tardis_stowaway (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tardis_stowaway) wrote2016-03-20 04:47 pm
tardis_stowaway) wrote2016-03-20 04:47 pm
Entry tags:
Avengers Academy: Dancing and Hot-tubbing Heroically
Hello y'all!
I added a whole bunch of new friends and then abruptly vanished from LJ for a month and a half for no good reason. Sorry about that. I hope you are all well. I haven't yet tried to catch up on reading my flist, but hopefully I'll get to that soon. In the mean time, rather than writing an entry about what's actually been going on in my life, I want to tell you about something frivilous that's been making me happy.
Marvel's Avenger Academy is a delightful Avengers high school AU (or possibly college AU...the exact ages are never specified, and they do spend a lot of time in a club with a bar, though it's possible they're just drinking soda) in the form of a mobile game. I'm not at all a gamer, but the fun dialog, intriguing storyline, cute animation, and wonderful fannish ridiculousness of Avengers Academy have reeled me in. The basic idea is that you send your young heroes on quests, some of which are actually related to training to be a superhero (e.g. firing repulsors at the blasting range, practicing flying), while others are related to school (studying) or having fun (dancing...so much dancing). Some of the things I love about this game:
-Natasha is my favorite with her deadpan attitude, vaguely goth look, suspicion of authority, and focus on getting things done. She often feels like she's surrounded by idiots, but it's clear that she really has a big soft spot for her classmates. I am intensely amused that when you send her on the "look for clues" action, she has this body language like an 8 year-old pretending to be a detective, all exaggerated peering around on tip-toe.
-Kamala Khan is a very close second though. I finally managed to recruit her this weekend, and everything about her is great from her using her stretchy superpowers to take super selfies to her intense squee about getting to hang out with her heroes. Although I think the best part may be when Nick Fury and Hank Pym (mysteriously still adult) were discussing recruiting her and this happened:
They then continue to discuss her fanfics for a few more lines. It's all pretty respectful, not like a lot of mainstream discussion of fic. Also, everybody is super impressed by Ms. Marvel, so much so that there's a theory going around tumblr that the whole game is Kamala's self-insert AU fanfic, a theory I support.
-Jan (Wasp) is SO EXCITED about everything. My favorite line, which I wish I'd taken a screenshot of: "I love procrastinating!" Me too, Jan. Me too.
-Women's history scholar Tony Stark. One of his actions that comes up frequently is "study historic ladies," which he does for eight hours. The game implies that this is because he's girl crazy, but repeatedly spending eight hours at it is way too long for somebody who only wants to leer at sexy woodcuts or something like that. He is clearly doing some serious scholarship into the oft-overlooked contributions of women to historical events and discoveries.
-Speaking of Tony, I am endlessly amused by this screenshot of him going to the club, alone, to throw money in the air for several hours while a school building burns behind him:
-The characters spend a lot of time at the club, sometimes talking to the robot bartender but mostly dancing. When Loki was at a lower level, it seemed like the large majority of his quests involved dancing for hours, often ordered to do so by Odin. You show those Midgardians how to dance, Loki! Having recently upgraded the club, I can now send Captain America there to do the Charleston...for eight hours. Steve always does his best at everything, even apparently dancing.
-This game multiships. There's stuff for Steve/Tony fans:
But also for Tony/Loki people, like the quest I'm currently doing where Tony and Loki go to the library to study together. The animation features Loki sitting at the computer desk while Tony stands beside him, hand on the back of Loki's chair. Tony points out something on the computer screen.
Loki looks more closely, then starts laughing so hard he holds his belly. Then Loki looks up at Tony with a look I can only describe as "dreamy." Tony looks down at him fondly, then slides his hand a little closer to Loki on the back of the chair. Then Tony shifts back to looking at the computer and the cycle repeats. Or this dialog:
-So one of the downsides of this game is while it's free to play, it constantly cajoles you to spend money for extra stuff. I did end up spending $5 so I could get Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman), because I really like the character in comics and wanted her on my team. I am trying to refrain from spending more on this game, but I definitely don't regret buying Jess. She's great. I am endlessly amused by the animation for her action called "get stuck reading." What she does is lean her back against the bookshelf in the library, arms crossed. Then she steps away, but three books are stuck to her back due to spider powers. She gracefully stretches her arms out and performs various twists to pull them off and set them back, then relaxes back against the bookshelf again. I have yet to take a screenshot that truly captures how goofy/cute this is.
-The villains from AIM are pretty amusing, as seen in these three screencaps from different parts of the game:
-While mostly this game is just silly, occasionally it does throw Feelings at you. I had one quest where Tony was fretting about living up to his father's legacy, so Jan spent time with him and got him to talk about it. Tony actually acknowledged the value of her friendship:
AWWWWWWWWW. Yay for friendship!
-Even the glitches are fun. Yesterday Enchantress was doing her "mesmerize the mortals" action, which means sitting in the hot tub at the top of Stark Tower for two hours. But when I checked in partway through, the cover to the hot tub was closed, as it is when not in use. Where was Enchantress?
