Stark Tower Defense
Open the game- Brand
- Marvel
- Year
- 2010
- Objective
- Awareness
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Simulation & Strategy
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Soap Creative Australia
Objective
When Marvel Kids launched the cartoon The Super Hero Squad, it needed online content that would keep the show's young audience on its own marvelkids.com portal and on CartoonNetwork.com, where the series aired — something that carried the story forward rather than just advertising it.
Solution
Players take charge of defending Super Hero City from a top-down view of the streets leading to Stark Tower. A shop lets them pick towers modeled on specific heroes — Thor's lightning, Iron Man's missiles, Spider-Man's web, Cyclops's optic blast — and drop them onto rooftops along the road as Doctor Doom's Lethal Legion marches toward the tower. Every villain taken down drops cash, which buys new towers or upgrades the ones already placed before the next wave hits. Play is mouse-only, across 30 levels and several difficulty settings up to Epic, with each level ending when the wave is cleared or the villains get through.
Results
32 million gameplays in 12 months, making it the third most popular online game in Marvel's history.
- 1
The player arrives on the game's page within the Super Hero Squad section (on Marvel Kids/Marvel.com or Cartoon Network) and sees the series setup: Doctor Doom and the Lethal Legion are storming Super Hero City to seize Stark Tower.
- 2
Before the battle, the player picks a difficulty, from normal up to "Epic," the top tier built for a long, grinding playthrough.
- 3
The level opens on a top-down map of Super Hero City, showing the streets enemies will travel and Stark Tower at the end of the route as the point that must not be breached.
- 4
A shop panel lets the player pick towers modeled on different heroes — Thor's lightning, Iron Man's rockets against anything that gets close, Cyclops' optic beam, Spider-Man's webs — each priced according to three stats (range, damage, attack speed) that the player weighs before buying.
- 5
Using the mouse, the sole control, the player places a bought tower on a rooftop next to a road, looking for a spot whose range covers two streets at once; placement is permanent, since a tower can only be sold back at a steep loss, not moved.
- 6
A wave begins as the Lethal Legion, led by Doctor Doom, marches down the streets while placed towers fire automatically; kills pay out money the player spends immediately to expand the defense mid-fight.
- 7
Over a run, the player's build order shifts from raw damage, strong towers and upgrades, to crowd control, using Spider-Man's web to slow enemies on approach.
- 8
Combat can be paused at any point to rethink and rearrange the defensive plan.
- 9
Clearing a wave advances the player to the next of 30 levels, each repeating the cycle of earning money and refining the defense.
- 10
After finishing the game, the player can replay it at a higher difficulty, with the "Epic" setting stretching a full clear into hours.
