The release of Blade in Marvel Rivals just dropped the game, and, uh… let’s say the reception has been a mixed bag. The official Twitter account for Marvel Rivals posted a clip entitled “The name’s Blade” with the caption “(Loses a 1v1 to every other melee character),” and the internet seriously lost its collective mind on this one. Half the people say he is busted, while the other half say he is weaker than a wet paper towel standing in the middle of a hurricane. The comment section was an absolute free-for-all!
Let’s start by breaking down this clip. The evil villain arrives in all his majesty, screaming his signature line, and then promptly just gets obliterated by every melee fighter in the whole game! There’s basically no competition. If one were to believe the internet and its users, this guy is the favourite target of basically every roasting competition out there. @Mrmordo85 even jokingly said, “the name’s Blade because I carry one, not because I’m good with one.” Oof.
Here’s the spicy twist though: the community is gripping the split tunnel straight down the middle. Some players like @mrhygiene said, “This is 100% wrong. It’s only been a day and I’ve seen him carry. He can be harder to kill than Wolverine.” Suddenly, the other side @Methodikul would have nothing of it. “He loses a 1v1 to pretty much every character in the game lol it’s unfortunate.” Well, which one is it? Is Blade secretly OP or is he just a glorified punching bag?
Then this dropped on us by @Jesus_AA95: “This literally happened with Wolverine as well, people called him weak at first and now he’s getting banned in matches left, right and centre.” Just give him time for people to understand his kit and then people will say he is OP. Honestly…that might be the real take here. New characters always have a learning curve; Blade’s kit isn’t exactly easy to pick up, either.
Some players are starting to get it. @datswhatKiefsed said: “I had to adjust his sensitivity, and change his curve. He’s really weird to lean in to, but he has good potential.” Meanwhile, @THEJUSTKN1GHT crowned him the “best melee character” after spending some time grinding his moveset. So maybe it isn’t Blade’s fault at all. Maybe it’s ours.
And here come the heal debates: @ThisIsDJ_ stated, “Bruh ion think the life steal works man i thought i was tripping 🤣🤣🤣,” while others swore it was saving their butts in fights. And there’s his annoying double weapons setup—@FeralForlorn would agree: “annoying af to use.” Fair enough.
Although some opinions were building around him early on, Blade’s status will always be quite tenuous, which, for the record, is not unusual for fighting games. Everyone thought Ryu was trash in Street Fighter before some guy found a way to spam fireballs. Same energy. Just give the gamers some time to lab him out, tweak the settings, and not try to 1v1 tanks with a character built for hit-and-run tactics.
So, is Blade actually bad? Probably not. Easy to use? Absolutely not. Are people going to pick him just because he’s Blade? You already know. Give it a week or two, and either we will all be seeing Blade dominate the scene or get meme’d into oblivion. Either way, Marvel Rivals just got a whole lot more intriguing.
