- Thursday, February 25, 2016 7:00 PM
- PeterPanFan
Yesterday the new Marvel Tsum Tsum Mobile game was launched in Japan! It is currently available in the Apple App Store as well as for Android but sadly only in Japan currently.
We managed to download it and play it a bit. Obviously since it is currently only a Japanese Game everything is in Japanese so some things were hard to follow to start with. That being said the game play is very similar to the existing game so it wasn't too difficult to get going... just not sure of all the details yet.
When you first start the game you get a capsule to open. This capsule contains a random character. This is basically the same as the regular game... when you first go in you get a box to open to get your first Tsum; however, in the regular game it is always Mickey instead of random.
Similar to the regular game, you select one of your Tsums to be your tsum to play with.
When you go to play your first game you see the first major game play difference. You are presented with "Stage 1" with a path of steps inside the Stage. Of course you start on the first Step. Each step is a challenge that you have to pass before you can move to the next step. Mostly the challenges seem to be similar to some of the Bingo Card tasks: more than a certain score, more than some amount of coins, more than some number of bubbles popped, etc. Overall the beginning ones were pretty easy and it wasn't difficult to get past each step.
Once you get into the actual game it is basically the same as the current game. You connect Tsums to clear them. As you clear "your" Tsum it powers up and once completely powered up you can use its skill. Clearing chains of more than 7 generates bubbles and as you clear Tsums you power up "Mega Charge" which then activates. Mega Charge is Marvel version of Fever. Finally, before the game, you have the option to buy power ups that match the ones in the regular game (extra score, extra time, 5 -> 4, etc)
As you progress through the steps of a stage, some steps will have a character on them. This is where the gameplay is different. When you play one of these steps you will play "verses" the character on the step. When you start the game a big Tsum of that character will appear and you have to try to beat it. You can use it as the end Tsum of a chain, use your Tsum's skill, and burst bubbles near it to damage it. It can also attack you and damage you. The goal is to reduce its "Hit Points" down to 0 before it reduces yours to 0. We haven't played enough versus games yet to have a complete grasp on how they work but at least the first few aren't too difficult.
Similar to the regular Tsum Tsum game you can buy more capsules to get more Tsums; however, instead of costing coins they cost "orbs".
How do you get orbs you ask? Well, you get orbs for clearing some of the steps for the first time in a stage and this week I think they are giving out extra orbs to celebrate the launch; however, other than that it is unclear how you get more orbs other than buying them through in-app purchases. Just like the regular game you can get the same character more than once; however, instead of increasing the power of its skill it seems like it just levels them up.
When you go to look at your Tsum some of the bigger differences start to become obvious. Instead of just the character's ability power level, the character has HPs, Attack, and Defense. These seem to increase with level. What these do exactly during regular game play isn't clear; however, we assume that the Attack, Defense, and HP ratings effect how much damage you do, how much damage you take, and your total Hit Points during versus games.
Below the core stats there are three other things. The first is your character's skill. This obviously starts at level 1 and you can press the plus button to buy a power up. When you do this you are confronted with another difference... more things you have to collect. For example below, to increase Agent Carter's skill from level 2 to level 3 it will require 30 yellow triangle gems, 1 blue triangle gem, and 4000 coins. The coins are obvious... you get those from playing. But how to get the other gems? When you play a game on a stage step you get 1 to 3 stars depending on how well you do during the game (If you play Angry Birds you will already be familiar with this concept). You will get 1 yellow triangle for each star but only the first time you get it. So for example if you play a game for a step for the first time and get 3 stars you will get 3 yellow triangles but if you play that step again you won't get any. As far as the blue triangles... we don't know for sure. Most likely from clearing certain steps or stages.
The next thing down is "Special" and starts out locked. Special is actually a second skill for the Tsum. It doesn't power up as quickly as the regular skill but when you do power it up it is quite a bit more powerful. For Agent Carter her main skill shoots at the screen and clears Tsums where she shoots. Her "Special" skill changes a bunch of Tsums in the middle of the screen into Steve Rogers Tsums that can be chained with Agent Carter Tsums... just like the various summon sweetheart Tsums in the regular game. The Special skill takes Diamonds, Blue Triangle gems, and coins to power up (at least for Agent Carter). So we have another gem type we have to somehow acquire.
The final thing is a "passive ability" that each character has. Agent Carter's is apparently "Defense" which isn't obvious what it does exactly during regular game play but should help during versus play. To power up this for Agent Carter it takes 50 purple triangle gems and 3000 coins.
So now we have coins, orbs, yellow triangle gems, blue triangle gems, purple triangle gems, and diamonds to collect. Hopefully as we play more it will become more obvious how we acquire these things (other than by paying for orbs).
It is also possible to play with (or against?) your friends. How this works we aren't sure yet as the add friends functionality seemed to not work (or at least it wasn't obvious how to use it).
Overall it is a fun game and adds some interesting differences to the regular game. We would love to have an International version but so far there hasn't been an announcement about that. If we hear anything we will be sure to let you know!