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Let’s just get one thing straight before I start…I REALLY wanted to love this game. MMOs, along with RPGs are my favourite genre of game, and I love a lot of the Marvel universe…comics, films and characters, so I really wanted to love this experience…but honestly…I didn’t.

Marvel Heroes is in it’s Beta stage, and my friend and rather super sketcher HiggieBaby (Click his name to check out his work) was kind enough to pass me a Beta key, so when the game is officially released in early June, things may be a little different, but initally I was disappointed with what it offered.  I did eventually begin to appreciate it, (after trying a number of heroes and finding one that suited me best) but I can’t fangirl over it like I would like to. [The game does not support "screenshotting" at the time I'm writing this, so the screens here are from the game's official website]

Marvel Heroes is an MMO, in which you choose your character from the Marvel universe (26 are known to feature so far, including Thor, Hulk, Human Torch, Spider-Man, and Daredevil, and various other X-Men and Avengers) and play out a story in a massive online world, you are free to team up with other players, and you gain levels, which award points that you can choose to place on a skill tree. Think Diablo III meets DC Universe online.

The story is written by comic book author Brian Michael Bendis and deals with Doctor Doom stealing The Cosmic Cube (aka The Tesseract)…I assume to take over the world.

New Hero characters will cost money, as will customised outfits, however, Marvel do assure us all that anyone can unlock almost every character… simply from playing through the game. You can swap between your roster of Heroes at any time, which makes things tactical, interesting and potentially hilarious. The game uses the Unreal 3 Engine to render effects, so destructible environments feature, as do interactive objects.  The game has public combat zones, where players can gather and fight randomised bosses, social zones like towns, and solo or party-based dungeon instances that will scale in difficulty depending on how many players are in them.

Don’t get me wrong, there were things I loved about it, the motion comic cutscenes, the customisation that comes from building a skill tree how you wish, the choice of characters and combat styles on offer, and the dynamic boss fight events where a number of you all chip in, to rid the world of some well known Marvel bad guys. (Seeing Hulk revive a dead Wolverine is a little odd, I must confess.)

However, there is a lot of clicking involved, and using the keyboard to move your hero around is pretty impossible, the controls are clunky to say the least, and the less said about the camera angles and control the better. And all that clicking just didn’t feel justified, as at times, I felt unrewarded for my efforts and just wasn’t having fun. Different belts and coats, although supposedly enhancing my stats, did not make my character look any different, and the stat increases really didn’t make a difference in combat. This is something that is done well in so many other games, (hello Diablo 3 and Guildwars 2) so I really missed it. When I upgraded Wolvie’s suit, I expected him to be tougher and he just wasn’t.

At first I was concerned that my love of Marvel would taint my opinion, but looking past the characters, this is a lacklustre MMO, it’s a grindy, click-kill-run around-pick stuff up-level up-repeat, kind of affair, and there is a part of me that can appreciate it for that. I’d love it to have more depth, and for me to care about the story, and become immersed in the experience, but I am yet to feel I can do any of these things. If you want a superhero game that functions on a story or character level, this isn’t it (so far). Marvel need to put in more of a feeling of humanity into game, they do it so well in the films, I have hope for the game yet.

In short I love that I can play as a Marvel hero, with friends, but the way the game executes this, makes it difficult to love in a world that has the likes of Diablo, Torchlight and Guildwars, which are all doing this kind of thing, much much better. That being said, I remember the launch of DC Universe Online (yes I went there) and that was very similar…it is now however, a pretty decent title…so my faith remains in Marvel…for now, just don’t go into it expecting an Iron Man film type experience, because it’s more of a Hulk film…but it’s definitely not a Daredevil affair, and since it’s free to play, I say it’s worth keeping an eye on, and trying out, as although it’s currently not very fun to play…something keeps me going back to it.

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Lego Pirates of the Carribean

I actually impulse bought this, it was £15 in my local ASDA and I had been wanting something new to try in my 3DS. I was pleasantly surprised, and if I’m honest, other than a few more serious gamers I know (For those I would recommend getting your teeth into Heroes of Ruin) this is the game I would recommend to the majority of people who asked me for some titles I like on 3DS. You play through key scenes from all the films so far, the complex control system is streamlined and smooth, the graphics are excellent and the variety of puzzles and tasks means this never gets boring or monotonous. Great fun, and I can’t really think of any stand out faults in what I have played so far.

New Super Mario Bros 2

This game has received a lot of criticism for being “Only marginally better than New Super Mario Bros.1″ which I suppose is half warranted, but my question is what is so wrong with that? I’d like to make 2 important points though, firstly not everyone is a Mario veteran, so making games to the same formula may be uninspiring for seasoned Mario pros, but the games will always attract new players. Secondly, marginally is a little mean, the controls are more intuitive, and the whole thing is just far more responsive than the first in general. Graphics are sharper and the coin chase modes and updated downloadable content mean this has many cool new features which leave the first one in the shade. Not amazing by anyone’s standards, but if you’re new to Mario, or just love the platforming goodness he represents then I say give it a try. I thoroughly enjoy it, and have found some of the earlier stages surprisingly challenging.

Those game collection videos you get on YouTube, always go on and on right? Well, with regards to my portable gaming habits, that’s not the case. Today I begin the showcase for the only 4 games I own for my 3DS XL. I think I own 6 PSP games and perhaps 10 DS games. I don’t buy much for these systems as I don’t play them as often as my PS3 or PC. So here’s my thoughts on the games I have so far.

Heroes of Ruin

This, put as concisely as possible is Diablo III for a handheld console, at it’s heart it’s a dungeon crawler with some RPG elements. It was ambitious to fit such a game into the handheld format (Hello complicated to navigate menus) but for the most part, this game pulls it off.  The fact that you can play co-operatively over WIFI with anyone in the world, with voice chat is super cool. I found this tricky to get to grips with at first, but the game is well balanced, the graphics are some of the best on the system and it works like the system has been out for years. A great investment, as this game is the one I know I will return to for years to come.

Mahjong Mysteries 3D

Yes I know this is odd, but for every handheld console I buy, I must purchase a Mahjong game to play on it! This one is not one of the best however, as the touchscreen does not display the tiles you want to match, so you have to look at the top screen whilst using the stylus to match tiles on the bottom screen which aren’t actually pictured there. It’s simple enough, but takes away much of the relaxation element of this style of game for me. Nevertheless the 3D element works well and the music is just as quaint and odd as is in any Mahjong game.

Check back in a weeks time for my first impressions of 2 other 3DS games.