I’ve recently become infatuated with Marvel SNAP, a mobile card game available for free wherever you get your local smartphone apps. I heard about this back before it came out, when Disguised Toast streamed and promoted it (and got paid handsomely, I assume, and good for him). It features virtual “cards” starring many of the expanse of Marvel characters, heroes and villains, with powers and abilities roughly inspired by their comic-origin abilities.
Having played Hearthstone in the past, I knew these large and popular card video games could be overwhelming. Hearthstone requires layering your cards’ abilities as they fight your opponent’s forces on the field. Round by round, much as other games like Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon, or Magic the Gathering function, you prepare your forces as best you can and send them out.
I enjoyed the strategy of Hearthstone. I enjoyed learning what various cards would do and understanding their interaction. But I struggled with how much there was to learn, and more than that, how to create decks of cards that best utilized these combined abilities. With so many names and details, it was easy to forget something. Frustratingly, in play, I constantly found my plans disrupted as my opponent attacked and eliminated my cards.
Marvel SNAP improves on the knowledge and investment required of this tired formula. It focuses on brevity, with clear, simple descriptions for each card and terrain. The characters you play don’t attack each round; instead, their combined forces add and multiply, with whoever scores highest winning a location at the end of the match (6 rounds).
The creative team subdivided that singular, interlocking field of play into three, allowing parallel strategies and combinations to flourish. Each randomized location where your characters fight impacts their abilities in some way: sometimes they get weaker, sometimes they’re twice as strong, sometimes they get a strength bonus when Stark Tower lights up. The wide variety of terrains and their effects change gameplay of a single deck drastically between matches. If I paid more attention to the comic universe, I’m sure I’d recognize more of these locations and why their effects are what they are, but the strategic impact of pairing zone and character provides an exciting challenge regardless.
I cannot write this without acknowledging that a huge component of a game such as this comes from the creators. It is their decisions about how play occurs that create a competition where both sides feel an equal chance of winning. It is their analysis that leads to concise, clear card descriptions and balanced card abilities. Frankly, by deciding to divide the combat into three zones, the developers designed a scenario where–almost always–you’ve won somewhere. Your goal is to win at least 2 of the 3 locations. Sometimes you’ll lose with 1 of 3, but this softens the sting of defeat. These factors build a game that becomes simultaneously simple to learn, a fair test of skill, understandable as you advance, and invigorating.
The game opens with a helpful tutorial and provides a starting deck that’s not too shabby. Of the many collectible cards, the tutorial gifts you a moderate number, and since decks in gameplay are comprised of only 12 cards, there’s flexibility to design your own deck even before you progress and earn new characters.
On top of all this, Marvel goes into this venture with huge advantages. Deep coffers so no need to run ads. Already-iconic characters fans will want to play. Vast worldbuilding, locations, and established personae to draw from.
While this game is obviously child-friendly, I believe it was intended for adults. The generation that grew up collecting Pokémon cards–the originals of which, in good condition, can be worth thousands of dollars today–is now in their 30s, or rapidly approaching it. SNAP takes advantage of this childhood nostalgia by featuring plenty of alternate artwork and card designs for users to pursue. They allow you to level cards up, which mostly makes them look fancier. An entire subset of the game encourages admiring various artists’ styles and interpretations of these same characters, with the goal of achieving a special, sparkly virtual card to show off.
Thinking about it, by creating this game Marvel definitely has made their characters much more recognizable, and much easier to pair with their names–at least, to me.
Overall, while I would never recommend a game that didn’t grab you in the slightest, Marvel SNAP is a much more interesting, fun, and engaging game than the majority of mobile options. Personally, I’m loving it. I love the 3-minute games (easy to pick up and put down); I love the card descriptions (trust me, clarity is huge); I love feeling like I’m capable of putting a deck together and seeing it do great things. If you like card games, check it out!
Below, I’m including a screenshot of one of the finished games I’m proud of. You’re welcome to say “oh, pretty colors” and move on, or read my description of what happened below.
See that Ka-Zar card on the bottom left? That card gives a +1 power to every card that cost 1 energy. You can think of energy like money: you have $1 on your 1st turn, $2 on your 2nd turn, $3 on your 3rd, etc. Apportion it between character energy costs as you will.
In this deck, I have as many 1-energy creatures as I can, because Ka-Zar makes them all stronger. The entire deck is built around him.
Now, the terrains gave me distinct bonuses in this match, too–both The Hood and the Devil are 1-cost cards randomly generated. But Ka-Zar, with his +1 doubled to +2 by the Onslaught’s Citadel terrain, is affecting eight other cards on the board. Truly, it was a lucky match for me, to win all three zones.
whimsical me, too 