New game modes, variations & more

Some suggestions for new game modes, variations to the game, and other suggestions to make things more interesting and fun

Varying board shapes
One thing that I think the Atlantis and Elements match 3 games for iOS do really well is varying board shapes. I think it could be really cool if different boss stages or enemies in general occured on different shaped game boards. I remember how challenging it could be in Rise of Atlantis when a really good piece got trapped in a corner and was hard to match with others. Sometimes the game might also put a pillar or something in the middle of the board, creating an obstacle and separating it into sides.
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/rise-at ... 28113?mt=8
Even just looking at the preview images for the game you can see what I mean how the board shape changes.

Navigable game boards
4 Elements for iOS takes this to a new extreme by making game boards that are actually completed in chunks. As you complete certain amounts of matches or other requirements in a given area it would then fill or activate that area of the board with power and it will scroll to a new area of the board that you also have to complete objectives in.
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/4-eleme ... 69145?mt=8
Think about navigating one of Dr Doom's dungeons and you have to deactivate the power in each room by matching a certain number of tiles, for instance, ultimately reaching the final room to deactivate a giant bomb that's going to level the city. Instead of being turn based this mode could be timed and it's more about speed. Now people are on the leaderboard based on how quickly they were able to complete the objectives.

Dynamic board items that must be moved down the board
The Gamma Bomb storyline in the Hulk pieces made me think of something cool that could be done similar to Rise of Atlantis as well. They have timed rounds and have to get certain special pieces to the bottom of the game board, at which point the player is able to collect them. So, say you are collecting different pieces of a dismantled weapon before the time runs out so you can beat a really strong enemy. You keep making matches below the pieces which moves them further down the board, eventually collecting all of the pieces you can then use the weapon on the enemy (Galactus? Thanos? Apocalypse?), and save the day. Again, the leaderboard may be determined by how quickly you were able to do this. It could be strictly judged on time, the fastest players at the top of the leaderboard, OR you could be awarded points for how fast you completed and then the points determine your place on the leaderboard just like they do in the game now.

Frozen tiles
Frozen tiles that won't move down the board and require someone with fire abilities to unfreeze/unlock them, or powerful characters to smash them. Could be done in special stages where you have temporary access to certain abilities, or done with existing abilities, or by making the right coloured match adjacent to an affected tile while a certain type of character is on your team, and so on. The options and outcomes are endless.

Equipables
An interesting addition to boosts might be equipable items as rewards. Maybe each character could only have one max equipable that increases a stat, grants an ability, or other bonus.

Currency earning bonuses
It would be great if there was a way to increase the rate at which you accumulate different currencies, or at least ISO. Now, in other freemium games I play they accomplish this by making a permanent game unlock that you can purchase where you earn say 1.5x, 2x, or even 3x more currency. Where this game is concerned, I think that would be a huge plus, because the cost to buy things right now with real money is just way too unbalanced in my opinion, so I am looking for creative ways of balancing that or solving that while still allowing the developers to make money. Similar to the equipable idea above, users might be able to equip an item to earn slightly more ISO. I wouldn't give this away as a reward for winning a tournament or event though, as that defeats the purpose and would be keeping the the strongest players at the top of the food chain.

Out of battle characters and character traits
It would be really interesting if there were some character traits that carried over out of battle. For instance, maybe a certain special character when on your team increases the space you have for medkits by 1. Or maybe they're a healer and if they're in your roster they decrease the amount of time required to heal characters by a little bit. I saw a lot of people in reviews and in the forums complaining about healing time taking away from play time, so this may be an interesting compromise. Maybe unlocking this character costs money? Maybe they can't actually fight but still take up a roster space?

This same idea could be elaborated on where arch enemies are concerned. Like, maybe if you have both Venom and Spiderman recruited they heal slower out of battle because they have trouble getting along. Whereas say two characters may heal faster only after having been in a battle together because the battle brought them closer or they were able to temporarily resolve their differences, giving them a temporary boost for their next battle.

