I'm Back and Here's Why

Well, for the first time in a while, I got back into the game. There were new heroes and some big improvements. There are still some gripes I have with it, but for the most part I approve of everything they changed.

The prize wheels have disappeared! Awesome!

Yes, wasting time on the prize wheel was never "gameplay" or particularly fun. Thanks a million for getting rid of it. Despite the chance element being taken from getting currency, it still remains in the mystery boxes, which I remain annoyed about. But at least now there are lots of accessible heroes in the new shop, which has been reorganized but is still sadly lacking COMPLETE organization. For instance, scrolling through heroes is STILL a pain, but at least you can search for them now.

Here I am next to Winter Soldier, one of the Mystery Box heroes.

 The new currency, fractals, may be the best decision. No more useless silver, now it's purely fractals, which you can find in the game, or gold, which you can purchase outside of the game.

I may have to write a guide to how to get as many fractals as possible soon, seeing as my old How to Get Gold post is moot thanks to the prize wheels finally getting evicted.

Speaking of fractals, I've managed to get two new heroes just by doing various missions and achievements, Moon Knight and Taskmaster. As you can probably tell, I'm into hoods.

I also purchased a badge for Ghost Rider, who I want to level up more since he's such a great hero.

Alright, a bit more complaining and then I'm done with the complaining. What is up with THIS? :

I don't have Spider-Man! And he's not on sale! Why is there an achievement like this? It could've been "Switch to a Wall-Crawling Hero"! Was there a tutorial where they give out Spider-Man to new players or something? Because I missed that!

Sigh, well anyway, I'm still playing on Night Commander Guard, so if you see me around during the next few months, let's go on a mission together!

Also, I have a few of my old files for that Megatron Mission from my Transformers What-If that I never published. I'm going to try to publish them soon. There's not much there, but I've kept anyone who was looking forward to that hanging for about two years.

The Guardians look pretty cool. Where's Drax, though? Let's hope he pops up soon.

Good to be back.

-- SHSOFan.

Berserk Box and Crafting!

It's a new month and new content!

Sabretooth was released in a "Beserker Box" this week. It's basically like all the other boxes that have come out so far. Don't worry, though. At some point they'll probably just put the villains in the store like everyone else. At least I hope so.

It was my first time in the game for a few months. I'm glad the SHSO team has fixed the bug with the downloader. Everything is running relatively smoothly now.

I logged into the game to try out "crafting", something that's often found in other MMO games. Honestly this was the last thing In expected them to do in Super Hero Squad Online, so I checked it out to see how it was.

So basically you collect these crafting parts and use them to craft one of the things in the list on the right. Of course, you can either run around the zones like crazy for hours, using all your heroes to collect various items, or just pay them money to buy parts with gold.

It's a fun diversion that'll make searching for fractals more fun, for sure. However, I don't advise spending any gold on these since they seem to be things you can buy in the store already, except for much cheaper. I'm glad they added this though, because now you have a bit of a bonus while combing the zones.

It also seems like there's a leaderboard set up for the new mission. I wonder what the prize is?

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Anyway, so yeah, once again I'm sorry for not getting news to you on time or on a regular basis. Even the best games get a little tiring after all, and while I love this one, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to get to know Marvel's wonderful universe more, I'm just too busy to properly report on it anymore. I'm not quitting this blog altogether, basically I'm just pointing out what's already happening, which is that I'm going to be posting very sparingly. I'll keep the blog up so new readers can discover cool posts like the What-Ifs, my how to get gold guide, and my top ten lists. And I'm definitely going to post the Transformers What-If Bonus at some point. But for the most part, the blog is winding down. :(

I'll keep responding to comments though, so leave yours below!

-- SHSOFan.

Yup, It's Archangel!

Well, sometimes over-analyzing pays off, and I'm pleased to say my number one prediction for who the teased hero was was indeed correct. So, awesome! Kind of sad that it wasn't Darkwing, but hey, it's not that bad. I wonder how he plays. Does he have the same healing factor as regular Angel? Does he have that awesome flight double jump? Guess I'll have to look it up online, since once again my SHSO account had to file for bankruptcy. Guess I'll just try to gather as much gold as I can, but first, is he worth the effort? If you have Archangel, tell me in the comments how he is! Is he fun to play as, or should I pass and wait for another X-Men release in this month of X-Men?

Also, whoa they released Rescue and Avengers Iron Man as Sidekicks! I wonder when they're going to release actual sidekick characters as sidekicks. Rescue's on the right path but Iron Man is by no means a sidekick. How about Bucky Barnes or Iron Patriot or War Machine? Even Wasp would be more appropriate! Anyway, sorry for the little rant there. What do you think? Post in the comments!

