Disney launches Korean mobile game Marvel Run Jump Smash!

Today Disney is launching Marvel Run Jump Smash!, an endless-runner game from a Korean developer.

The new title is an action-oriented side-scrolling endless runner featuring superhero characters from Marvel Comics. It will debut for $1 on the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, and Windows-enabled devices (for which it’s currently free). You could classify this as a copycat game, but in this case, Disney is copying its other successful titles.

The game is one more example of how big companies are invading the app stores and trying to take them over with the power of brands. But Disney’s strategy isn’t entirely brand based. It is also using the proven categories of games as it has in the past with its collaboration with Imangi Studios for titles like Temple Run: Oz. In those cases, Disney is taking the proven gameplay of endless runners and inserting branded characters into them.

And that’s what brings us to Marvel Run Jump Smash!, an endless runner with non-stop action. Players can battle as Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, and Black Widow. More characters will be added over time.

The players have to dodge obstacles, fight villains, switch between superheroes, and activate each one’s special attack to progress as far as they can. The backgrounds include familiar Marvel locations. Heroes collect coins to get power-ups that boost their running distances. It’s interesting that Disney used an unnamed Korean developer as endless-runner games are popular in that country.