In the business of games, having an IP is not a guarantee for runaway hit. Get it wrong & you may lose more than credibility, get it right & reap the rewards for years to come.
Marvel Contest falls in the latter category.
Developer Kabam’s stronghold has traditionally been RPG’s which are more suited to hard core players with an appetite for empire building and penchant for battles. Marvel Contest was a new leaf in Kabam’s book. Why?...Because it lowered the entry barrier for masses of casual and mid-core players, whilst offering depth and content which it’s other strategy games are famously known for.
Gameplay
Many games which involve an assortment of powerful heroes usually introduce trading card mechanics which makes it easier to manage them on mobile. But Kabam went ahead with the genre of character brawler similar to Streetfighter but with controls that are so simplified that even a two year old can figure them out.
Street Brawler Mechanics Simplified?
Classic brawlers from arcade machines to pc, console, hand held devices have been all about the thrill & skill of mastering varying combos and moves with swift reaction time.
Traditional street brawlers have an assortment of moves mapped to the controller as seen below:
Just like FPS, this genre also traditionally demands high motor and sensory coordination as the fights can be in real time with an enemy who can execute 'n' number of combos and special attacks, countering them requires adapting your hero's fighting controls on the fly.
We can see above, how in classical brawlers not only player has to track character movement but also combines them with well timed combos for punching and kicking.
Origin of course lies in the old arcade machines, which were designed to fully engage and immerse players within the game session, without affordance for distractions. Tactile controls were designed to use and engage multiple fingers at a given time. needing players complete immersion and involvement.
In contrast to the classical definition of brawlers, Marvel contest deviates. Quiet a gamble to "dumb down the diverse combat system" which some may consider the beating heart of this genre.
Marvel Contest, in contrast, dilutes these inputs to just few taps and swipes which is sensible for mobile devices as affordance for distractions is high and supporting muti-touch input of different fingers together is cumbersome.
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It has been achieved by something I refer to as Erasing of loads, now a rampant phenomenon in mobile gaming where in, the heavy cognitive loads involved in traditional pc and console games are either reduced or removed in magnitude by simplifying the inputs required in core mechnics or removal altogether, to achieve better balance for mobile audiences.
(This approach has been explained in greater detail in my article on FPS games)
Battle System: Tactical assault with Strategic undercurrents?
In Tactical gameplay your main concerns are the moment-to-moment decisions with immediate outcomes;
