In the beginning, Marvel Rivals started out as a budding hero shooter. A few weeks in, and it had amassed an audience of several hundred thousand players and counting. It’s established as one of the best free-to-play games, but recent skins that leave little to the imagination have raised eyebrows.
Marvel Rivals launched with a star-studded roster with fabulous unlockable skins. It is a free-to-play game after all, so paid cosmetics were always going to be a thing. We’ve seen an increased influx of more scantily-clad costumes and somewhat exposed heroes, shall we say, in recent skins—leading to the ‘Gooner’ accusations.
Is Marvel Rivals a ‘Gooner’ Game?
The Marvel Rivals Summer Party Swimsuit Event and its array of Swimsuit Costumes have contributed greatly to Marvel Rivals’ ‘Gooner’ label.
Game director Guangyun ‘Guangguang’ Chen recently spoke with Rivals Assembled. In a special interview talking about all things Marvel Rivals—including EOMM—Guangguang was asked: “How do you guys respond to people calling Marvel Rivals a gooner game?”
Guangguang barely flinched before replying: “Because our design is inspired by classic comic themes, including some very outstanding skins, like Mantis and also Psylocke’s Vengeance, these all come from classic comic designs, and we create some more fashionable designs based on them to gain players’ appreciation. I think this also reflects the broad recognition from our players.”
“As mentioned earlier, with the Squirrel Girl and the Krakoa Resort skin, these are actually designs based on real-world themes and the season’s storyline. For designs like these, we try our best to integrate the storylines from the season, including elements from Krakoa, and blend popular elements from real life. We create new designs based on that, and I’m very grateful these designs have been well received by the majority of players.”
Skip to 11:37 for the exchange.
Do you think Marvel Rivals is a gooner game? Are people blowing some lore-specific skins out of proportion? Or ultimately, does none of this matter because Marvel Rivals is a good game? We’re very interested to hear what you have to say, and you can share your thoughts through the Insider Gaming forum.
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Andy is Insider Gaming's Senior Evergreen Editor and has been in the games journalism sphere in one way or another for over 7 years. His video game taste is as…
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