Wait, what's that coming down below the hot tub? Let's zoom in and change the viewing angle to see.
Those are Enchantress's feet, dangling through the floor below the closed hot tub. The mortals sure are mesmerized by the beauty of that. ;)
-So far the heroes (and morally grey characters currently working with the Avengers) I have are Iron Man, Wasp, Black Widow, Falcon, Spider-woman, Loki, Enchantress, Captain America, and Ms. Marvel. I know later you get somebody called Taskmaster (who??? why?), Maria Hill, and the Hulk, while Vision and War Machine are available for money. I know there are plans to add other heroes, including Thor for sure. I hope they also include Captain Marvel, Hawkeye, and Squirrel Girl, my faves. There are indications that Captain Marvel may show up eventually, because Carol Danvers did get mentioned in dialog once.
-The storyline involves the school being surrounded by something called Time Fog, which is full of ruined buildings and occasionally eerie stuff like a cracked Iron Man face plate from a suit that Tony has only designed, not actually built. It's clear that Fury and Hank Pym, the adults in charge of the school, are hiding something. Characters have mentioned a sense of deja vu, like another version of themselves has been here before and experienced something terrible. I am intrigued by the implication that this isn't just an ordinary AU where they're all teens for no reason. I want to know more.
In summary, if you like the Marvel Avengers characters and enjoy having a fairly low-key game on your smartphone or tablet, I highly recommend Avengers Academy. Is anyone else out there playing?
I added a whole bunch of new friends and then abruptly vanished from LJ for a month and a half for no good reason. Sorry about that. I hope you are all well. I haven't yet tried to catch up on reading my flist, but hopefully I'll get to that soon. In the mean time, rather than writing an entry about what's actually been going on in my life, I want to tell you about something frivilous that's been making me happy.
Marvel's Avenger Academy is a delightful Avengers high school AU (or possibly college AU...the exact ages are never specified, and they do spend a lot of time in a club with a bar, though it's possible they're just drinking soda) in the form of a mobile game. I'm not at all a gamer, but the fun dialog, intriguing storyline, cute animation, and wonderful fannish ridiculousness of Avengers Academy have reeled me in. The basic idea is that you send your young heroes on quests, some of which are actually related to training to be a superhero (e.g. firing repulsors at the blasting range, practicing flying), while others are related to school (studying) or having fun (dancing...so much dancing). Some of the things I love about this game:
-Natasha is my favorite with her deadpan attitude, vaguely goth look, suspicion of authority, and focus on getting things done. She often feels like she's surrounded by idiots, but it's clear that she really has a big soft spot for her classmates. I am intensely amused that when you send her on the "look for clues" action, she has this body language like an 8 year-old pretending to be a detective, all exaggerated peering around on tip-toe.
-Kamala Khan is a very close second though. I finally managed to recruit her this weekend, and everything about her is great from her using her stretchy superpowers to take super selfies to her intense squee about getting to hang out with her heroes. Although I think the best part may be when Nick Fury and Hank Pym (mysteriously still adult) were discussing recruiting her and this happened:
They then continue to discuss her fanfics for a few more lines. It's all pretty respectful, not like a lot of mainstream discussion of fic. Also, everybody is super impressed by Ms. Marvel, so much so that there's a theory going around tumblr that the whole game is Kamala's self-insert AU fanfic, a theory I support.
-Jan (Wasp) is SO EXCITED about everything. My favorite line, which I wish I'd taken a screenshot of: "I love procrastinating!" Me too, Jan. Me too.
-Women's history scholar Tony Stark. One of his actions that comes up frequently is "study historic ladies," which he does for eight hours. The game implies that this is because he's girl crazy, but repeatedly spending eight hours at it is way too long for somebody who only wants to leer at sexy woodcuts or something like that. He is clearly doing some serious scholarship into the oft-overlooked contributions of women to historical events and discoveries.
-Speaking of Tony, I am endlessly amused by this screenshot of him going to the club, alone, to throw money in the air for several hours while a school building burns behind him:
-The characters spend a lot of time at the club, sometimes talking to the robot bartender but mostly dancing. When Loki was at a lower level, it seemed like the large majority of his quests involved dancing for hours, often ordered to do so by Odin. You show those Midgardians how to dance, Loki! Having recently upgraded the club, I can now send Captain America there to do the Charleston...for eight hours. Steve always does his best at everything, even apparently dancing.
-This game multiships. There's stuff for Steve/Tony fans:
But also for Tony/Loki people, like the quest I'm currently doing where Tony and Loki go to the library to study together. The animation features Loki sitting at the computer desk while Tony stands beside him, hand on the back of Loki's chair. Tony points out something on the computer screen.
