Marvel Rivals’ hero gallery UI used to look a lot cooler—but also a lot harder to use

I’m a comic book nut, but I stay away from Marvel Rivals to keep my blood pressure in check. I do love the radical, supremely over-the-top character designs that NetEase landed on for Marvel’s coterie of costumed heroes, though. You might be surprised to learn that the game used to be even more stylized—so much so that finding a hero before a match was borderline obnoxious.

In the debut for a new web series about the game’s visual identity, Art Vision, a former take on the hero gallery UI was briefly shown off, with some exceptional concept art and a radial menu that displayed each hero in a wheel. Take a look below:

It’s got some exceptional 2D art, but the design definitely reads like a placeholder. The Hulk hero description has the energy of a Wikipedia entry, dryly clarifying that he’s a “fictional superhero.” Spinning this menu back and forth in search of any particular character seem like it’d be cumbersome, to say the least. Sure looks slick, though.

Art director Dino explained in the video that the game’s UI aesthetics are meant to be “modern and adaptable while also being simple and clear … incorporating comic, structural, and geometric sensibilities.” They might have gone a mite too far with this particular design, as the final game has a more traditional grid for its hero gallery. But the radial “arc” did make it to the pre-battle hero select menu.

Dino goes on to say that the hero select interface “presents an artistic immersive experience” which I suppose is true, though it’s kind of a pain in the ass to drag it to and fro so I can find and lock in a healer as quickly as possible. There’s a reason we don’t use rotary phones anymore, right? The concept shown off is even more dynamic and eye-catching, but a great example of how something boring and functional is usually preferable to a beautiful hassle.

It’s nice to get a look at the iteration process for such a popular game; the journalist in me lives to hear game developers pontificate about this and that, even if this video doesn’t show off a ton that players haven’t seen before. Marvel Rivals has come a long way since it was nearly cancelled, so hopefully we’ll hear more about the road getting there in the future.