April 1 brings a host of gags and fake announcements every year as companies and individuals alike celebrate April Fools’ Day. Sometimes these are just ideas put out into the world with no tangible component, but other times games do change to fit the event. For example, Epic Games added the ‘Stonks’ meme as a Fortnite skin this year, and Blizzard brought googly-eyed characters back to Overwatch.
The team-based hero shooter has been an eccentric title since it released in 2016, adding characters ranging from a centaur mech to a literal hamster driving a robot that turns into a wrecking ball. It also has skins for its characters based on different holidays, as well as more out-there choices like cosmetics based on Overwatch‘s Pachimari mascot. When coming up with something to work as an April Fools’ Day gag, Blizzard apparently decided to keep things simple with a returning idea.
Every character in Overwatch received googly eyes for April Fools’ Day 2020, with pupils that would jostle around as players ran across different maps trying to win firefights and clear objectives. Those eyes have returned this year, and fans all over social media sites like Reddit appear happy to see them again.
The official Overwatch Twitter account teased the impending return of this April Fools’ Day joke yesterday, with the post a googly eye-esque emoji receiving nearly 1,000 comments and 500 quote retweets as of this writing. Among the responses, many of which are players sharing pictures of their Overwatch characters with the additional pairs of eyes, are comments from Overwatch League teams like Seoul Dynasty, Shanghai Dragons, and Hangzhou Spark posting the same emoji.
This aesthetic change is not the only thing Overwatch developers put together to celebrate April Fools’ Day this year. Overwatch Experimental Mode received an April 2021 update that applies some crazy, over-the-top changes to various heroes and game mechanics. For example, Hanzo’s Storm Arrows can ricochet off walls, Doomfist can travel upward using his Rocket Punch, and Mei’s health was increased from 250 to 400.
With the googly eyes and Experimental Mode changes likely to disappear by tomorrow, fans of Blizzard’s team-based shooter should get in on the fun while they still can. More seasonal events should continue to appear in Overwatch for some time, but eventually the developer’s focus will shift entirely to its upcoming sequel Overwatch 2. It will be interesting to see whether googly eyes return for that installment, or if players get something entirely new on April Fools’ Day.
Overwatch is available now on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
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