Crap-Out at the Contest of Champions

Anyone who reads this blog knows I'm a comic book superhero guy, and a big Avengers fan. I've talked about Avengers Alliance here before, linking to my article at Biff Bam Pop! right here. Since then I've moved on to playing the game on my iPad, much bigger and crisper.

Once I had obtained the perfect Avengers team - Vision and the Scarlet Witch, Giant-Man and the Wasp, Hawkeye, Black Panther, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America - I kinda stopped playing for a while. After all I doubted they'd introduce the Swordsman and Mantis to the game, the only thing that could make it cooler. And then I discovered Marvel's Contest of Champions.

Contest of Champions combined the comic book fun and character selection (to a point) of Avengers Alliance with the more advanced animated fighting of Injustice. And it rocked, for a while, and I played non-stop for almost three weeks. I loved it.

Then one day I turned on the game on my iPad, and it had logged me out. Not only had it logged me out, it had put me all the way back to the start. So I logged in, twice, several times, and I never got all my levels and characters that I had fought so hard for - and paid for as well, because it's one of those games. Kabam is sort of like the Yahoo! or Facebook of gaming companies. They wouldn't help me. And I'm not the only one this has happened to. Now that app is collecting dust on my iPad, and probably will for another couple weeks until I delete it in frustration.

And it's a shame too, because now they're running a promotion coinciding with Avengers: Age of Ultron. I would have loved that, but alas, I am not starting over from scratch. I guess I'll be going back to Avengers Alliance.

Where Have I Been?

Yeah, I've been delinquent over here on The Non-Gamer's Gamer's Blog. It's been at least since June that I've done anything here, and now it's November. I haven't forgotten you, I've just been busy.

I am still playing games. My recent purchase of an iPad Mini has attracted me to a few games that I continue to play. I am still addicted to Simpsons Tapped Out, currently cleaning out ghosts for Halloween, and of course, Candy Crush Saga. I'm also playing Avengers Alliance, a whole lot of Injustice and one or two others. It's notable that I'm spoiled by the iPad, and no longer play any of these on my tiny iPhone.

Right now however, it's November, and November is NaNoWriMo, so I will be very busy. So I just wanted to check in, and I'll see you in December.

Avengers Alliance for iPhone at Biff Bam Pop!

The Facebook game, Avengers Alliance, is now available for iOS and your iPhone. Check out my review over at Biff Bam Pop! right here.

Injustice on iPhone

So while waiting to see who has the best deal to buy Injustice (cuz $60 is just not cool), I happened to notice there was an iPhone app called Injustice Gods Among Us. I thought, could it be? It was. Much smaller, but at least it had more characters to use.

Now warning up front, my phone informed me right away that the fame was not built for iPhone and there might be some technical difficulties. That's all right, a funky game I want to play is better than no game at all, right?

The graphics are pretty intense for the phone. I was very impressed. It's not my Justice League, mind you, in this fancy-schmancy armor, as more than a few toy lines have ruined the JLA with extra armors, but these animatics looked very good.

The iPhone version had a swell tutorial, however unrealistic, allowing the player, as Green Arrow, to wallop Superman something fierce. GA beats Supes so hard he probably went home to foster momma for a new pair of shorts (which he is sadly lacking here - the real Superman wears his undies outside his pants, period).

Once the tutorial ends, I got to play for real, and was introduced to the true reality of the game. Nobody, absolutely nobody, just stands there like tutorial Superman and let's you hit them. I learned this very very quickly as first Sinestro, and then a very nasty version of Solomon Grundy, took turns taking my ass to school.

The game is similar to Avengers Initiative, also on the iPhone, but with more fun characters and backgrounds, has more characters than the Injustice demo for PS3, and should sate most of our appetites 'til the real thing comes out. I dug this.