How to Play Marvel’s Avengers Alliance on Your iPad or iPhone

Addicting barely even begins to describe it. I started playing Marvel’s free online Avengers Alliance 3 days ago, and honestly I’m not sure I’ve stopped since. When I close my eyes I see She-Hulk… and that totally wasn’t happening before, I swear.

If you’ve gotten yourself just as addicted to Avengers Alliance and want to be able to play the Flash-based RPG on your iPad or iPhone, here’s how:

Update: Avengers Alliance iOS App Released – Android Soon!

In the biggest Avengers Alliance news since Deadpool became a playable character, Marvel finally released a mobile app version of the game today (June 13, 2013, year of the Extremis Virus).

In theory, this app release renders those pesky “How the heck do I support this addiction on my phone or tablet?” questions completely moot. You can just download the iOs app. Free of charge, too!

As you’ll see from the app reviews, though, the situation isn’t quite that simple.

Yes, the new iOS works. Like a charm actually, with a perfectly seamless user experience so far in my gaming. If you’re brand spanking new to the game, you can hop right in and begin to (mostly) enjoy a fun, free gaming romp through the Marvel U.

If you’ve been playing Avengers Alliance since time Immortus? Well… you’re gonna feel a lot like Wolverine with his mouth sewn shut in a microbrewery.

The problem: the Avengers Alliance app launches you straight into a completely new gaming experience. So far, there is no apparent way to sync your playing history, whether you’ve been playing through Facebook or Playdom.

I don’t really enjoy picking too hard at free games, but this feels like a pretty big miss. Long-time fans of Avengers Alliance have been craving a clean mobile version of the game. Now we get it… but only if we start all over again?

This is another entry for Marvel in a long line of great intentions, puzzling execution.

If you want to maintain the time, money, and history you’ve sunk into Avengers Alliance, my flash-based workaround below still offers a solution. I’m hoping the app upgrades and makes the below completely unnecessary in the future, but for now, it’s the best alternative.

Photon Trick for iPad and iPhone Flash Games

I’ve written extensively about this in regards to Marvel’s Digital Comics Unlimited, but Marvel’s borderline inappropriate obsession with flash-based web applications makes reading their comics online a bit tricksy.

Naturally, Apple’s flash-blockage applies just as furiously to a game like Avengers Alliance. In order to play Avengers Alliance on iOS, you’ll need to download Photon, an app designed for the sole purpose of Flash browsing.

Again, I lay out a lot more of my thoughts on Photon here, mostly in regards to reading Marvel digital comics. The shorter version is this: for $4 or $5 (depending on whether you need Photon for iPad or Photon for iPhone) you can easily play flash-based games like Avengers Alliance AS OFTEN AS YOU DARN WELL PLEASE.

To be very clear, this will work for players using either Playdom or Facebook to play Avengers Alliance. If you use Facebook, you will just need to login to your Facebook account using the Photon browser (it’ll feel just like logging in through Safari) instead of using the Facebook app.

For the most part, gameplay through Photon on your iPad or iPhone is unchanged from playing on a desktop. There may be some lag time depending on your internet connection, and you won’t be able to toggle to full screen mode which means a little more scrolling, but basically you can up and play the way you want.

To purchase Photon: CLICK HERE. (Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Photon in any way. I just enjoy the product as it has worked for me in the past. That said, if you are looking to throw down the $5, and this article helped, doing so through the previous link will get me a few extra cents. Much appreciated!)

How is Marvel Avengers Alliance?

If you’ve ever played a game like Golden Sun or Final Fantasy, you understand the style of gameplay involved in Avengers Alliance. If not, it can probably be classified as tactical role-playing, or in non-nerd: you line up 2 heroes and a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent (that’s you!) and click ways to attack the villains and thugs standing directly across from you. And you go in turn, very politely, as you were taught in beatdown school.

[schema type=”review” rev_name=”Marvel: Avengers Alliance” rev_body=”Avengers Alliance is a free, flash-based strategy game. It’s more fun than a barrel of Super-Apes.” author=”Dave Buesing” pubdate=”2013-01-02″ user_review=”9.5″ min_review=”0.0″ max_review=”10.0″ ]

The short review is that this game is an addicting blast for even tangential fans of the Marvel Universe. There’s a surprising amount of strategizing to keep you busy (researching new weapons, recruiting and training new heroes, sending your team on covert-ops to generate cash $), and with a constant influx of new content the gameplay hours have no end in sight. My wife is thrilled, believe me.

To start playing for yourself, check out the game here on Playdom, or just search for Avengers Alliance from your Facebook account and add the app. I won’t expect to see you here for a while.

Also, if you’d like to ally up, my handle’s DivineBolt33. Happy gaming!