MadCap's Game Reviews - "Marvel Puzzle Quest"

Okay, let me be honest here. I hate match three games. I just do.  I have bad memories of playing Bejeweled as a child and never getting it quite right. seeing all those multicolored shapes sitting there, judging me, juking back into place with mocking laughter whenever I didn't actually managed to match three, telling me I was never good enough and that my old man left me when I was a child because I was a completely useless pile of human waste who would never amount to anythi-

...okay, I may have issues that don't actually relate to match three games themselves. In all honesty, I have no real appreciation for the genre.  Puzzle games have never really been my forte in the past. However, one of my dear friends (Cassie, for those of you who follow my Tales from Tabletop posts) told me that I would enjoy this game simply for the Marvel aesthetic, knowing full well what side my bread was buttered on in terms of comic book preferences.

And, give her credit, she was right.  I was suckered in by the Marvel aesthetic.

Marvel Entertainment, D3 Publisher, and Demiurge Studios have come together to make something that is visually very beautiful.  There are new renderings of various Marvel heroes, villains, and others done with careful artistic precision that appear on various screens. The various shapes that fill the grid from which three are matched are very colorful and vibrant and it is quite satisfying to match three (or more) and watch them explode off the screen to damage the enemy team.

Each character has three abilities, each one corresponding to a specific color. They can be used when a certain amount of that color is gained to have various effects on the playing field, such as setting up a timer for a specific event, inflicting damage on an opponent, or stunning an opponent or opponents.  And your rewards for completing the various stages? Any number of things from the all important ISO-8 that levels up your heroes and villains, hero points that allow you to buy new slots, other items to support your team like boosts to increase damage or your stockpiles of a certain color in battle, and new comic book covers to both unlock new abilities for characters you have as well as brand new ones.

Also, on rare occasions, you can also pick up Team Ups that can be used just like regular hero/villain/other abilities, though only for one time and only from points gathered from their own special tile that resembles ol' Shell-Head's Arc Reactor.

Then, of course, comes the joys of strategies and planning out.  Anyone who has read my reviews for a long while knows that I'm a man's man, a courageous man who isn't afraid to pick up a broadsword and go charging headlong at my enemies screaming "FREEDOM!" which admittedly does not leave much room for the strategic mind.  While some fights can be very easily taken care of with minimal effort, some do actually require workarounds such as the use of boosts and other power ups.

So, all this considered...it's also a mobile game.  And mobile games are, by their nature, addictive.  As I mentioned before, you have to buy new slots for heroes using either Hero Points or from cold hard cash. It is definitely possible to play through the game and never spend a dime...but you'd have a very long, hard slog of it, particular due to the fact that awarded covers will be destroyed if they are not recruited or used within several days (usually 13 from the date of award).

Which, again, is to facilitate the microtransactions. Which I'm not a fan of.

However, I will say this game is good and I admit that I really do like it. Despite the problems with some leveling in the competitive circuit (yes, there's multiplayer and no, I don't care for it) and the events (yes, they have events, there is actually a storyline in the game that's basically a run off of Dark Reign from the comics, not much to tell here since you can pretty much ignore it), I find it very enjoyable. It isn't something one can sit and play for extended periods, but it isn't supposed to be. It's a nice little jaunt to fill some time between cradle to grave.

Just...remember the dangers of mobile gaming.  And remember what happens when you stare to long into the abyss an-oh, look! Captain Marvel cover! Woooooo!!!

Marvel Puzzle Quest is now available from Marvel Entertainment, D3 Publisher, and Demiurge Studios for iOS, Android, Windows, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

This review is based on the Android version.

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