Max level Ghost rider, Bucky Cap, and Bunnisher! Make your own goals past FF Spidey?

Last week was super fun as I kept on playing with these new heroes, finished off three max levels with them, and added a few more levels to my overall squad level:





BOOM! With all that leveling, my total squad level is approaching 700 now! I have to say, I love Ghost Rider and Punisher's Max Level emotes! LOL!



Bunnisher . . . just Bunnisher. Come on, that's amazing. HAHAHA! Now we know what Matt was working on there at the Amazing Society back in February. ;)

And Ghost Rider on a tricycle!


I think that should be my new expression of shock at work when someone tells me something crazy.

HOLY GHOST RIDER ON A TRICYCLE!

Speaking of crazy. I don't know if you guys feel this way, but after you finish out the challenge quest line, you kind of have to make your own goals and find a way to reward yourself, right? What do you guys do to keep it up?

Also, I'd love to see some player-created challenges past FF Spiderman . . . just to see what we could come up with!

- What would be the dividing points for squad level rewards?
- What five accomplishments would you have to do for each major challenge level?
- What hero would you award for completing the challenge?

Let me know what you think.

Happy dueling!

Three More Max Heroes, Some Reactions, and Badge Improvements Please!

The latest updates are now live in the game and I think it's good news that the introductory price of classic daredevil is a bargain as far as gold priced heroes go!


You can also see pictured there the new Bullseye mission. Anyone tried that?

Also good news is that you can turn these new voices down or off completely:


They aren't that bad, but extended play with them can be a bit . . . distracting? There were some interesting choices made that I'm not sure I like. I don't really think my character should say something every time he/she opens a door or heads to the sky. I wish the frequency was tuned down just a little bit. Like maybe every tenth time I opened a door it would say something or every fifth time I hit a flight spot. Either way, that volume slider for voices is a welcome sight. I was kind of getting annoyed at Invisible Woman this morning as she wondering "Hmm, I wonder what's in here" while I opened the door to the Baxter building. yeah. She's not that ditsy.

Anyway, I do have three more max heroes in my back pocket!

First up is Street Clothes Wolverine:


Next to ding max was The Beast:


And finally, just this morning I dinged max on The Human Torch:


All three heroes were fun to play. Beast's double jump makes him great around town. Human Torch has one of the coolest looks in the game. Street Clothes Wolverine was free! ;p Give me a free hero, and I will play it to max!

I played both Beast and Wolverine in missions (and they were fun), but I think all I did while leveling The Human Torch was collect tokens, kill troublebots, and click chasables. I need to play a few missions with him still. That's on my "fun agenda" in game. hehe.

Here's a quick idea: I wish earning badges in game meant more. Like, if I unlocked a badge on a hero, it should equal something like 5-10 gold or a bunch of tickets. It would really give me some extra incentive to revisit my heroes after they've hit max. Tying rewards (any kind of reward) to unlocking badges would be such an awesome motivator.

What do you think of the new voiceovers and updates?

Happy Dueling!

Introducing Super Spy Genie!

Yesterday I talked my wife into making a Super Hero Squad Online account. It was kind of funny. For some reason our two-year-old really just doesn't want mom to play this game with him. He wanted DAD to play the game with him. In fact, he went as far as turning off the computer on her. LOL.

As with all two-year-olds, they are easily distracted and he was off playing on the Wii, and I was able to help my wife get set up and talk her through some of the controls on screen. Before you knew it, Super Spy Genie was on the prowl for bad guys!

She's digging Ms. Marvel.

She actually had a really good suggestion for The Amazing Society. It would be nice to be able to select whether you were a girl or a boy before you selected your squad name (it's reversed right now), and then you would be given your choice of more "girl" sounding squad names. It took us a while to find Super Spy Genie, but when we landed on it, it was perfect.

Before you knew it, she was running through her first mission as Ms. Marvel with a guy who was playing Thing. She liked it, and from the sidelines it was pretty entertaining to watch. :)

I logged on after her mission and we met up to add each other to our friend lists (I really wish I could have more friends on my list--I have that same problem in Wizard101).


I can't wait to see if she gets into it like I did. It'll be fun to run some missions with her or maybe have a card battle. If we ever do that, I'll probably video it and share it. ;)

Happy Dueling

Create Your Own Hero?

If you look at any other Super Hero MMO out there, you'll see that the main focus of the game is building your hero (your avatar) that you create.

- DC Universe Online
- City of Heroes
- Champions Online
- Fusion Fall
- Hero Smash
- Herotopia

You get the idea. Marvel's Super Hero Squad Online is different because it's all about Marvel's line of Super Heroes and specifically the Super Hero Squad Intellectual Property. To those ends, you never really play as a super hero of your own creation in this game.

To many, that's the clincher for NOT playing the game. People want to create their own superhero.

