GamerRespawn
Publisher: Kabam
Developer: Kabam
Platform(s): iOS, Android
Genre(s): Fighting
D.O.R: December 10, 2014
Fighting games are a staple on consoles and now mobile gamers are getting in on the action. Marvel follows in DC's footsteps and brings us Contest of Champions. Like other mobile brawlers, the arena is rendered in 3D with a 2D fighting plane. Players begin the game with two champions and collect more by winning or buying crystals. Players have access to famous characters like Captain America, Iron Man, Wolverine, Hulk and even villains like Ronan, Magneto and Venom. Each character has their own class, movement style, abilities and special attacks.
The game features an energy system similar to a lot of mobile games that limits the amount of quest based battles that you can complete at any one time. Your energy recharges automatically over time or you can refill it manually by winning or buying refills. You increase your energy limit by levelling up your summoner level.
In the main story quest mode of the game you will take a group of up to five champions of your choosing and progress around a map that is populated with computer controlled champions, chests that contain ISO-8, health potions and a boss champion.
In addition to the story mode, you can also battle against other summoners in the games PVP mode. Each player chooses their own username and can go up against others in 1 v 1 matches or 3 v 3limited time arenas. Although you are fighting against other summoners, it is only their champions controlled by the computer instead of fighting the other summoners in real time.
The games controls are specifically designed so that there is no need for a virtual joystick or buttons. Attacks are carried out through a variety of taps, swipes and holds on the screen. you can attack with light, medium or heavy attacks by tapping on the right side of the screen, block by holding down on the left side, dash in to attack by swiping right and dodge back by swiping left. Each character also has up to three of their own unique attacks. To gain access to these attacks you build up the bars at the bottom and then tap the icon once you have gained enough power.
As well as levelling up your team members you can also gain Synergy bonuses by having certain combinations of champions on your active team. For example if you have Hulkbuster and Hulk in your team you will gain +15% critical damage for all members on the team.
On top of all this there is also a rewarding combo system, the higher a combo you gain during a battle, the faster your special attacks will regenerate.
Your champions can be levelled up using ISO-8, Gold and, once they reach max level, Catalysts which push their level cap up by 10. The amount of times you can use catalysts on a certain champion will depend on how many stars that champion has. A one star character for example can only use catalysts once, while a two star can use them twice. All these items can be gained from pretty much every game mode. There is also class specific ISO-8 and catalysts available from certain quests that have a boosted effect on the specified class.
You also have the option to join an alliance, where you can help your teammates and earn alliance points and chat among the members about strategy, Marvel characters or anything else you want.
Contest of Champions is a solid mobile beat-em-up and a definite rival to DC's Injustice: Gods Among Us. Very easy to get used to and so very hard to stop playing. If you are a die hard fan of the comics then collecting as many of the characters as you can and battling them will definitely appeal to you. If you are new to the comics or the characters then first off, where have you been?! Secondly, you will not see the appeal of collecting different characters and will just use any old combination.
I would recommend giving it a go either way. Even without using real money to buy awesome characters you can easily build up a formidable team and have a lot of fun doing so.
8.5/10
