Riding on a tidal wave of hype, NetEase’s Marvel Rivals launches today, a supposed Overwatch killer whose name may not be an exaggeration, even if it rips off Widowmaker’s Black Widow (jokes).

The superhero hero shooter will be released either today, December 5th, or tomorrow, December 6th, on PC, PlayStation and Xbox, depending on the region. Now NetEase has confirmed the release times for Marvel Rivals:

• PST – December 5, 4:00 p.m
• CST – December 5, 6:00 p.m
• EST – December 5, 7:00 p.m
• UTC+0 – December 6 – 00:00
• UTC+9 (JP/KR) – December 6th – 9am

While the Marvel Rivals release date is commonly known as December 6th, America will be able to play for a few hours on December 5th, although there’s no way to know how the servers will perform on release day, and that’s probably a wise assumption to make that you will not arrive exactly at these specified times. If so, NetEase’s would be something of a miracle.

But I think they’ve pulled off another miracle by producing a game that basically everyone, except former Blizzard executives, thinks looks very cool. Marvel Rivals has been making the rounds with great-looking skins and character kits for weeks, but it was recently announced that its Battle Passes won’t be expiring, which is a welcome change from how it normally works (unfortunately, that didn’t exactly help its downfall). Superhero Brothers, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Marvel’s Avengers, which did the same).

This week it was announced that multiplayer shooter XDefiant would be canceled next year, the latest in a long list of titles that have done the same. In contrast, Marvel Rivals seems almost doomed to succeed, not just because it looks cool, but because it is have I played it and said it’s really that good. I expect this to cause significant damage to Overwatch’s player base and possibly cause collateral damage to other shooters as well.

This weekend is the moment of truth and yes, the conversation may be mostly about servers, as is the case with every major multiplayer launch. But once people can get in and play, the real test of whether this game simply has great art or is as good as the early players say it begins begins. Considering how many games in this genre have completely failed recently, it would be nice if one of them succeeded for a change.

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