Marvel Rivals has some truly cursed mods, but that's what happens when you mix weirdly detailed character models with the internet

Squirrel Girl in Marvel Rivals pulls back on her slingshot to destroy some fool with an acorn.
(Image credit: NetEase)

There's nothing more terrifying than getting jumped in the backline by an Iron Fist wearing the distorted skin of the adorable Jeff the Shark; I know this because it's happened to me on more than one occasion.

This horrifying apparition isn't a figure of my imagination but a mod that replaces Iron Fist with Jeff, which will apparently let you "awaken the real shark" or whatever that means. Players have been using this mod to scare the living daylights out of anyone who picks Jeff because this little shark is everyone's favourite strategist to hate—mainly thanks to his destructive ultimate that can throw everyone off the map for an insta-kill.

Other than being unnerving to look at and a new way to disturb the enemy team strategists this mod doesn't give Iron Fist any special perks but is purely cosmetic, like most of the other mods circling Marvel Rivals right now.

There are mods to give Spider-Man a symbiote skin, recolour Moon Knight's base skin to black, turn Mantis into a "Goth Mommy," and completely transform Iron Man into Vegeta. Some modders have taken things one step further and created some truly questionable things that I will not be linking here for both for my sanity and yours, but let's just say that these creations are far from surprising.

Back in December last year, a dataminer got a hold of some of the Marvel Rivals models, including Squirrel Girl, Psylocke, and Dagger. The dataminer uploaded these models so other players could use them for their own projects, and one 3D animator who took a look seemed to be a little shocked at what they had found: "I've learned that these Marvel Rivals models are… more detailed than they should be." It seems that they were referring to Squirrel Girl in particular: Enough said.

While most of these mods are just cosmetic, using mods or any unauthorised third-party software like cheats, bots, or hacks is directly against NetEase's terms of service and can lead to your account being banned if you're caught with them. But this kind of risk tends to be the case when it comes to modding most games. Although, as most of these mods seem to be changing characters' skins, it'll be interesting to see if NetEase takes a firm stance against this, as Marvel Rivals makes its money through selling cosmetics in-game, as is the case with most free-to-play games.

But for some players, these mods are worth the risk, not so they can wear the skin of Jeff but so they can actually play the game. "For me, the game is unenjoyable without the optimization and mouse accel configs, so I had to get the mods for those," a player says. "I’m not too high a rank, and I haven’t spent money, so if I get banned, I don’t really care."

I've also had a pretty poor time in Marvel Rivals, thanks to its crummy optimisation. I've had the clutter in maps freeze my game and players disappearing or not logging projectiles properly throughout the game. There have even been reports recently that players with bad PCs do less damage and have less mobility. So I can understand why some players would want to install some of the mods which aim to help optimisation.

But the only mod that I'd honestly risk getting banned for would probably have to be the Jarvis clip this mod. This swaps out Iron Man's vanilla voice line that he says while ulting for "Jarvis just clip this shit" which is so funny it makes me want to main Iron Man.

Elie Gould
News Writer

Elie is a news writer with an unhealthy love of horror games—even though their greatest fear is being chased. When they're not screaming or hiding, there's a good chance you'll find them testing their metal in metroidvanias or just admiring their Pokemon TCG collection. Elie has previously worked at TechRadar Gaming as a staff writer and studied at JOMEC in International Journalism and Documentaries – spending their free time filming short docs about Smash Bros. or any indie game that crossed their path.

Read more
marvel rivals
Marvel Rivals players have found a workaround for mods, but it involves potentially frying your PC and sacrificing your framerates
Jeff, from Marvel Rivals, poses merrily with his cute little winter onesie on.
Jeff the Land Shark's creator tells whiny Marvel Rivals players who can't deal with her hero to buck up: 'Sounds like a skill issue to me, if my boy is beating your ass every night'
Marvel Rivals tier list - Wolverine
Marvel Rivals' latest update quietly killed the game's burgeoning mod scene
Jeff, from Marvel Rivals, poses merrily with his cute little winter onesie on.
Marvel Rivals director all but tells players to git gud when going up against Jeff's ultimate, but I have a couple of tips that'll actually help you
Captain America body from Marvel Rivals with Trump head on it
Marvel Rivals mods that replace Captain America with Trump and Biden removed by Nexus Mods: 'We don't want to handle all the nutjobs that come out the woodwork whenever these mods get posted'
marvel rivals
Marvel Rivals devs conducted 'exhaustive research' to come up with the game's roster of heroes and abilities so it could live up to 'exceptionally high player expectations'
Latest in Third Person Shooter
A Helldivers 2 soldier readies to draw his rootin' tootin' wild west pistol on some foolish automaton.
Helldivers 2's next warbond'll let you be a real space cowboy, and draw on those Automaton scum with a lever-action rifle
Storm trooper hero
Another live service shooter is getting shut down, this time before it even launched on Steam
Marvel Rivals characters - Hulk with his hands out as if he's grabbing the camera.
Marvel Rivals' growing roster of heroes scares me, but the game's director seems sure that all is under control: 'Everything is progressing smoothly'
Titus in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3 reveal promo image
Praise be to the Omnissiah! Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3 is officially in development
Marvel Rivals characters - Captain America running towards the camera.
All Marvel Rivals characters - current and upcoming heroes
Marvel Rivals Human Torch
Marvel Rivals is carrying on the tradition of chaotic patches after buffing two of the most annoying heroes, but I main one of them, so I'm not complaining
Latest in News
A photo of Nvidia's Zorah graphics demo running a large gaming monitor
Nvidia's expanded Zorah demo tells us how AI is the future of graphics: 'There's no rasterization going on at all. This is all ray traced and the amazing part is that it's actually faster than rasterizing'
Ghoul in sunglasses
After years of playing as stupid, boring humans in Fallout, you can finally channel your inner Walton Goggins and become a ghoul in Fallout 76
Astarion, after being asked whether he'd like a kiss, winces in the opposite of anticipation in Baldur's Gate 3.
Hasbro will be ready to share news about the future of Baldur's Gate 'in pretty short order'
WoW Classic: Season of Discovery
World of Warcraft Classic’s Season of Discovery may be teasing a legendary weapon that players have speculated is in the game for two decades
A smiling man in military fatigues
Get in here, stalker: Stalker 2’s Patch 1.3 is here with a whopping 1,200 fixes
Public Eye trailer still - dead-eyed police officer sitting for an interview
I'm creeped out by this trailer for a generative AI game about people using an AI-powered app to solve violent crimes in the year 2028 that somehow isn't a cautionary tale