New At The Arcade – Marvel Contest Of Champions Arcade At Dave And Busters

There’s a new game at your local Dave and Buster’s call Marvel: Contest of Champions Arcade.  This is a retooled port of the Contest of Champions mobile game. While mobile ports aren’t normally the most exciting arcade games, this one tries to be different from the mobile version.  It’s part fighting game and part card collecting game. Similar to the Injustice Arcade Game that has been out for a while.

The cabinet is built for two players and currently has cross-promotion signage for the upcoming Captain Marvel movie.  This is probably an aspect of the game and cabinet that will be updated as each Marvel movie is released. It’s a neat touch that ties it into the movies and will give you a reason to keep coming back to the game to check out how it changes every so often.

Marvel Contest Of Champions Arcade Gameplay

 

This is a two-play arcade fighting game with three buttons and a joystick controls.  After each game, you will get a character card. There is 75 total with a foil variant of each.  The characters are all Marvel heroes and villains.

 

If it’s your first time playing you likely won’t have any of the character cards so the game will give you a randomized selection of three characters to use.  You’ll play against your opponent or the computer with these characters and each round the character you are using will be swapped out. If you win the first two rounds there will not be the third round.  Because you cannot swap characters at will you do need to be mindful of the character order when you choosing who to play with.

 

The three attack buttons you have to work with are generic light, medium, and heavy attacks.  As you play you’ll charge your special attack which has its own fourth button to control. The special attack bar has three notches to it that allows for three different special attacks.  The more charge to the bar the more damage your attack will do, but it will take longer to build up that charge.

Whoever wins two of the three rounds wins the match and then the machine will spit out a character card after.  If you already have character cards you can scan into your team at the start of the match and create your own custom team to use in the game that best fits your play style.  

 

The characters have different health and attack stats as well as different abilities that you can make use of.  For example, Wolverine has 1302 health and 103 attack. His ability is Cellular Regeneration which uses his healing factor to grant cumulative health regeneration.  He can also grant bleed damage. Gamora has 1344 health and 112 attack. Her abilities are bleed and cruelty with the chance that her weapon blade will deal a lethal blow.  

 

Marvel Contest of Champions Character List

Currently, there are 75 character cards within the game with foil variants of the characters.  There may be new cards released as time goes on. All characters have three stars in the upper left corner of the cards. The back of each one details the stats and abilities as well as a bio of the character. Here is a list of the 75 Marvel Contest of Champions Arcade Game Characters:

1. Ægon
2. Agent Venom
3. Ant-Man
4. Beast
5. Black Panther (Civil War)
6. Black Widow
7. Blade
8. Captain America
9. Captain America (Infinity War)
10. Captain Marvel (Costumed w/ Helmet)
11. Carnage
12. Civil Warrior
13. Colossus
14. Corvus Glaive
15. Cyclops (Blue Team)
16. Daredevil (Classic)
17. Deadpool
18. Doctor Octopus
19. Doctor Strange
20. Dormammu
21. Drax
22. Falcon
23. Gamora
24. Ghost
25. Ghost Rider
26. Green Goblin
27. Groot
28. Guillotine
29. Gwenpool
30. Hawkeye
31. Heimdall
32. Hela
33. Howard The Duck
34. Hulk
35. Hulk (Ragnarok)
36. Hulkbuster
37. Iceman
38. Iron Fist
39. Iron Man (IW)
40. Joe Fixit
41. Killmonger
42. KingPin
43. Korg
44. Loki
45. Luke Cage
46. Magneto (Marvel Now)
47. Masacre
48. M.O.D.O.K.
49. MorningStar
50. Nebula
51. Phoenix
52. Proxima Midnight
53. Punisher
54. Red Hulk
55. Red Skull
56. Rocket Raccoon
57. Rouge
58. Scarlet Witch
59. Spider-Gwen
60. Spider-Man (Classic)
61. Spider-Man (Stark Enhanced)
62. Star-Lord
63. Storm
64. Thor (Ragnarok)
65. Ultron
66. Venom
67. VenomPool
68. Vision (Age of Ultron)
69. War Machine
70. WASP
71. Winter Soldier
72. Wolverine
73. Wolverine (X-23)
74. Yellow Jacket
75. Yondu

Is Marvel Contest of Champions Arcade A Good Game?

 

If you are Marvel fan and/or play the mobile game then this is a game you should definitely check out.  If you are a fan of arcade fighting games you should still check it out, but you might be put off by the limitations of the controls.  It costs 8 chips to play the game or you do have the option to just buy a card without playing the game on top of it. The gameplay itself is pretty short as you just get one match per play win or lose. Playing against the computer offers very little in terms of difficulty.  With most matches only taking two rounds as the computer is really easy to beat.

 

The limitations that this game puts on the fighting mechanics can be a plus for those that are not well versed in arcade fighting games.  It helps to put both players on equal footing in terms of skill, but those with experience blocking and planning out attacks will still be at a bit of an advantage compared to those who just like to button mash.  In other words, no matter your skill or experience with this type of arcade game, playing against others rather than the computer is much for fun. If you are at your Dave and Busters at a time when this game is busy with lots of people switching in and out you’ll have a good time.  If it’s not busy and you are just playing alone there won’t be much of a challenge with this game to keep your interest.

 

Overall, Marvel Contest of Champions Arcade has potential if it finds it’s followers.  Therefore could be really fun if tournaments can be put together with a good number to players at the same time.  It’ll be exciting to check back in on this game every now and then to see what’s new and collect the perfect team to use while playing. Marvel Contest of Champions Arcade is out now and exclusive to Dave and Buster’s.

Want more arcade reviews?  Check out the full Gamesncranes for more.