physical and energy-based, something that we’ve seen in the comic books in the past. Cap can lead the charge literally putting his head behind his shield as he runs into battle, the shield doing an admirable job of deflecting blows and projectiles. In fact the shield is so durable it can even be seen deflecting Iron Man’s ultimate attack in game.

Besides the two new characters joining the roster, we see a majority of the action take place in the intergalactic kingdom of Wakanda and before you say “can this place get more mary sue-like”, the location is based on the Black Panther run of notable writer, Ta-Nehisi Coates. It boasts architecture that is quite Afro-futuristic. The trailer also closes out on a clip of Doctor Doom moving a chest piece into position with a quick wipe to what appears to be a monstrous looking variation of the Hydra logo…perhaps a tease as to what character will be joining the roster of the game.

This possible unrevealed character, Captain America, the Winter Soldier will join 23 characters announced and they will all be unlocked on day 1 when Marvel Rivals releases on December 6th on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Marvel Rivals | Stars Aligned – Official Launch Date Announcement Trailer