I remember my first table top super hero RPG back in the 80's, which was, in fact, titled Marvel Super Heroes. Wikipedia has a good way of putting the idea of Character Creation in that game:

"The game was intended to be played using existing Marvel characters as the heroes. The Basic and Advanced Sets both contained fairly simple systems for creating original superheroes, based on random ability rolls (a la Dungeons & Dragons). In addition, the Basic Set Campaign Book also allowed players to create original heroes by simply describing the desired kind of hero, and working together with the GM to assign the appropriate abilities, powers, and talents.

The Ultimate Powers Book, by David Edward Martin, expanded and organized the game's list of powers, making a fairly comprehensive survey of comic book-style super-powers. Players were given a wide variety of body types, secret origins, weaknesses, and powers. The UPB gave a much greater range to characters one could create . . ."

I didn't have the Ultimate Powers Book, but I remember my variation on Spider-Man from this game extremely well. The "Brown Tarantula" was awesome! I made my own comics about him when I was bored at church. :) Although it was my own creation, The Brown Tarantula was my avatar from a game meant to mostly be about Marvel's super heroes.

So, Super Hero Squad Online is also meant to be played using existing Marvel Characters as heroes. I don't think that should change. I think playing and buying these new characters and leveling your squad is the core idea of this game.

However, now approaching the twilight of my squad progression (I'm almost to Major), I'm pining for a bit of my own superhero creativity. Yes, I can go do that in any old super hero game, but now I'm invested in this game.

Here is what I propose: Once you become a "Major" you strive to obtain an even further level of progression . . . "General" perhaps. Once you obtain this level, then you open up a character of your own design who takes on the name of your squad. I want to build THEE "iridescent time hound" if you will.

I want to be able to choose my own "wide variety of body types, secret origins, weaknesses, and powers" and I want those choices to influence my eventual power emotes and combat moves.

It's asking a lot from this game, but if there ever was to be an expansion . . . I think the chance at creating your own character would not only bring the masses in, but would also make a lot of veterans in the game very happy. Being "unique" is important in these worlds and being "special" because you've invested a lot of time in an MMO world is also a key ingredient for the success of so many games out there. SHSO needs something "like" this . . . if not this.

I don't care if I have to grind heroes up to a 900 squad level as long as at the end of the rainbow there is a powerful character created that is all my own. THE IRIDESCENT TIME HOUND! Right?

I don't think it's a new idea, and I definitely don't think it's one that The Amazing Society or Gazillion hasn't heard before. They know their stuff. But you never know, this could be the reason for a six-month subscription to this game.

What do you think?

Happy Dueling

The (dreaded?) Prize Wheel

I like to give ideas. Whether the amazing The Amazing Society decides to listen is entirely up to them. I haven't read anywhere about their policies on unsolicited ideas, but that's just kind of what bloggers do, right? We're constantly thinking of ways to improve the game (any game) . . . improve the experience . . . and have fun! As a reader, if you agree with an idea, feel free to voice your support in the comments below. You never know what might happen, they might agree! Also, you may have a much better idea than the one I propose, leave it in the comments below. :)

So, with that introduction to my crazy idea posts, I think I have one that you all might like. At least it's one that I would love to see happen. :)

Every day we spin the prize wheel.


That prize wheel is just a part of life in Super Hero Squad Online. After a while though when you're spinning up 100+ tickets, it can become tedious. If you're like me, I usually open up YouTube or some other website and just bounce back and forth between the other window on my computer and the prize wheel as I spin them all away. It's repetitive, but very rewarding.

I hate to ask for an easy button in a game that may already seem "easy." But if there was a way we could "auto spin" an additional amount of spins, I would gladly use it. Even if I had to pay 1 gold or 200 silver to auto-spin the wheel 30 times in a row (as long as I had the tickets to do so), I would do it.

What do you think? I want an auto-spin button added to the game! :) It'd be so much easier for me to get up and walk away (or use the time to type up a blog post) while the game was auto-spinning for me!

Happy Dueling

MMmmmm Food! Could it mean more?

I like how our heroes enjoy eating in Super Hero Squad Online. Everybody needs to eat, right? Some more than others.


OH THING! We love your pizza place! The main place we see our squaddies asking for food is inside their player headquarters.


I'm not exactly sure what this does for them other than they seem to enjoy it and stop asking for food soon afterwards. :)

What I'd love to see happen with food in the game is that instead of merely being a cosmetic play activity, that it give a little "buff" to your player's experience point gain for a short period of time. It doesn't have to be much, but an extra 20% experience for 15 minutes would be great!

Alternatively, it would be more meaningful if players incurred a penalty for letting their heroes go hungry out in the open worlds. -20% experience if your character is hungry. Eating with my heroes should be a daily activity!

Everybody needs to eat, right?

What do you think about food in the game?

Happy Dueling!