WhileOverwatch 2has faced criticism since its launch in October 2022, the title has revitalized the franchise’s longstanding fan base and put the IP firmly back on the map of competitive shooters. The game has received a fair amount of post-launch content over the past five months, but fans have been vocal in their desire to see more in the way of seasonal events.
Overwatch 2is aiming to quell some of these criticisms with the PachiMarchi event that launched on March 21, which is set to offer fans new limited-time content and the opportunity to unlock some commendable in-game cosmetics. New game modes have also come with the launch of the PachiMarchi event, and the Catch-A-Mari mode offers an addictive twist to deathmatch gameplay that fans of theCall of Dutyfranchise will likely recognize.
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Overwatch 2’s PachiMarchi Event
The PachiMarchi event first appeared within the originalOverwatchin 2021, and has made a return in the latest franchise title to the delight of many fans. As the name suggests, the event is entirely themed aroundOverwatch’s cute mascot Pachimari, who takes the form of an alien onion and can often be seen throughout the maps of the multiplayer hero shooter.
2021’s version of the event saw players get the opportunity to unlock aPachimari themed skin for Roadhog, and this year’s event smartly offers the same reward for fans who missed the original. A range of other cosmetics and rewards are available via PachiMarchi challenges tied to the event, and this year’s PachiMarchi has game modes that didn’t appear before. It must be said that this is a smart move on Blizzard’s part given the criticisms that manyOverwatch 2events have faced regarding the perceived recycling of older content within them.
Overwatch 2 PachiMarchi: Catch-A-Mari and Kill Confirmed
The brand-new mode forOverwatch 2’sPachiMarchi eventis called Catch-A-Mari, with the mode being tied to several challenges that contribute to the completion of exclusive PachiMarchi rewards. Catch-A-Marchi offers an intimate 3v3 deathmatch experience, in which players face off against each other across an array of the game’s arena maps.
Whenever a player is killed a Pachimari will spawn near their body, leading to a race between both teams to capture the Pachimari first. A kill does not count towards the scoreboard unless a team captures the Pachimari of a player they have eliminated, meaning players can also prevent the opposition from confirming kills by capturing a teammate’s Pachimari before the other team does.
Keen fans of the wider first-person shooter genre will know that the Catch-A-Mari game mode is extremely similar to thelongstandingCall of Dutygame mode Kill Confirmed.CoD’sKill Confirmed was first introduced to the franchise in 2011, and plays near identically to Catch-A-Mari except for its larger team sizes. Of course, Kill Confirmed has a simpler aesthetic, since it opts for less eccentric dog tags that players must collect to confirm or deny kills, rather than a cuddly alien mascot.
While the concept of the Catch-A-Mari mode forOverwatch 2is not original by any means, it sets a positive precedent for Blizzard beginning to develop a trend of wholly new content for the franchise. The aforementioned criticism claiming thatOverwatch 2lacks originalityremains one of the largest hurdles that the game needs to overcome, and Catch-A-Mari marks a slow but sure start to this being achieved.
Overwatch 2is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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