Every once in while a developer releases a game and it just grips the smartphone crazed people of Asia. I say Asia as it seems to affect here more than the Western world, and with some games either getting an English version much later on (such as Puzzle and Dragons, and Monster Hunt) or there’s no English version ts all.
We’ve all seen it, games like Candy Crush, Puzzle and Dragons, and Tsum Tsum consuming everybody’s spare time around you. The latest craze is a game produced by a well known Japanese developer called Mixi, and it has gripped the people of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan for the last month or so. With only a Japanese version released, I don’t really know what the game is actually called, but it is common referred to as Marvel Tsum Tsum. Sound familiar? The gameplay is near identical to that of Disney Tsum Tsum, but instead of containing Disney characters, this game contain cute versions of Marvel characters…….minus the X-men. Maybe its to do with the copyrights of the Marvel characters being owned by different companies, the characters present in the game currently are mainly from The Avengers movies, Guardians of the Galaxy, Spiderman, and from the currently successful Marvel TV series Agent Carter and Coulson; Hulk, Iron Man, Capt America, The Winter Soldier, Green Goblin, War Machine, Carter, Coulson, etc.
Much like the Disney Tsum Tsum, you attempt to join up as many of the same type as possible, and once you have joined up enough of your own character you can use a special skill which will help you remove more onscreen Tsum Tsums. As you progress you will get the chance of unlocking new characters and level the ones you already have, and increase their special skills levels. Much like all over games out there that rely on ‘chance’ when unlocking new characters or drop from special stages, the percentage of success is very small, and I’m sure there’s a stupid rule built into the game which drops you the same characters over and over again. The game can be downloaded via the Japanese App Store (Japanese account needed) or Google Play Store for free, so the developer relies on IAP (In-App Purchases), and this is one area this game has been criticized for on online forums; once you hit a certain level in the game, to level the skills on your characters further you need special colored in-game gems which are near-possible to drop, and then you’d need a lot of them, so the only meaningful way without spending several lifetimes playing the game would be the fork out some hard-earned cash.
One the reasons Marvel Tsum Tsum has been so popular is its co-op mode playing against ever-increasingly harder character levels (which should mean better drops and drop rates) which the Disney Tsum Tsum did not have. The friends list you have now is just really for comparison of levels and sending each other free goes, there’s no weekly ranking bonus. Co-op is not with these friends but via GPS location, playing with random people in the near vicinity. With this new feature, one can imagine how popular games like this is at workplaces where groups of you can congregate to play. What suck is where I live there’s hardly anyone playing this game. To overcome a lack of other players in the nearby area to play with, Android users have a clever trick up their sleeves; they use apps to fake their GPS locations; using apps such as Fake GPS Location. Currently the most popular location to fake to in Hong Kong is at Langham Place in Mongkok, Taipei 101 in Taiwan, and literally anywhere in central Tokyo.
Will this game’s initial appeal last as long as the other successful games in the past? Hard to tell. A combination of the co-op mode and cute popular characters sure has its appeals, but drops and their drop rates needs to be updated pretty soon or else people with give up Marvel Tsum Tsum in droves. Being at only version 1.00, there are bugs and there is still plenty of room for the developer to improve, but updates needs to come out fast. Another factor to keep players coming back is the tricky business of copyrights; can the developer get copyrights for additional Marvel characters, the number of additional new characters number in the 1000s. Keep adding new characters, and players will keep coming back.
