''Marvel Puzzle Quest'' is a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

released by

D3 Publisher is a Japanese video game developer and publisher founded on February 5, 1992. The company is known for the ''Simple'' series of budget-priced video games. Their games have been released for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Ni ...

and Marvel Entertainment on October 3, 2013, and developed by

Demiurge Studios Demiurge Studios, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Boston. It was founded in 2002 by Albert Reed, Chris Linder, and Tom Lin. In February 2015, Demiurge was acquired by Sega and became part of their mobile gaming subsidiary, Se ...

. The fourth installment in the '' Puzzle Quest'' series, it is a free-to-play,

match-three A tile-matching video game is a type of puzzle video game where the player manipulates tiles in order to make them disappear according to a matching criterion. In many tile-matching games, that criterion is to place a given number of tiles of the ...

Bejeweled ''Bejeweled'' (also referred as ''Bejeweled Deluxe'' in some releases) is a tile-matching puzzle video game by PopCap Games, developed for browsers in 2001. The first game developed by PopCap under their current name, ''Bejeweled'', involves ...

''-style puzzle battle game set in the

Marvel Marvel may refer to: Business * Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company ** Marvel Comics, the primary imprint of Marvel Entertainment ** Marvel Universe, a fictional shared universe ** Marvel Music, an imprint of Marvel Comics * ...

universe, featuring 282 playable, unlockable, recruitable Marvel characters.Victoria McNally
"Exclusive: Marvel Superhero Kamala Khan Is Making Her Video Game Debut,"
MTV News, March 26, 2015.Rowan Kaiser
"Avengers, Assemble Your Gems!"

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

, October 11, 2013. It is available for free on the

App Store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the c ...

for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating sy ...

for Android and Steam for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

."Marvel Puzzle Quest Celebrates One-Year Anniversary in Style,"

Marvel.com Marvel Entertainment, LLC (formerly Marvel Enterprises) is an American entertainment company founded in June 1998 and based in New York City, New York, formed by the merger of Marvel Entertainment Group and Toy Biz. The company is a wholly own ...

, October 2, 2014. A high-definition port of the game developed by

WayForward Technologies WayForward Technologies, Inc. is an American independent video game developer and publisher based in Valencia, California. Founded in March 1990 by technology entrepreneur Voldi Way, WayForward started by developing games for consoles such as ...

was released on

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...

, PlayStation 4, and

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...

in 2015; and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

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.Megan Farokhmanesh
"Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign launches for iOS, Android Oct. 3,"

Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two to ...

, October 2, 2013. 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.Joseph Leray
"’Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign’ Review – Match-3 RPG in the Marvel Universe,"
Touch Arcade, October 12, 2013. 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.Brad Gallaway
"Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign Review,"
Game Critics, January 28, 2014. 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.Nathan Meunier
"Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign Review,"
''

MacLife ''MacLife'' (stylized as ''Mac, Life'') is an American monthly magazine published by Future US. It focuses on the Macintosh personal computer and related products, including the iPad and iPhone. It’s sold as a print product on newsstands, and a ...

'', October 8, 2013. 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."Marvel Puzzle Quest Developer Diary,"
Marvel.com, October 29, 2013. 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.Aldrin Calimlim
"Marvel Puzzle Quest drops ‘Dark Reign’ subtitle, welcomes Deadpool and Team-Ups,"
appadvice.com, July 29, 2014. 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 Norman Osborn is a fictional character, fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character, created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, first appeared in ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #14 (July ...

's attempts to supplant

S.H.I.E.L.D. S.H.I.E.L.D. is a fictional espionage, special law enforcement, and counter-terrorism agency appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in ''Strange Tales'' #135 (August 1965), it often dea ...

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 Player versus environment or player versus enemy (PvE, also known as player versus monster (PvM)), is a term used for both single player and online games, particularly MMORPGs, CORPGs, MUDs, other online role-playing video games and survival ga ...

events of the game, such as “Webbed Wonder,” where Spider-Man teams up with

Howard the Duck Howard the Duck is a fictional Character (arts), character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Steve Gerber and artist Val Mayerik. Howard the Duck first appeared in ''Adventure into F ...

to find out

Aunt May Maybelle "May" Parker-Jameson (née Reilly), commonly known as Aunt May, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the superhero Spider-Man. Making her first full appeara ...

's whereabouts.

Characters

The game features an array of classic Marvel heroes and villains, including Spider-Man, Captain America,

Wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscul ...

, Iron Man,

Thor Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, an ...

, Black Widow,

Storm A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere of an astronomical body. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstorm), ...

and

Magneto A magneto is an electrical generator that uses permanent magnets to produce periodic pulses of alternating current. Unlike a dynamo, a magneto does not contain a commutator to produce direct current. It is categorized as a form of alternator, ...

, 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 Devil Dinosaur is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is depicted as resembling an enormous, crimson colored ''Tyrannosaurus''-like theropod dinosaur. Created by Jack Kirby, the chara ...

