I thought Overwatch's new Arcade mode was a glitch, but it's actually a ridiculous cat-stuffed free-for-all where spamming 'meow' is mandatory

Overwatch Jetpack Cat: Key art of Jetpack Cat sitting on their flying mech, smiling straight ahead. — (Image credit: Blizzard)

Upon opening Overwatch to do my lunchtime dailies (this sans-2 reboot has truly rotted my brain and returned me to my 2016 lifestyle) I had a little poke around the menus to see the addition of a very bizarre Arcade mode: ;ASKLDFAL;S C;A.

Did someone at Blizzard Team 4 goof? Has a line of code caused a little hiccup somewhere, showing me this bizarre amalgamation of characters instead of whatever this mystery mode is supposed to be called? Oh, wait, nope. It's an incredibly silly 6v6 mode all about one of the newest additions to its roster, Jetpack Cat. Classic feline keyboard shenanigans included.

Jetpack Cat's arcade mode screen. — (Image credit: Blizzard)

In case you haven't been flung back into the hero shooter mines, Jetpack Cat is one of five new heroes to emerge alongside the grand Overwatch reboot—the one that also saw it drop the "2" in its name, do a big ol' UI overhaul, and kick off a year-long narrative arc. She is an absolute menace, for starters. A wee kitty who can fly around and carry her allies. Yes, that means airborne Cassidy ults and dropping a traditionally slow Reinhardt right into the enemy team in about five seconds flat.

Oh, and don't forget the fact that she can also grab the enemy team as part of her ult, and fling them straight off the map. That's also a thing she can do.

Her goblin status is only reinforced by her default voiceline. It's literally called Taunting, where she utters a "meow-meow-meeeoow" in the same tone a sibling might use to ragebait you and then go crying to your parents about it two seconds later.

Overwatch tier list: Jetpack Cat flying towards the camera while carrying a Mauga. — (Image credit: Blizzard)

So it makes sense, then, to run an Arcade mode that literally pits two teams of six jetpacked feline rascals against each other. I decided to jump in for a quick game just to see what ;ASKLDFAL;S C;A was all about, and was met with a bunch of Jetpack Cats spamming voice lines at each other as they floated and careened around a stationary robot on Colosseo. Some shooting was occurring, I think. A little scratching, too.

As the match concluded—my team won, naturally—my fellow cats were very much dedicated to the bit. Variations of "meow" and in-character keyboard spam flooded the chat, and I couldn't help but laugh at how bloody ridiculous the whole thing was.

It's a very silly, surprisingly fun mode, one which I'll be using as my cooldown when I'm getting a little too fed up with whatever shenanigans my teammates are getting up to in quick play.

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Mollie spent her early childhood deeply invested in games like Killer Instinct, Toontown and Audition Online, which continue to form the pillars of her personality today. She joined PC Gamer in 2020 as a news writer and now lends her expertise to write a wealth of features, guides and reviews with a dash of chaos. She can often be found causing mischief in Final Fantasy 14, using those experiences to write neat things about her favourite MMO. When she's not staring at her bunny girl she can be found sweating out rhythm games, pretending to be good at fighting games or spending far too much money at her local arcade.

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