-- SHSOFan.

You Can Keep Your Agents-Only Heroes!

Finally a release worth talking about! After about a month of gimmicky Mystery Boxes and Caption Contests we get to finally play as characters that we spent our hard-earned gold on.

About time, I say! Can't wait to blast off as Iron Man MKI again!

In other recent news, yes, Thanos was released, and yes, it's another Mystery Box, this time cleverly referred to as an "Infinity Box". No news so far if there'll be a mission, but it sure would be fun to play as movie Loki and battle Thanos, (hint hint).

They also give a 10% increase to XP if you purchase gold. Well, I guess I'm eligible so seems like I'll be getting more XP when I log in again. The reason I haven't been in the game is because my computer is really, really, old. Also, all the friends I used to play with don't play anymore, so it's hard to find motivation. However, I'll still be here to finish up my What-If series properly with those two bonuses I've been teasing, as well as to give my opinions on newly released content of interest.

-- SHSOFan.

News to Me

Yes, that's an in-game loading screen, which means, thanks to SHSO's efforts, I'm finally able to get in the game! So everything that you've gotten used to is new to me! Just in case you missed something, I'll be reviewing every change I see.

Ooh, a summer mystery box! This is probably a better deal then any of the other boxes, at least you aren't getting anything TOO important. I really need to get one of those badges, though, just to see what it does. I'm crossing my fingers that they have a Gambit badge!

Hey, look, they also have a Titanium Man mission as well as a Mystery Box! Does this mean we'll get Thanos and Mysterio missions AND boxes?! Please make it be so! It does worry me that Mysterio isn't on the alternate loading screen above, but maybe they just couldn't fit him in.

Last and least we have Titles, which lets you add a title to your squad name. It's basically a money-grab, since I couldn't care less about having "The Weird Night Commander Guard" as my squad name.  Besides, it seems like an odd coincidence that all the cool names are only for Agents-Only members. I think it's fine to pass on this and save that 25 gold for fractals, (available in the Goodies section).

Speaking of fractals...

Fractals are finally in the game and I was able to get a measly 8 fractals before I got annoyed and bought one hundred of them from the store. It was kind of a waste of money, but who knows maybe I'll be the lucky random guy who gets the prize despite not really doing any work for it.

And here's the awesome new fractals screen, with the prize clearly displayed, (want want want want), and a leader board so you know what you're up against. It wouldn't take much to get on the board, you'd just need 10,000 silver, (got it), and six hours to get 200 more fractals. This seems like a huge waste of time to me, it's gonna take a while to collect all those fractals, and each hero can only collect ten anyway. Six heroes is only 60 fractals, and for 1,000 silver you can get a hundred fractals. It seems like the people who'll win are the people who buy the fractals in the store rather then the people who painstakingly collect them using their heroes. 

So, in short, get silver. Tons of it. If you have gold, purchase silver in the store with it. Then buy around ten thousand fractals, for which you'd need about 100,000 silver. Eeeeuuaaaghhhh. Like I said, not worth it. Chances are Spiderman Noir will be made available for a brief time in the store at the very least, hopefully permanent when the new reward hero shows up, (betting on Mysterio). After all, it wouldn't be the first time SHSO has put a so-called "exclusive" hero in the store. Remember Phylocke? Remember Armored Spiderman? Yeah.

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Anyway, there's still more to talk about, can you believe it?!

My poll came in VERY close, with the Racing Game at 5 and the Megatron Mission at 6.

So I guess you'll be seeing ole bucket-head soon. Also, be on the lookout for my Behind the Scenes for the Transformers What-If!

-- SHSOFan.

New Loading Screen and Sidekicks!

Looks like we have a new loading screen, with Titanium Man, Thanos, and Mysterio!

Does this mean they'll release a few new missions at long last? Most likely. Unless of course, they're only playable characters. However, I think it's safe to assume that we'll get a mix of villain releases and missions.

Unfortunately, this was as far as I got in the game, because something's wrong with the download and it didn't download all the way. If you've been having problems with the downloading screen, complain about it in the comments section below!

In other news, some new sidekicks were released, which is great news for those people who can afford it. I'm still waiting for REAL sidekicks, as in an A.I. character that'll help you during a mission. Wouldn't it be awesome to be playing as Iron Man and have War Machine fighting beside you, or Captain America and Bucky?!