A passive smart character hanging around your home base could be a cool recruit. Maybe they aren't necessarily very powerful, but as long as you have them recruited they can give you helpful advice about how to play the game, how to defeat certain enemies if they notice you're having trouble, and so on.

What if certain characters built up passive and lasting knowledge of enemies or boosts against them? For instance, what if Forge or a similar character built up a permanent boost against certain robotic enemies the more you used him against them (up to a maximum, of course). Now, that would be cool!

A couple more creative abilities
When it comes to PvP, or fighting special characters, how frustrating would it be if they could cover part of your screen? Remember getting inked in Mario Kart? What if we could do something similar? Obviously it wouldn't be a move coming in handy against the computer (although it could have other affects against the AI), but this could make things more interesting. Suddenly a lower level player may have an edge over a higher one.

Disabling the other player's ability to make certain coloured matches might be another interesting ability. Say I'm facing a super leveled up Ragnarok, but suddenly I can disable his ability to match yellow coloured tiles for 4 turns, thereby preventing him from accumulating that colour of power? Pretty interesting concept, I think.

Adding some interest to some of the projectile or ranged type attacks some of the characters have, when they use the ability it could be neat to have a the enemy's character portrait come up, along with a crosshair that's wavering around. If you are able too hit the trigger when the crosshair is on them, or on certain parts of them, then it could do more damage. Similarly, the enemy's portrait could pop up and be moving around erratically and the faster and more accurately you tap it the more damage the subsequent move is going to do.

Hiding the colour of a certain batch of tiles could also be interesting. Say, for a turn or two you couldn't tell what the colours of pieces in a 3x3 area were, and it was almost like a game of memory? And what if you couldn't just try to match them randomly because in this case if you made an incorrect move it could hurt you instead of the enemy?

Character team up abilities
It boggles my mind that we haven't implemented this yet! Has anyone played X-men Legends or Marvel Ultimate Alliance? The characters can team up and combine their abilities to do devastating or interesting things. Similarly, we should be able to do the same! This could be implemented in any number of ways, but the main idea is that if you have combinations of certain characters on your team then they could team up and gather to do a super ability. Maybe Colossus or a similarly strong character throws Wolverine at the enemy like they used to in the comics (where is Colossus, btw, haven't seen him yet?) and it does bonus damage. Maybe Iceman and Storm team up to make a blizzard that blinds, does damage, and freezes all enemies. Who knows. The requirement might be that both characters have filled gauges of the appropriate colours, as well as the team has made a certain number of matches in that game. Who knows! I just suggest there be team ups. This will make people a lot more competitive for certain character pairings or collecting their favourite team ups.

Collectables
What if you had trophies for all of the tough battles and milestones? Maybe like a team war room? Some of the prizes might be like a head from a Doombot or sentinel, some of Venom's symbiote trapped in containment from when you fought him, a handgun used by one of the Black Widows that she dropped in your battle, so on. Just interesting trophies. And maybe some of them are even more enticing, like you could actually win a digital copy of real Marvel comics and read them any time you wanted? One of the easiest and coolest prizes Marvel games could give out as incentives in their video games in general is digital comics. Maybe you could customize your trophy room with different themes depending on the type of team you liked to build (another chance for the developers to charge 99 cents or whatever it may be). You could have a roof top, the danger room, a sewer, a room in the Baxter building, and so on.

Conclusion
Now, the interesting thing about this game is the Events system. It's really easy to see what the interest in a new feature to the game might be, like varying game board shapes, because you can create a temporary event to test it out, see how many people play the event, and even solicit feedback. Additionally, some of the more advanced or game changing features here could be reserved for a new area of the game. Maybe some of these open up possibilities for new game modes, leaving much of the original game unscathed for people who like to continue playing their way.

Overall, I really like this game and only look forward to it getting even better. I think there's so much potential in this type of game as well as the Marvel Universe being open to take ideas from as well. I have further suggestions about how to improve the interface at different points, as well as the user experience, but I will save that for another post.