The Earth has fallenunder siege by sinister forces led by Ultimus. Agents of S.T.R.I.K.E. have been called to assemble squads of heroes and villains to combat Ultimus's legions, that includes mind-controlled versions of the heroes and villains, before Earth falls under Ultimus' control. In addition to this campaign, special sub-plot events are also released, loosely based on recent Marvel films that have been released, starting with .
Gameplay
Marvel Strike Force allows players to collect Marvel Universe characters from both the heroes and villains and generic characters from large organizations such as SHIELD, The Hand and Hydra, and use them to fight in turn-based battles. There are multiple ways to collect characters: some are given to players immediately, whereas others are gained via gameplay or as in-game rewards in the form of shards that are earned by players to unlock and or promote their characters. Shards can either be earned from winning battles or bought from a shop. Players level up their user level by gaining experience by completing daily quests or completing battles. Battles are divided up into rounds, with the character with the highest speed attribute going first. Each team consists of up to five different characters that battle until defeated or reinforcements enter. Battles are turn-based, based on the speed attribute, where the combatants apply various buffs to their own team and damage to the opponent all the while trying to deal the most overall damage and having the last character alive. Players may join alliances that form the main group inside of the game, which can include up to 24 players and be private or open. Alliances allow players to play in raids and to access alliance milestones. These alliances can be created by any player or created by the game. All players must be in an alliance, so if a player leaves or is kicked from an alliance, the game will assign a new one.
Modes
The main game modes are Arena, Blitz, Raids, Challenges and Alliance War. Each of these modes has its own currency that can be spent on character shards or items. All modes are played versus a computer controlled AI, including the arena and alliance war battles where the AI controls a player-created team. Arena is battling against other player created squads in 5-on-5 battles while competing for daily prizes based on ranking at the end of the daily reset time. Raids are a series of maps that a player-ran alliance of up to 24 people must work together to defeat all of the nodes. Challenges are completed once a day to allow players to accumulate various resources. Each challenge occurs three days per week and can be completed three times per day. Challenge requires specific character traits to be used to complete each tier of the challenge. Alliance War is working together within a player's alliance to defeat an opponent's helicarrier with 12 rooms each with two sets of 8 defense teams while defending with the player's own helicarrier. Versus battle is a one versus one battle between two players played in real time.
Marvel Strike Force generated $150 million in sales during its first year of operation on the iOS and Android platforms.
Awards
The game was nominated for "Mobile Game of the Year" at the SXSW Gaming Awards, and won the People's Voice Award for "Games" in the "Video" category of the 2019 Webby Awards, whereas its other nomination was for "Strategy/Simulation Game" under the "Games" category. Google Play awarded it as the best breakthrough game of 2019, which is for overall design, user experience, engagement and retention, and strong growth. The game was also nominated for "Best Live Ops" at the Pocket GamerMobile Games Awards, and for "Strategy/Simulation" at the 2020 Webby Awards.
