Marvel Contest of Champions iPhone Review

The Marvel Universe is arguable the hottest property out there, with many movies, TV shows, games, and toys, nothing comes close to Marvel's branding power. Marvel Contest of Champions is a new fighting game for mobile devices that has a long lineage of great Marvel fighters to match up to.

The Good

Marvel Contest of Champions is a mash-up fighting game that may remind many people of the great Marvel vs. Capcom series. In Contest of Champions, The Collector has brought Kang the Conqueror and you "the Summoner" to see his collection of heroes and to have a contest. You and Kang are to collect different heroes and battle them to see who wins his contest and controls the fate of Earth. The story sounds as crazy like it is straight from the comics. You are given a couple of heroes to start and then you go on "story quests" where you use your champion to fight Kang's champions. The fighting part of the game is fairly simple with easy to learn and use tap and swipe controls and every fighter has a unique special attack as well. The big part of the game is the amount of fighters that are present in the game. Not restricted to using only certain characters, like the movie producers, Contest of Champions has many different comic favorites. Spiderman, Wolverine, Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, and many more of your favorite heroes, villains, X-Men, and Avengers are present for collecting and battling. All the fighter's skills and attributes can be upgraded as well, which means you can spend a lot of time collecting and perfecting your favorites. There are also many iconic locations that house your fights like Oscorp, Avengers Mansion, and the Shield Helicarrier. This game is a great fan service for Marvel fans.

The Bad

Marvel Contest of Champions has one big problem and that is its repetitiveness. The game at its core has little to offer in terms of diversity. You will be playing similar matches over and over again. The game's simple controls and easy gameplay mechanics can lead to a lot of "button mashing" tactics. There is not much strategy needed in each fight, especially those against the computer. You can just keep tapping the screen and you will win fairly easily. The game's currency system is also hampers you a bit in terms of collecting. To get a character you need to spend a lot of units or gold in the game and the only way to get that is playing through the story a lot of using actual money, so you may need to spend a lot of cash to get your favorite hero or villain.

The Verdict

Marvel Contest of Champions should be downloaded by any fan of Marvel characters. This game is a really great fan service and it is a fun and simple fighting game. Hardcore fighting game fans will find this unchallenging though and its simple "button mashing" techniques and repetitiveness hold it back from being great.