Either that, or a system that'll set you up with a set of characters that belong together, like if you logged into a mission as Thing you would only play the mission with people who were playing as the other three members of the Fantastic Four. Or if you logged in as Avengers Iron Man you would only play with other Avengers. That'd be awesome.

Right now we have a tie in my What-If Bonus poll! Go help it out by voting!

If you want to know more about the choices, go my Transformers What-If post and scroll to the bottom.

-- SHSOFan.

Sidekicks

I was away for a few days, and when I came back I found this! Sidekicks are here in Super Hero City!

I think it's awesome that you can have a crushbot and Bunnisher follow you around. I wonder whether they also work in the missions, or it's just a zone-only type thing. It'd be awesome if they actually had your sidekick fight beside you in a mission, though I guess they'd be kind of hard to do with the dog and cat sidekicks. :P

Anyway, there's also a sale for all "patriotic" heroes, that means Captain America and a few repaints of his, specifically Avengers Captain America (get him if you don't have him already), American Dream, (get her too! She's fast and her attacks are awesome), Captain America and Commander Captain America, (I know that's wrong, I just can't think of his name at the moment).

There's never been a better time to buy Avengers Cap or American Dream, and they're both really good fighters. I've only played on the Bucky Barnes Captain America, so I don't know if the original Captain America is the same or not. I do, however, have Commander Captain America, and he's pretty good as well, though not my favorite to fight as.

To wrap up, I'm really glad they're still coming up with new features for this game even so late after it's debut! When I was playing Toontown, they constantly would hold back on content, to the point where even a new hat in the shop was an exciting new change.

So, what do you guys think about sidekicks? And does anybody remember Commander Captain Steve Rogers America's real name?! Tell me in the comments!

-- SHSOFan.

Level Cap Badges

Well, it looks like my predictions are already wrong because Green Goblin's Mystery Box was released today and so were these new Level Cap Badges! Though they're only 200 silver, they're also only for members, which I actually approve of, since recently they've been forcing members to buy Agents-Only heroes for 900 gold. (yikes!)

I wonder what other predictions I'll get wrong?

Oh well. Anyway, I hear these badges may be made available for free members eventually, and I for one can't wait.

-- SHSOFan.

M.O.D.O.K. Available as a Challenge "Hero"

An update to the game on Wednesday added over twenty new challenges, which mostly have to do with defeating Mayhem Mode villains. Me, I'm not even past that Wolverine challenge, but now I'll be working harder than ever to get past it to get M.O.D.O.K. !

There's also two new potions and... hey, look, ole werewolf of the night is back again... what did I tell you? The new potions let you max your hero faster, but personally I think the free way is still better. I mean, isn't the point to play through all the levels?

What do you think? Post in the comments section!

-- SHSOFan.

The Month of the Mutants Has Arrived!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

First of all, I'm pretty excited. I know this may be old news for many of you, but I only just got into the game today and saw this truly awesome loading screen for the first time!

Look at it! Wow! I may have to become a member just to get Spider-Man Noir! (Or purchase gold).

This raises the quenstion: who is going to be Agents-Only on this loading screen? I'm betting for Noir, (I really hope not, though, because I'd like to stay a non-member and get him by buying gold).

In the meantime, I'll be eagerly awaiting Iron Spider and Spiderman Noir, and I may actually get them when they first come out just because they are so awesome!

By the way, my poll has been completed, thanks for voting! Playable Villains will be getting a much needed update!

-- SHSOFan.

Postscript: I made a small error in my post yesterday that has hence been fixed. I said the Venom Mystery Box was 600 gold when it was actually 200 gold. I was relying on information I had found on SHSO's Facebook page because I could not get into the game at the time.

I hope I didn't confuse anyone!

Thanks to Wanda Quan in the comments section for pointing that out to me. If you see any other errors be sure to tell me so I can fix them as soon as possible, in the comments section below.

What's In The Box?

Apparently, a random item appears in the mystery box when you purchase it! I'll be investigating further when I get in the game again. I have a few questions, like, "Why is this box Venom-themed"?

More news in the future!

-- SHSOFan.

Mayhem Mode Review

Mayhem Mode is a quick way to earn a neat reward— and probably my new favorite way to.

Various bosses are hidden around each zone. Spiderman's villains are in the Daily Bugle Zone, (like Venom, Doc Ock and Green Goblin), the Fantastic Four's villains are hidden in the Baxter Plaza zone, (like Doctor Doom and Super Skrull), Thor's villains are in Asgard, (Loki, Enchantress), and who ever's left is in Villainville. I say, why not just make an X-Men zone already, but that's off topic.