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 A blade is the portion of a tool, weapon, or machine with an edge that is designed to puncture, chop, slice or scrape surfaces or materials. Blades are typically made from materials that are harder than those they are to be used on. Historic ...

in October 2014 and Cyclops in February 2015.

Kamala Khan Kamala Khan is a superheroine who appears in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by editors Sana Amanat and Stephen Wacker, writer G. Willow Wilson, and artists Adrian Alphona and Jamie McKelvie, Kamala is Marvel's first ...

, who was announced as a new Marvel character in November 2013 and is the first

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

superhero to lead a comic book series, was featured in the game. The game has steadily received two new characters per month. As of December 2022, there are 282 characters in the game including 8 one-star, 14 two-star, 50 three-star, 133 four-star and 77 five-star characters. Three variants of existing characters were created specially for the game: a

Peggy Carter Margaret Elizabeth Carter is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. She is usually depicted as a supporting character in books featuring Captain America. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirb ...

who became Captain America, and eventually got both a comics version as part of the Exiles, and an animated version in the show '' What If...?''; Wolverine (Samurai

Daken Daken (; birth name: Akihiro) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Daken was created by writer Daniel Way and artist Steve Dillon and first appeared in '' Wolverine: Origins'' #10 (March 2007). ...

), where Wolverine's son takes on his father's codename as an atonement for killing him; and

Deadpool Deadpool is an antihero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Fabian Nicieza and artist/writer Rob Liefeld, the character first appeared in ''New Mutants'' #98 (cover-dated Feb. 1991). Initially, Deadp ...

(Spirit of Vengeance), a Deadpool that became a

Ghost Rider Ghost Rider is the name of multiple antiheroes and superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Marvel had previously used the name for a Western character whose name was later changed to Phantom Rider. The first s ...

History and development

The first ''Puzzle Quest'' game, '' Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords'', was conceived and designed by Australian game designer Steve Fawkner, the original designer of the ''

Warlords A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...

'' computer game series, which he created in 1989. In creating ''Puzzle Quest'', Fawkner was inspired by his love of the tile-matching puzzle video game ''

''.Richard Moss
"From Warlords to Puzzle Quest: The Journey of a Video Game Pioneer,"
Polygon, November 6, 2013. ''Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords'' was picked up by

and released on March 20, 2007, for the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable. It was an instant success, winning a 2008 Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences award for Downloadable Game of the Year. It was also nominated for Handheld Game of the Year. Versions for

Xbox Live Arcade Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is a digital video game download service available through the Xbox Games Store, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360. It focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent ...

, Wii,

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...

, PlayStation 2 and mobile followed later that year. It was released for

and

in late 2008. ''Marvel Puzzle Quest'' was launched worldwide by

and Marvel Entertainment on October 3, 2013. It was the second game developed internally by

.Samit Sarkar
"Sega acquires Demiurge Studios, but not its best-known game, Marvel Puzzle Quest,"
Polygon, February 19, 2015. The game was originally titled ''Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign'', before the subtitle "Dark Reign" was dropped following a July 2014 update. D3 Publisher stated that the revised title signified the beginning of the game's expansion beyond the "Dark Reign" storyline. On February 18, 2015,

Sega Networks is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, respectively. Its division ...

acquired Demiurge Studios, but the acquisition did not include the rights to ''Marvel Puzzle Quest''. In 2022, 505 Games purchased D3 Go!, and upkeep of ''Marvel Puzzle Quest'' was eventually passed over to Broken Circle Studios.

Critical reception

rated the game a 9.1 out of 10, writing, "''Marvel Puzzle Quest'' has taken the idea of a puzzle game with a strategic/role-playing element overlay, and turned it into an intricately crafted, remarkably deep experience". IGN added that the game is "compelling at each level" with "constant challenges and goals to work toward". Touch Arcade awarded it four out of five stars, calling it "compulsively, sickeningly playable" and writing that, in comparison to other ''Puzzle Quest'' games, ''Marvel Puzzle Quest'' is more calculated and strategic, with a focus on team fighting rather than individual combat. The game has received a rating of 74 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. ''

'' said it "does a good job of spicing up the match-three genre for comic fans". ''Marvel Puzzle Quest'' is a 2014 Tabby Award Best Android Apps and Games winner in the Game: Puzzle, Cards & Family category. Peter Rubin, Contributing Editor at Wired Magazine, wrote a feature length article about the game 7 years after release
Marvel Puzzle Quest Might Just Be My Forever Game
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References

External links

* {{Marvel Video Game Crossovers 2013 video games D3 Publisher games Science fantasy video games IOS games Android (operating system) games Windows games Mobile games Role-playing video games Video games developed in the United States Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games based on Marvel Comics Video games scored by Rod Abernethy Tile-matching video games PlayStation 3 games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation Network games Xbox 360 Live Arcade games Xbox One games Puzzle Quest Wayforward games Demiurge Studios games