Later this week, popular character shooter Marvel Rivals will launch its first big holiday-themed event. The new winter update will add new costumes for multiple characters, as well as a new Splatoon-like mode featuring only Jeff the Landshark.
Marvel Rivals launched earlier this month on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. The free-to-play third-person hero shooter has quickly become one of the biggest games of the year, with hundreds of thousands of players logging in every day, just on Steam alone. And now, just a few weeks after launch, developer NetEase has announced the first major in-game event for Marvel Rivals, and as you might expect, it’s Christmas-themed.
On December 16, NetEase released a trailer for “The Winter Celebration,” a new update arriving on all platforms. The update goes live on December 20 and brings with it new wintery costumes for Venom, Magik, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot. All players will also be able to earn a free ski-themed skin for Jeff the Land Shark, a cute, tiny healer who some players hate due to his small size and powerful ultimate ability.
Here’s the trailer showing off the upcoming winter update in Rivals.
And no, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. That trailer contains four Jeff the Landsharks fighting four other Jeffs in a mode that seems tailored to annoy people who hate this tiny healer. Meanwhile, as someone who loves Jeff and plays with him a lot, I’m very excited about this new mode and Jeff’s adorable ski outfit.
Interestingly, this new limited-time holiday mode looks to basically be a knock-off version of Nintendo’s Splatoon. Four Jeffs take on four other Jeffs to spray snow across the map and try to cover as much of it as they can before the time runs out. So it looks like NetEase is willing to pull from other games beyond Overwatch for “inspiration.”
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