Loki looks more closely, then starts laughing so hard he holds his belly. Then Loki looks up at Tony with a look I can only describe as "dreamy." Tony looks down at him fondly, then slides his hand a little closer to Loki on the back of the chair. Then Tony shifts back to looking at the computer and the cycle repeats. Or this dialog:
-So one of the downsides of this game is while it's free to play, it constantly cajoles you to spend money for extra stuff. I did end up spending $5 so I could get Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman), because I really like the character in comics and wanted her on my team. I am trying to refrain from spending more on this game, but I definitely don't regret buying Jess. She's great. I am endlessly amused by the animation for her action called "get stuck reading." What she does is lean her back against the bookshelf in the library, arms crossed. Then she steps away, but three books are stuck to her back due to spider powers. She gracefully stretches her arms out and performs various twists to pull them off and set them back, then relaxes back against the bookshelf again. I have yet to take a screenshot that truly captures how goofy/cute this is.
-The villains from AIM are pretty amusing, as seen in these three screencaps from different parts of the game:
-While mostly this game is just silly, occasionally it does throw Feelings at you. I had one quest where Tony was fretting about living up to his father's legacy, so Jan spent time with him and got him to talk about it. Tony actually acknowledged the value of her friendship:
AWWWWWWWWW. Yay for friendship!
-Even the glitches are fun. Yesterday Enchantress was doing her "mesmerize the mortals" action, which means sitting in the hot tub at the top of Stark Tower for two hours. But when I checked in partway through, the cover to the hot tub was closed, as it is when not in use. Where was Enchantress?
Wait, what's that coming down below the hot tub? Let's zoom in and change the viewing angle to see.
Those are Enchantress's feet, dangling through the floor below the closed hot tub. The mortals sure are mesmerized by the beauty of that. ;)
-So far the heroes (and morally grey characters currently working with the Avengers) I have are Iron Man, Wasp, Black Widow, Falcon, Spider-woman, Loki, Enchantress, Captain America, and Ms. Marvel. I know later you get somebody called Taskmaster (who??? why?), Maria Hill, and the Hulk, while Vision and War Machine are available for money. I know there are plans to add other heroes, including Thor for sure. I hope they also include Captain Marvel, Hawkeye, and Squirrel Girl, my faves. There are indications that Captain Marvel may show up eventually, because Carol Danvers did get mentioned in dialog once.
-The storyline involves the school being surrounded by something called Time Fog, which is full of ruined buildings and occasionally eerie stuff like a cracked Iron Man face plate from a suit that Tony has only designed, not actually built. It's clear that Fury and Hank Pym, the adults in charge of the school, are hiding something. Characters have mentioned a sense of deja vu, like another version of themselves has been here before and experienced something terrible. I am intrigued by the implication that this isn't just an ordinary AU where they're all teens for no reason. I want to know more.
In summary, if you like the Marvel Avengers characters and enjoy having a fairly low-key game on your smartphone or tablet, I highly recommend Avengers Academy. Is anyone else out there playing?
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Congrats on getting A-Bomb and the Red Hulk! I decided not to try for them. I'd only just started playing when the event started up, so getting them would have involved diverting pretty much all my people from doing anything else in order to train and battle, and I decided I'd rather progress the main quest. But that's great that you've managed to get them! How are you enjoying those guys so far?
I really like Spider-woman. When the Gamma event was going on and that building was on fire, she would do her spider gliding right through the flames like it wasn't even a big deal, because she's that sort of a badass. (Or because the game developers didn't actually program the fire to actually burn anyone or anything, but shhhhh.) I enjoy her voice actor and character design. I like that most of her actions are reasonable length (I can't think of any lasting more than 3 hours, and mostly 30 min-1.5 hours) and often earn boosted amounts of credits. I think the boosted rewards are for all the premium heroes, though. I appreciate improving the female to male ratio of my team. As I said, I was already fond of the character from comics. I don't really know whether the other premium characters have better abilities/rewards/whatever, but I suspect that your feelings about the characters are probably as good a reason as any to decide which to get. :)
I'd like to get Rhodey too, but I don't want this game to turn into a money pit so I'm trying to stick to just the one pay character.
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But if all you want to do is look at screencaps, I do recommend copperbadge's Avengers Academy tag on tumblr. Lots of good stuff there.
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And I want Janet's leather jacket. It still has elements of Wasp's costume, but it looks super cute, too.
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I doubt they'll be releasing it for consoles any time soon. The game mechanics are definitely designed for mobile, since you progress with short-ish visits scattered throughout the day and can't really do long bouts of play.
I'm sure that as a fashion designer Wasp would be super pleased to hear that you like her outfit. :) I really like the look of most of the characters in this game. The clothes are all are inspired by their canon hero outfits, but also look like something fashionable real young adults might wear. As you level up the characters they change outfits to incorporate more of their hero costumes.
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I really like the look of most of the characters in this game. The clothes are all are inspired by their canon hero outfits, but also look like something fashionable real young adults might wear.
I was going to say that the costumes here would make great cosplays, but after a quick Google I see that people have already done it. Nevertheless, it would be a fun way to dress up like a Marvel character but you wouldn't have to get super elaborate.
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I just googled for the Avengers Academy cosplay pics and quite enjoyed what I found. It does seem like these would be a fun way to dress up as the characters without the problems of skin-tight no-pockets spandex. :)
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