Marvel Heroes tends to excel even among some of the bigger MMOs out there thanks to its tendency to constantly update and upgrade itself. This September we wrote about its biggest system update ever, which effectively constituted a total overhaul of the game. As with other branches of the Marvel entertainment empire, the folks behind Marvel Heroes appear to be fully aware that by recycling and/or revamping content based on the same basic heroes and settings they can continue keep their fans interested.
The game also has something of a built-in advantage in that it’s still the largest and most sophisticated ensemble video game to have come out since the dawn of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Gamers are interested in seeing crowds of Marvel characters in the same place, and there are only a few ways to do so across a huge spectrum of gaming. One of the first opportunities in this regard is a game some may not even know about! Casino Source lists a plethora of games and features offered by several online gaming sites, and includes mention of an Avengers slot machine. Further research shows this is a clever little arcade, and one of many to utilize a Marvel license to make slot reels more interesting. It’s entirely film-based, featuring all the main characters from the 2012 movie and giving gamers a nice chance to enjoy them all in one place.
That’s one of the smaller examples. And between that and Marvel Heroes, there are a few mobile apps with large casts of characters, as well as the LEGO-based video games where plenty of Marvel heroes and villains are present. But even among these titles nothing comes close to the amount of characters offered in Marvel Heroes. This is what keeps it out in front as probably the best Marvel video game you can find these days—and what separates it from other strong MMO options with less recognizable content.
And part of maintaining this reputation and status as the primary game for exploring lots of beloved comic characters is keeping those characters updated and interesting. For instance, if the creators of Marvel Heroes had simply plopped Iron Man into the MMO years ago and never touched him again, he’d have gotten old for players by now, even as one of the most important characters. Instead, the Marvel Heroes team regularly changes not only the game itself but the characters within it by providing new costumes, new abilities, and more.
They’ve recently done it again with a new update celebrating the release of Doctor Strange in theaters. Entertainment Weekly explained the update in detail, discussing new costume options for Strange (including his outfits from the film as well as a special comic book costume for those who logged in at a particular time). But this time, Marvel Heroes went a step beyond the ordinary image update and also built in some new gameplay options in the spirit of the film. For instance, the character of Mordo is now available as a team-up ally, not just for players controlling Strange but for any of the 59 playable characters in the game.
All in all it’s a pretty exciting update given how beloved the Doctor Strange movie already seems to be among fans. But it’s also just the latest example of what has helped to keep Marvel Heroes out in front of the competition for the best Marvel video game on the market.
MMO Fallout 