Marvel Mighty Heroes hands-on: a game with too many twists

Given the recent rash of popularity of Marvel‘s myriad franchises, you can’t blame one of the biggest names in the comics industry from trying to squeeze every last dollar from those. We’ve already seen a lot of Marvel games on Google Play Store, some made by Marvel and some in partnership with game studios. For Mighty Heroes, Marvel decided to go with one of the biggest names in mobile gaming, DeNA. The result? A game that follows the tropes of conventional mobile games but with just enough twists to keep it interesting, at least for a while.

Obviously you get to choose from a roster of Marvel’s do-gooders, though the exact extent of that list is still unkwnown. Of course, you have the now staples of the Marvel (Cinematic) Universe, like the Hulk, Nick Fury, and even Gamora. Cap and Spidey are also there, though you’ll have to unlock them to get them. More heroes will surely be added later on. But don’t go looking for fine looking heroes here. The first twist: all game characters come in “Bobblehead” form, almost cartoonish with their big heads. Except Hulk, because his body is always bigger than his head.

At its most basic, Marvel Mighty Heroes is basically a 4-player co-op skirmish kind of game. You play with or against three other players using their own heroes to meet the requirements of a certain level, usually a goal that has to be accomplished within a certain amount of time. It can be a tad confusing on the screen, especially when you see three Hulks smashing about. At the end of the time limit, the four players are ranked according to their performance. So here’s the second twist: you both cooperate with each other but also battle for top marks. As for who makes up your 4-man, or woman, team, you can either recruit your friends or leave your fate in the hands of the game.

But here’s another twist. You actually get to build up your own sort of sub-team, made of three characters that you level up and equip with skills as well as costume variants. Inside a mission, you can switch between these three as you wish, though there is a cooldown period where you’re stuck with your decision for a while. While you might want to always use your favorite costumed hero for every mission, the game recommends you use a certain type, basically a class, of heroes. There are three that play out in a rock, paper, scissors kind of balance: Scrappers beat Blasters, Blasters beat Bruisers, Bruisers beat Scrappers. Each mission gives a class advantage. In practice, however, that may sometimes be moot. Since you’re also competing with other players for scores, sometimes it might be more advantageous to use a ranged character to get to an enemy, for example. Or a hulking beast to hold down the fort.

On paper, Marvel Mighty Heroes might have been, at the very least, an interesting game, but it falls short on execution. The game’s graphics are passable and we’ve seen better days. Identifying your players in a crowded arena isn’t exactly easy, especially if you use a generic, system-generated name for your account. It helps if you put in a custom name like others, but those names are barely visible. Besides, in the short mission bursts, there’s barely enough time to look around. You just go in there and smash enemies, no questions asked. It’s a fine, hectic mess and the game’s subtleties are easily missed or even forgotten.

And even in implementation, the game stumbles a few times. During the tutorial phase, where other games guide you in the essentials and wait for you to take action, the game just proceeds as if ignoring your very existence. In fact, there are several points in the game’s UI where you are asked to make a decision but the game proceeds with the default anyway after a very short delay, as if your input was inconsequential. Since it’s a co-op game, an Internet connection is required. Actually, a steady Internet connection is essential. The game does not degrade gracefully in case of a slow or broken connection, freezing the user interface at times making you presume that the game froze, when actually you were just getting an Internet hiccup.

Marvel Mighty Heroes has a lot going for it in theory: a strong Marvel fan base, DeNA’s mobile gaming clout, interesting though not exactly novel game mechanics, and the lure of free. In practice, the game is probably too rough around the edges and definitely feels more like a money grab instead of a very serious game like, say, Marvel Contest of Champions. Still, the game is fresh and new and could probably be salvaged with a few fixes here and there.

Marvel Mighty Heroes is available for free on Google Play Store, with in-app purchases, of course.