Overwatch players have been begging for Jetpack Cat for years, and now they hate it

Overwatch 2 is working on a major reset, dropping the “2” in the title and reverting to Season 1. It’s all very dramatic. Part of the whole gimmick is releasing five new heroes, including the long-awaited Jetpack Cat.

Now that the adorable creature is here, however, Overwatch fans are angry about it. Just a typical day in the life of being a gamer.

Who is Jetpack Cat?

Jetpack Cat was first revealed back in 2017 when former Game Director Jeff Kaplan told fans about this hero concept. Unfortunately, the idea of a flying cat didn’t fit in with Overwatch’s lore at the time, and the concept was scrapped. However, this didn’t stop the Overwatch community from demanding Jetpack Cat for years.

Now, the ginger cat with goggles will be a support hero come Season 1 in just a few days. Biotic Pawjectiles will deal damage to enemies while healing allies and his ultimate, Catnapped, knocks down enemies, then allows you to grab one and relocate them. Which will most likely mean dropping them off the side of the map.

“Overwatch was about a year old [when Kaplan said that] and so we’re still defining the world,” Art Director Dion Rogers told Polygon. “We were still discovering what makes sense for Overwatch. I can imagine, in that moment, Jeff would probably be like, ‘Nah, a cat doesn’t work, right?’ But then Wrecking Ball comes along, and you can see we kind of piggybacked Winston’s story to kind of justify who Wrecking Ball was.

“As we went on with Overwatch, we learned for things to work, they just needed to be grounded a bit. It needs to be grounded in science or some sort of real-life thing.”

Honestly, you’d think the Overwatch community would be happy. Not only are we finally getting Jetpack Cat after years of dissecting the cat’s possible lore and begging developers to do it, but we didn’t get another generic hot woman. Overwatch (and other games) have been criticized in the past about being too afraid to break free from societal norms when it comes to female heroes’ appearances, but now we get a break with a female cat.

Seems like a win-win.

Overwatch players hate Jetpack Cat because they hate Overwatch

Every single part of Jetpack Cat has been getting s*** on by gamers. Some are saying the name is lazy, some are saying the design is boring, and some are saying it’s just Overwatch trying to recreate the magic Marvel Rivals captured with Jeff the Shark.

“Everyone mentioning that the design is old is right, but they definitely brought it back because of Jeff, so you’re so right as well,” said one critical gamer on X. “Not to mention her ultimate being somewhat similar to Jeff’s is interesting, having her throw someone off the map.”

I mean, it’s not news that Marvel Rivals kicked Overwatch into high gear. But is it really so wrong to give gamers what they clearly enjoy?

“So, it seems Blizzard somehow managed to f*** up and lose even their famous designers, because in Overwatch, all the new characters look like soulless generic trash straight out of Chinese mobile games,” said one harsh critic.

As more and more gamers expressed hate for Jetpack Cat, some players had to defend Overwatch’s flying feline.

At this point, I think it’s clear: gamers don’t hate Jetpack Cat, they hate Overwatch. And because they hate Overwatch, they’ll hate Jetpack Cat no matter what. And every other hero. And every other game change.

Overwatch’s massive reset has been heavily criticized as a whole. Many are demanding to know “the point” of making Overwatch 2 in the first place if developers were going to revert everything to how the game was originally. However, I think it’s common sense that the developers felt whatever new s*** they tried didn’t work and are going to bring the game back to the way gamers wanted it.

But now that it’s the way gamers want it, there’s a problem.

I don’t think Overwatch can win here.

Do I think Jetpack Cat is the coolest thing to ever happen? No. Most ginger cats are also male, I should point out. But do I think Overwatch deserves all this hate over a cute cat design? No.

This reminds me of the review bombing gamers did upon Highguard’s launch, making it “Mostly Negative” on Steam despite only playing for 10 minutes tops. Was the game the best thing ever? No. Was it terrible? No.

Gamers just love to hate stuff. That’s how it’s always been, and I even said, “I’d never want to be a dev” after seeing how gamers ripped into Highguard despite the team being so passionate about the game’s community aspect.

Honestly, ya’ll are exhausting. Just have fun with the stupid Jetpack Cat, lord.