Overwatch 2’s newest collaboration is with the beloved house western anime Cowboy Bebop. The occasion, which kicked off on March 12, lets 5 heroes from Blizzard’s team-based shooter cosplay as completely different characters from the traditional ‘90s present. The occasion follows within the footsteps of different crossover occasions just like the October 2023 one which featured Okay-pop group Le Sserafim. For this newest crossover, 5 heroes (Cassidy, Sombra, Ashe, Mauga, and Wrecking Ball) every get a pores and skin and some different cosmetics, every comes packaged in a $25 (2500 in-game forex), hero-specific bundle (except Wrecking Ball, whose pores and skin is earnable without cost by finishing challenges). When you don’t need to shell out $25 for every bundle, you should buy all of them for $56/5600 in-game forex.
Among the new skins are nice. I performed a number of rounds with harm hero Sombra dressed up as Bebop’s fellow hacker Ed final evening, and had a bonding second with a Mauga participant sporting the Jet Black pores and skin. However some Overwatch followers aren’t too keen on the brand new Cassidy pores and skin, which clothes him up as Bebop major character Spike Spiegel. The longer I stare on the pores and skin and see the goofy logistics of how Blizzard made it work, I’ve to agree. Particularly after it appeared so good within the animated teaser Blizzard put out earlier than the occasion started.
When Cassidy clothes up as Spike, he has a shaggy coiffure that’s just like the long-lasting house cowboy himself, but it surely does look just a little bizarre on the Overwatch 2 mannequin. That’s as a result of Cassidy wears a cowboy hat in almost all of his skins, however the Spike Spiegel pores and skin simply makes use of the character’s extra-wide coiffure to maintain his silhouette principally the identical. It appears bizarre, and since the cowboy hat is so central to Cassidy’s animations, emotes, and spotlight intros, not having it could make a lot of these cosmetics ineffective—besides Blizzard does give him a hat, however solely when these animations are taking part in. Now, the hat materializes out of skinny air and disappears when the emote is completed.
In an interview with Comedian Guide, Overwatch 2 artwork director Dion Rogers mentioned the group mentioned whether or not or to not give Cassidy a hat as a part of the pores and skin, however they needed to embody Spike as greatest they may for the collaboration.
“We went forwards and backwards on how one can deal with Cassidy’s hat,” Rogers advised Comedian Guide. “So that you’ll see that is what makes his pores and skin much more distinctive than traditional is he’s not typically sporting his hat. Lots of his emotes or animations that come together with it, he’ll nonetheless do a hat factor. However usually, 80 p.c of the time, he doesn’t put on his hat, which is fairly distinctive for Cassidy. In order that was one thing that we went forwards and backwards on how he would really feel silhouette-wise, there’s a variety of gameplay selections once we take away one thing from a hero. However to essentially seize the Spike and have that hero really feel like they’re them or cosplaying as them. We selected to take away his hat.”
Whereas the magical, disappearing hat has raised eyebrows, among the different criticisms have been that the hair itself wants a makeover. Proper now, Cassidy’s brown hair and texture are nonetheless just about intact, however some followers argue that tweaks to the color and style to make it nearer to Spike’s darkish inexperienced would possibly make the entire getup look just a little higher. A couple of followers have made mockups of what this would possibly appear to be. Nevertheless, it’s price noting that edits in a screenshot may not translate nicely to a 3D house like in Overwatch 2.
Whereas the hair and hat scenario has acquired a variety of consideration and criticism, Cassidy’s precise outfit appears fairly good. The anime hair may be tough to drag off, however Blizzard actually captured the house cowboy’s getup. Perhaps Cassidy simply wants to purchase a greater cosplay wig subsequent time.
