There are a number of reasons why Minecraft became one of the greatest releases in gaming history. Along with endless creative potential, it transcends age groups, has a simple yet distinctive look, and a relaxing soundtrack to boot. Essentially, it’s a video game about appreciating the little things. Sure, Minecraft would be nothing without two iconic characters, Steve and Alex. The former was the game’s original protagonist, and recently the studio decided to give him a classic look.
As spotted by PCGamesN, a new default skin for Minecraft restored Steve’s facial hair. Taking to Twitter, the game’s art director Jasper Boerstra said he’s delighted fans are happy with the return of his beard. An image uploaded to Reddit shows the two Steves side by side, one with his clean-shaven look that has been around for a while and the other showing off the new and old look. In general, it seems gamers are happy that Mojang decided to bring back his beard.
Alex and Steve are key aspects of Minecraft, allowing players to jump into block shows of either character or completely customize their skins. While the latter has been in the game since it first saw the light of day in 2009, the former was added in 2014. Both have also been featured in Super Smash Bros. and Minecraft Dungeonswhich was released in 2020. According to the aforementioned Reddit post, it doesn’t look like Alex’s skin has been altered much as she retains her long locks and green shirt, although her hair has been altered slightly.
More images can be found on Reddit.
With these two default characters, players can do all sorts of things in Mojang’s sandbox world or just see as much land as they can. Even bored Minecraft players can find something to do, like build a new home somewhere that isn’t the Overworld, go in search of axolotls, engage in a hunt for achievements, or seek out and battle the ender dragon.
For this reason alone, it is hardly surprising that Minecraft has near infinite replayability. The only real limit is the player’s own imagination. And if the near-endlessness of the vanilla experience isn’t enough, there are plenty of general mods, skins, and texture packs to give it a facelift. The fact that Mojang has restored Steve’s facial hair shows that the developer may be keen to make sure the game doesn’t stray too far from what made it special in the first place.
Minecraft is now available for Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: PCGamesN, Twitter