Marvel Puzzle Quest is a video game released by D3 Go! and Marvel Entertainment on October 3, 2013, and developed by Demiurge Studios. The fourth installment in the Puzzle Quest series, it is a free-to-play, match-three Bejeweled-style puzzle battle game set in the Marvel universe, featuring 312 playable, unlockable, recruitable Marvel characters.
It is available for free on the App Store for iOS, Google Play for Android and Steam for Microsoft Windows. A high-definition port of the game developed by WayForward Technologies was released on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and Xbox 360 in 2015; and Xbox One in 2016. The game was released on Amazon Kindle in 2016.
Gameplay
Players assemble a team of three Marvel superheroes or supervillains from various storylines, controlling the team against a team of up to three other superheroes or supervillains in match-three, turn-based battles. Each color-coded match does damage to the player's opponent, while creating action points which can obtain special skills. Gems disappear and are replenished from above as they are matched. When they are matched, the six colors of gems on the board grant energy that can be used to execute special moves. Players trade hits back and forth until one of them is downed. When all enemies are downed the fight is over revealing a reward for the winner: one of the in-game currencies, special boosts or a new character. This character can be added to your roster. If it's a duplicate, it becomes a level-up cover. Players earn points by winning battles, and then apply the points to unlock new attacks and level up. The board is highly tactical, with up to half a dozen potential considerations beyond the best match at any given point.
There are two main modes: story and multiplayer, where the players can fight against other teams controlled by the game's artificial intelligence. The game is free, with opportunities to purchase level-ups or new characters. New characters, a bundle of Iso-8, hero coins and other items can also be obtained by replaying old levels. As a player's roster expands, the possibilities for team composition and skill selection also expand.
A player collects in-game comic book covers to unlock new characters and improve existing ones. Each character has a set of real comic book covers associated with them, which represent the character's abilities and allow the player to improve the character's abilities or level them up. In July 2014, Team-Ups were introduced, allowing a player to battle with single-use abilities from characters that aren't part of the player's teams. Characters are ranked in different tiers using stars. They range from one star characters which are the weakest to five star characters which are the strongest and most powerful.
Synopsis
The story involves a powerful new substance called Iso-8 and Norman Osborn's attempts to supplant S.H.I.E.L.D. There are five missions to stop Osborn on his worldwide terror spree. The original story is based on the Dark Reign storyline and was written by Frank Tieri and Alex Irvine. Irvine also wrote other player versus environment events of the game, such as “Webbed Wonder,” where Spider-Man teams up with Howard the Duck to find out Aunt May's whereabouts.
Characters
The game features an array of classic Marvel heroes and villains, including Spider-Man, Captain America, Wolverine, Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, Storm and Magneto, along with lesser-known characters like Moonstone. In commemoration of the game's first anniversary, Thor: Goddess of Thunder, the female version of Thor, was added on October 17, 2014, making Marvel Puzzle Quest the first video game to feature the character. Devil Dinosaur was also added as a playable character for the anniversary, via an anniversary pack and as a daily reward for those who had been playing for over 365 days. Other characters that have been added since the game's inception include Blade in October 2014 and Cyclops in February 2015. Kamala Khan, who was announced as a new Marvel character in November 2013 and is the first Muslim superhero to lead a comic book series, was featured in the game. The game has steadily received two new characters per month. As of October 2023, there are 307 characters in the game including 8 one-star, 14 two-star, 59 three-star, 144 four-star and 87 five-star characters.