Battle your friends and foes in Marvel Snap, a card game featuring your favorite characters and locations from the Marvel Cinematic Universe!
Title: Marvel Snap
Developers: Second Dinner
Release date: 2022
Genre(s): Action/adventure, card play
Gaming platform(s): macOS, iOS, Android
Interest level: Rated PEGI-12 (suitable for age 12 and up)
Summary: In this digital collectible card game, players have a deck of 12 cards, with each card depicting an iconic Marvel character with a specified power level.
At the start of a round, players put one or more cards down on a “location,” (e.g., New York City, Asgard). Locations are randomly assigned, and each location will affect the card or player in some way, such as doubling the power of the card played or discarding a card from a player’s deck. The player with the highest power at a given “location,” wins that location, and wins the game if they win two out of three locations.
About the creators: Second Dinner is an independent game studio based in California. Currently, they are still a small operation and actively hiring, according to their site. Marvel Snap is their first and only game to date (Second Dinner, n.d.).
Critical review: Despite sounding deceptively simple as a card game, I found that Marvel Snap was actually pretty difficult to understand how to play!
Then again, it could be because I’m not much of a gamer, as I have mentioned previously on this blog. I got the hang of it eventually, I think my biggest issue is that this game requires some thought and strategy but also has a degree of randomness, so the strategy that worked for you in one round might not work in another because the locations will change.
However, I did like that the characters (and locations) in this game are recognizable ones from films and comics, even if I haven’t explored every corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The art is detailed and eye-catching, the characters’ voices sound similar or accurate to the actors’ in the films, and it’s just something extra for big Marvel fans.
Related programming ideas: The teen center could host a comic-con promoting Marvel graphic novels as well as this game, perhaps especially around the release of a new Marvel film or perhaps on Free Comic Book Day in May.
Brief pitch: Battle your friends and foes in Marvel Snap, a card game featuring your favorite characters and locations from the Marvel Cinematic Universe! These games are so quick to play, the perfect thing to keep you entertained on your walk to school or while you’re waiting for the bus.
Potential challenges: I don’t foresee challenges for this game because, while the special effects are frequent and punctuated by loud music or sound effects, and players are told that their powers have been diminished or increased, nothing is particularly “violent.” There is no actual weaponized battle; instead, players are battling solely through their cards.
Reason for inclusion: I think teens would enjoy this tie-in to a beloved franchise. In addition, it’s a modernized version of trading card games like Pokémon or Yu-Gi-Oh, which have always been popular among teens. I also like that it’s a mobile app game and does not require another gaming console to play!
References:
Second Dinner. (n.d.). Homepage. https://seconddinner.com/
Comments