Overwatch Character Genji Joins Heroes Of The Storm

The rumors are true. Genji, the shuriken-flinging cyborg assassin in Overwatch, is the newest character added to the ever-growing roster of Heroes of the Storm. In addition, a new map of the idyllic Japanese village Hanamura shakes up the MOBA-style matches with Overwatch-inspired objectives.

As he is in Overwatch, Genji will be a quick-moving character who can attack from afar using throwing stars, and he can move in close to unleash a flurry of sword strikes. Genji can also deflect incoming attacks, and will unlock his devastating Dragonblade attack as one of his two ultimates.

Meanwhile, the new Hanamura map introduces Payloads (an Overwatch staple) to Heroes of the Storm. While the goal on Hanamura is the same as always (destroy your opponents' bases before they destroy yours), players can move Payloads by standing next to them and driving them towards the enemy headquarters. If the Payload makes it all the way across the map, it'll damage the enemy's Core. Payloads can be made more powerful by destroying enemy Forts and Keeps.

Genji and Hanamura will join Heroes of the Storm as part of the game's 2.0 update. Both the new character and the new map are available as part of the 2.0 Beta, which is live now.

Heroes of the Storm is Blizzard's entry in the popular MOBA genre, which is dominated by eSports heavies League of Legends and Dota 2. Unlike those two games (which feature original settings), Heroes of the Storm plucks characters from various points in Blizzard's long and storied history, and drops them into multiplayer battles on maps inspired by World of Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo. In addition to Genji, Heroes of the Storm features Overwatch characters Tracer, Lucio, and Zarya.