GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Gaming Update With Leo Wyld

Cosmic greetings, all! This is your Raccoonatic Commander. No, this is not another issue of Flarkin' Awesome! (Taking a short break from that for now). But I did want to give ya some news related to some Marvel game stuff.  I have news primarily about two games: Marvel Heroes and Marvel Avengers Alliance.

Avengers Alliance Update: 4/14 - After running this article, I got contacted by some long-time players of the game.  Apparently, exclusive does not *really* mean exclusive. All PvP tournament heroes have eventually become purchasable with command points. That's the good news. The bad news is that all PvP tournament heroes have eventually become purchasable with command points. Based on history, it will be about three months from this writing before Rocket can be bought with command points. Still frustrating, but at least there is something to look forward to (although there will still be that taunting popup each login). If you want to give feedback to the AA people about this, their Twitter handle is @MarvelAlliance, they also have a Facebook page and forum.

I'll get the bad news out of the way first.  You may recall we ran a story about the Guardians of the Galaxy being planned additions to the Facebook game Marvel Avengers Alliance. The first of the team arrived and it is a little guy with an awesome buncha' fans.  But here's the bad news, he is advertised as a PvP exclusive and a prize for winning top league in the PvP.  I'd be surprised if I could win a single match in PvP, let alone the top prize and I have a feeling many would be in the same boat.  People who compete in such things are ruthless, sneaky, and I would not be surprised if some found exploits to use. Not to mention that the best weapons and gear cost gold.  Gold costs real money.  You can earn gold for free, but slowly.  And, since this particular competition has a limited time duration, it essentially makes it pay-to-win, or rather, pay-to-have-a-chance to win Rocket Raccoon. I apologize for any Raccoonatics who started playing this game after hearing that Guardians announce, hoping to one day play their favorite hero (that's what I did), but it looks like that will just not happen for most of us.

But the good news for Raccoonatics is that there is still one other online game where you cannot only play Rocket, but probably the most thorough and accurate representation of the hero in gaming form. And that is my particular game of choice Marvel Heroes.  They've been steady with updates, adding the likes of Moon Knight, Dr. Strange, and Taskmaster recently.  But I am primarily gonna discuss a fun little addition called Team-Ups that has little to do with Guardians now, but may have a lot to do with it in the future. I'll explain... (More After the Jump)

So, what are team-ups? There are three modes to them. One mode is just a passive bonus, for which the team-up is not ever visible. The second mode is a power that you can use every so often where the team-up comes out does some attacking and then leaves. The third mode and probably most popular is that the team-up fights at your side until he or she gets killed, at which point, given the cooldown has lapsed, you can re-summon.  So, essentially they are sidekicks. It is an avenue that allows Gazillion to add heroes who may not have enough moves to justify a full playable hero powerset or maybe for heroes who are just not popular or mainstream enough to justify spending the resources needed for a full hero. They also made it clear that a hero being a team-up does not rule out them being playable at some point, in fact, one of the team-ups has been a playable hero since day one. They do not drop as loot, but they, like heroes, are purchasable with the loot collectible eternity splinters (or you can just show Gazillion some support and buy G's currency with real money to buy them right away).  (For more details, and I don't wanna make this too long, check out this FAQ. There were some changes after that was written, damage bonuses for all the team-ups were changed to general damage buffs, so you do not have to pick a particular team-up anymore for a particular type of damage dealing hero)

Currently available Team-Ups:

Spider-Man

This is the already playable I mentioned.  Why have him as a team-up?  "Marvel Team-Ups" is a comic series, sorta, that inspired this feature.  And the star was our Mr. Parker.  All the team-ups are voice-acted and say quips to your hero, defeated enemies, other heroes, etc.  While the main Spider-Man on Marvel Heroes is voiced by Ultimate Spider-Man's Drake Bell, the Team-Up version (like the enhanced Symbiote and Back in Black costumes for Spidey) is voiced by Christopher Daniel Barnes, who voiced the character in the 90's series.  So, if you want to stay true to the spirit of "Marvel Team-Ups" and/or fondly remember the 90's Spider-Man cartoon, he might be a good choice for you.

He also has buffs to dodge I believe, as part of his abilities.

Firestar

And the next Team-Up we have is one of Spidey's "Amazing Friends" (old cartoon ref).  She uses microwave based powers and, combined with her out of this world appearance, I think she'd be a fitting team-up for Rocket.  Not to mention she seems quite fond of our little space raccoon.  One of her quips when she gets near Rocky, "Ohhhhh, can I keep him?" Although, I don't think Rocket would appreciate being treated like a pet, well, maybe he wouldn't mind as much with Firestar. Hehheh.

Magik

Next up i Colossus' kid sister Illyana Rasputin aka Magik.  The X-Man and New Mutant uses powers

related to demons, portals, and that big flarkin' sword.  Illyana has a bit of an edge and, that alone, makes her a somewhat cool choice of Team-Up for Rocket.  But she also has bonuses to summons, so if you play Rocket relying on turrets and such, she may be a good choice for you.

Falcon

On your left, heh, that's the team-up I chose for Rocket.  While the appearance and powers are directly inspired by the cinematic Anthony Mackie interpretation of the hero, the voice reminds me more of him on the Avengers Assemble cartoon.  Speaking of which, I had decided Falcon would be my Team-Up already.  Then I saw the "Guardians and Space Knights" episode of Avengers Assemble (first time I've ever seen that cartoon, but I, as Raccoonatic Commander,  fully recommend this episode).  On the episode, Falcon and Rocket briefly pair up, crazy coincidence or maybe just the writers of the show seeing the same potential I did.  His greetings to Rocket, by the way, is "You're the master strategist, furball, tell me what I need to do."  Amusing about that, on Avengers Assemble, Falcon also once calls Rocket "furball".  Intentional, maybe, but still cool.  A gun-wielding military man and a tactical genius who also kinda likes guns, sounds like a good team to me.  Throw in Rocket's Groot summon and you have one serious badass alliance.

So, yes, none of these are Guardians or have any affiliation with the Guardians of the Galaxy.  But one thing the Guardians have been doing in the past couple years on TV and in the comics is interacting with heroes you would not expect.  And this is especially true of Rocket Raccoon.  From trading quips related to his species with Hawkeye in the Avengers Assemble comic to making Tony Stark feel like a primitive idiot to swooning over Angela to recently having a pet-related argument with Carol "Captain Marvel" Danvers.  And there is something else...

Gazillion said they want to try to do a couple team-ups a month, but added that just before the Guardians of the Galaxy movie release they may not release any.  Why? They have plans for team-ups with the Guardians movie release, and they sound like they are gonna be big.  They mentioned a couple people with green skin in a stream, so I am thinking Drax and Gamora, at least, but maybe we will see a team-up version of Groot based more on the movie version or maybe some other Guardians alumni.  (On the subject of Gamora, I had reported she was planned to be coming as playable and David Brevik himself said so in chat, but plans do change.  And, recently, Gazillion has gone on record as saying she is not planned playable this year *or* next.  But I am, again, quite certain she will be one of the team-ups in August)

What Guardians would you like to see as team-ups, Galaxians?  Leave your comments here, or, even better, post them in this topic.

That's all I got for ya now.  Keep having fun, stay awesome and, until next time, see ya 'round the Raccooniverse.