When you click a villain, a dialog box comes up. When you click "OK", you are sent straight to the boss battle. Since that's the part of the mission I usually look forward to, this is pretty awesome.

I played through the Green Goblin and Doc Ock boss battles. This is a great way to earn tickets and silver quickly, and if you get Adamantium somehow, I assume the benefits are high.

I say go in with a super strong hero like Avengers Hulk, or Red Hulk, or just plain Hulk and smash through the mission in no time.

Also, I forgot to mention this before, but there's a new potion that I assume is only there for a limited time: turn your hero green for St. Patrick's Day!

Well, that's all there is to report at the moment!

Make sure to check back on Wednesday for a new JLA week!

-- SHSOFan.

Mayhem Mode and A New Hero

Looks like these maniacal masterminds have taken to the streets! Unfortunately I can't get into the game at the moment, due to my slow computer. :(

I will follow up as soon as I can with a post with images.

Also, Arachne has been released! Is she awesome or just a Spider Woman repaint?

Sadly, I won't be finding out, because I'm not a member.

Hmm, I need a faster computer and a new membership really badly, don't I?

-- SHSOFan.

Goliath Now Available!

He's here! Sadly, not only do I not have enough gold, he's Agents-Only!

Also, Classic Wolverine is back for a limited time, so if you've been wishing you'd gotten a code for him, you can now get him to complete your hero collection!

-- SHSOFan.

Mission Review: Wen-Di-Go Away

The latest mission is "Wen-Di-Go Away", and I finally got into the game, so now I can review it!

STAGE GAMEPLAY

Wen-Di-Go Away introduces one sort of new mechanic into SHSO's missions: by clicking on tikies you can stun all the enemies on the screen, and deal them a small amount of damage. This is probably more useful if you're playing it with friends then if you're soloing. Now I know it's not an entirely new mechanic-- there have been enemy stunning gadgets before, like in a Skrull mission, (can't remember which one), and of course in Ock it to Me. But you have to admit that there never has been an enemy stunning tiki before! Aside from the tikies there wasn't much else that we haven't seen before.. and what little there was is discussed next section!

Overall, I rate the STAGE GAMEPLAY a 3.1 out of 5. It's fun, but for the most part it doesn't introduce anything new.

ENEMIES

The new mission features one new set of enemies: the wendigos! The wendigos were a fresh take on enemies, similar to Moloids, at least size-wise. The wendigos also could summon ghostly versions of Loki, (not the Avengers Loki, though), and Enchantress. Some frost giants snuck in too.

Overall, I rate the ENEMIES a 3.7 out of 5. It's cool that there are new enemies, but they reused some old ones too.

THE BOSS FIGHT

The boss of this mission is the wendigo himself! Wait-- weren't we fighting wendigos the entire mission? Ah, but this is a BIGGER wendigo! This large wendigo packs quite a punch-- I got K.O.ed as Avengers Hulk and that almost never happens. However, at the press of a button conveniently located on the boss stage, you can summon Indestructible Hulk, who'll distract the wendigo for a bit while you go grab health. Luckily, this new mechanic doesn't feel too weird, and the fight goes the usual way otherwise.

I rate THE BOSS FIGHT a 3 out of 5! It brings in one new thing while keeping a lot of old things.

RE-PLAYABILITY

Will I go on this mission again? Sure! It's a new Asgard mission, it's fairly short on a powerful hero, and there are some new enemies.

OVERALL

Adding up all my scores for an average proclaims Wen-Di-Go Away is a 3.2 out of 5!

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Well, aside from this mission, there's other news as well! The blog SHSO Team Awesome posted a post with exclusive pictures of, wait for it... GOLIATH! And they gave away a free code, which I can verify definitely works. So for all that and more, click this link to see SHSO Team Awesome's post.

Until next time.

-- SHSOFan.

Sasquatch Released - Plus a Mission

Today, after some difficulty, (my computer is very old), I managed to snap a picture of these new items in the store!

First there's a new mission, which comes with a crisis edition, but that's unfortunately Agents-Only. The normal version is for free players however, so I got that one after spending some time on the wheel. I tried to play it but my computer froze. Sigh.

But now there's also Sasquatch! Yet another 900 gold hero, though.

But if you purchased a membership, or can afford it, I'd probably get the new hero, seeing as he looks like a strong fighter. :) Also, there are a lot of heroes on sale, so getting into the game is definitely worth it right now. :D

-- SHSOFan.

PS: I'm finishing up Superman as I write this!

