Marvel Rivals has only been around for 18 months or so, but already we’ve reached Season 9. And with it comes a narrative arc focusing on Marvel characters like Apocalypse, perfectly timed to coincide with X-Men ’97’s season two. Marvel’s Rivals also welcomed fireworks-throwing mutant Jubilee a few days ago, and while many players are digging the new hero, the update that introduced her has been heavily criticised by fans.

It doesn’t take much hunting on social media to find all sorts of clips in which veteran players are being overwhelmed by a barrage of bright, colourful visual effects – resulting from the ever-increasing roster of Marvel icons’ various passive abilities and active skills. It seems readability in any teamfight involving more than a few characters is becoming an absolute nightmare. “Not defending it, frankly my eyes hurt looking at this. But it is funny and ironic that the clutter slop got amplified tenfold in a Jubilee season”, one player wrote on the game’s subreddit.

Similar complaints aren’t hard to find. “People will say ‘get good’, but I literally have no idea what’s going on,” another player replied. “It’s absolutely insane to me that the majority of this sub think this is fine,” a Peni Parker main added.

More concerns can be found on the subreddit’s main Season 9 feedback thread. “Sometimes the game is almost nauseating now, and I’m definitely not an epileptic or anything like that,” one user said. “Played some matches today and I was genuinely miserable”, another added. Moreover, players are reporting the overabundance of effects is making the framerate tank on pretty decent PC builds, so you have to wonder how the console versions – especially the PlayStation 4 port – are holding up.

While “visual clutter” complaints are a recurring theme following the release of Marvel’s Rivals’ latest update, there’s also the matter of team-ups – synergies between characters that add new abilities and passives. One player called Season 9’s additions and reworks “really frustrating”, and another – in a lengthy post detailing what they see as the troubling state of the game – wrote, “With the amount of abilities getting spammed every second, the game turned into MMO Rivals”.

Over on Steam, Marvel Rivals’ recent reviews rating has now plummeted to ‘Mixed’, and the game’s forums are full of complaints about crashes, performance issues, and wobbly balance. It looks like a case of adding too much too fast, causing the user experience to suffer. So the hope is the development team takes more care with the mid-season refresh, which is currently planned for 7th August.