The creative director of Marvel Rivals has offered an explanation for the game’s choice of skins when asked about its ‘gooner game’ status.
If there’s one thing everybody knows about Marvel Rivals, it’s that everyone in that video game’s roster looks incredibly sexy. Well, almost everyone, we don’t think anyone’s attracted to Jeff the Land Shark.
It’s a subject that has earned the game both praise and criticism, particularly regarding the designs for the female members of the cast, such as Invisible Woman and Emma Frost, the latter of whom quickly became a fan favourite for her thick Chun-Li style thighs.
As a result, Marvel Rivals has earned a reputation as a ‘gooner game’ – a term people use for games that rely heavily on sex appeal. The game’s creative director Guangyun Chen, however, has tried to downplay the idea that the characters and their unlockable skins are deliberately made to be sexy.
Recently, Chen sat down with YouTube channel Rivals Assembled to discuss various aspects of Marvel Rivals. When asked how he feels about social media comments labelling it as a gooner game, Chen dodged the question and chose to explain how new skins are designed for Marvel Rivals.
‘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,’ said Chen.
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In a way, he’s not wrong. A lot of classic comic book superhero outfits, especially for women, were designed to be sexy, like the aforementioned Psylocke skin.
Although in a lot of cases Marvel Rival’s team has made the skins extra sexy, such as Invisible Woman’s Malice costume, which ditches the original’s cape and lets her bare bottom hang out.
We can’t help noticing though, that Squirrel Girl still doesn’t have the costume she wore for the majority of her most famous comic book run. One that happens to show very little skin at all…
Plus, Chen’s explanation doesn’t account for any original skins that lean on sex appeal, such as this Hela skin that shows off a lot of skin, especially around her well-defined rear.
Chen claims some skins are designed to fit with whatever storyline is occurring within a given season. For example, the current season has given characters skins themed around the Phoenix Force and the Venom symbiote, since the plot involves the superhero Phoenix fighting the symbiote god Knull.
‘For designs like these, we try our best to integrate the storylines from the season,’ continued Chen, adding that they’ll incorporate real-world elements as well, like they have for the summer swimsuit skins.
‘We create new designs based on that and I’m very grateful these designs have been well received by the majority of players.’
Marvel Rivals fans don’t seem particularly convinced by Chen’s answer, though, with a couple pointing out that they see a lot of online ads for the game that focus on the sexier outfits.
‘One of their ads I saw for a month or so was a girl in a one-piece swimsuit face away, so her cheeks were just hanging out. Definitely not a gooner game,’ one writes sarcastically.
Others think Chen is being honest, pointing out how Marvel comics ‘have been gooning for a long, long time.’
‘People are used to seeing censored designs for Marvel characters but if you look at most of the original comic book designs a lot of them are as horny as the average gacha game,’ says one, ‘Rivals is probably one of the most authentic Marvel projects we’ve seen.’
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