Merry Christmas From Rogue

I know it's a little late, but here's a Christmas themed post from me... and Ghost Rider! Who is riding... a sleigh.

Anyway, so I thought I'd buy myself a little present today... :)

There was also a sale today, but I really wanted Avenging Rogue and after weeks and weeks of saving (and a few challenges), I'd finally gotten enough to buy her, so there you are.

So now, my christmas gift to you... an all new review of Avenging Rogue!

AVENGING ROGUE

EXPLORATION

Avenging Rogue has only one jump, as I've come to expect from the character as she's displayed in SHSO. However, I was surprised by her flight ability! I forget whether or not the original Rogue has the ability of flight or not, all I know is that this one does, which is a welcome addition.

I give her EXPLORATION a 4/5! :)

FIGHTING

From what I could tell with one mission as Rogue, she's going to be fun to max. Throughout her combo, she uses attack from various X-Men, from what I can tell she uses powers from Iceman, Pyro (will HE show up in game?), Jean Grey, and maybe Psylocke, and a few others that I couldn't guess! Her most obvious power steal is from Storm, since her first power emote creates a thundercloud over the target enemies' head.

I give her FIGHTING a 4.4/5!

COOL FACTOR

And the winners of the World's Coolest Couple are... :P

Seriously though, Rogue's awesome new hood is really cool, and I also like the change in color from yellow to white as the secondary color on her outfit. Overall, I probably like this Rogue more then the other one.

I give her COOL FACTOR a 4/5! :D

OVERALL: Rogue rates 4 overall as a hero. While her exploration was fun and easy, I would have liked her jump to be just a bit higher, so that I didn't miss ledges as much while exploring the city. And while I loved all the references in her combo and attacks, I felt like her first power attack and her Hero Up were a little too underpowered. So yeah, go get Avenging Rogue! Despite these small faults, the most important ones will probably sort themselves out as you progress through her levels, and that Hero Up and first power attack get boosted. :)

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So anyway, Merry Christmas, or whatever you celebrate, and Happy New Year as well! :D

I hope you've enjoyed the holidays, AND the new holiday sale that's going on! :)

Oh, and there's a new poll out now, look for it in the sidebar!

Later!

-- SHSOFan.

What-If: Thunderbolts - Week 4

The following post is fictional. None of the new characters or events described actually happened.

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Yaaaay! All the heroes are released! I managed to snag a picture by convincing several other players to participate. Pretty awesome, huh? This happened right before I was about to spin the prize wheel to get the gold for Scourge.

Speaking of Scourge... :P

I purchased both Scourge and Ghost, (completing more challenges helped me get both of them).

Now my Thunderbolts collection is complete! :D

SCOURGE

EXPLORATION

Scourge's first power emote!

Scourge is so fun to play as, I managed to get him up to level ten TODAY! It's weird, I kept getting invited to missions and I spent a hundred gold coins on two Hero Up potions, just to level him up. This means I can guarantee that Scourge is a great fighter, but we'll get to that in a moment. For now, I just want to say that his exploration is sub-par, but due to his cool factor, (like so many heroes), I barely noticed.

I give his EXPLORATION a 3.9/5!

FIGHTING

Scourge is underpowered, unlike most of the Thunderbolts released this month, but at least he's a sniper, which makes it a lot less boring. His Hero Up is the same as his first power emote, where he blasts the ground, causing a tiny earthquake.

I give his FIGHTING a 4.2/5!

COOL FACTOR

Scourge is pretty cool. I like his mask and his coat, but the detail is kind of hard to see.

I give his COOL FACTOR a 3.7/5!

GHOST

Yay! It's Ghost! Ghost is one of my favorite heroes in the comics, but how does he compare in the game? Find out below!

EXPLORATION

Ghost floats while he explores the zones, so that's kind of cool. He's like Sentry. Flight, floats, but no double jump. Oh well. Still, it's cool to glide around the zones. :)

I give his EXPLORATION a 4.1/5!

FIGHTING

Ghost can shoot enemies with his electric guns, turn invisible, and my favorite part is that his first power attack lets him hack into robotic enemies and force them to be his allies for a brief period. It's awesome, and I can't wait to see what his other power attacks are!! :D

I give his FIGHTING a 4.7/5!

COOL FACTOR

Ghost is pretty cool, but I would have liked to see a bit of transparency, like in the comics. Also, even though he's skinny, he should be at least 20% thinner. :P

I give his COOL FACTOR a 3.9/5!

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Well, that wraps up the Thunderbolts month! I wonder what will come in the future?

-- SHSOFan.