Even while the fruits of their first collaboration have yet to bear fruit, hopefully this week if not later this month, it seems that Kabam and Marvel have grown rather fond of each other. The two will take another stab at the growing mobile gaming market and have announced a still unnamed game. This time, however, the genre will be shifting gears towards a role-playing type. It’s hard not to get excited but also hard not to be a bit cautious.
It’s not that Kabam doesn’t have a favorable reputation in mobile gaming. It has a few popular titles under its belt, including Heroes of Camelot, Kingdoms of Camelot, Fast & Furious 6, and The Hobbit: Kingdoms, just to name a few. At New York Comic Con last October, the reception to the upcoming Marvel Contest of Champions fighting game has been mostly positive, with people commenting on the console-like quality of the graphics. Kabam promised more intuitive controls for a mobile game, which we’ll have yet to see once the game actually hits the market.
Marvel, on the other hand, has had hits and misses with its mobile titles. Most of them revolve around movie tie-ins and rarely around original content, like Avengers Alliance. Contest of Champions is one of that rare breed, and so all Marvel fans’ eyes will be on this fighting game. Details of this new Marvel RPG are extremely thin at this point, with nary a hint about gameplay and combat mechanics. It will all hinge on whether Kabam and Marvel will be able to deliver a new experience that doesn’t simply reuse the tried and tired tropes of mobile gaming. That said, it will still be a long wait, as the game isn’t scheduled to land until Fall 2015.
As for Contest of Champions, that game is set to hit Android and iOS this month, with some pointing to sometime this week even. The game is promised to be available globally immediately at launch and that Kabam will increase the roster of heroes and villains, which already consists of 25 names, regularly. Marvel fans, especially fans of fighting games, might want to keep their eyes peeled for this one to see if Kabam does have a magic touch for Marvel’s franchise.
SOURCE: Kabam
You’re so wrong about Avengers Alliance. The only movie tie-ins for this game are character costumes and one time only special operations such as “Extremis” (Iron Man 3), “The Dark World” (Thor: The Dark World), “Ghosts of the Past” (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) and so on. The rest are original stories made only for the game.