Marvel Snap is here and generally speaking these days, if a new mobile game has some sort of fandom relating basis, it’s going to do well. Whether it’s the litany of Star Wars games, all of the television show based games or in the same vein as this, the many different types of Marvel games available, you generally know what you’re in for.

Marvel released their latest mobile game yesterday, this time deciding to take on the card-game-battler genre. Truthfully, if you’re played Animation Throwdown, Cards, Universe & Everything, or any of the other card battlers available, you’ve pretty much played Marvel Snap already.

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The game is a simple premise, with you spending your time in game completing objectives, playing matches against other players and collecting and upgrading different cards. Each player has a twelve card deck at which cards at random are drawn from, and each round of six each player is able to play their cards in an attempt to have a higher power total in each of the three locations than their opponent. Each turn allows one extra energy to be used on cards, and by the end of the sixth and final round, you can lay a heavy hitter or just a group of smaller cards to try and win.

There are a mixture of cards to collect, with some lesser known Marvel characters available, as well as plenty of differently drawn variants from different artists. The cards themselves have various power-ups which can provide an edge during battle, from +2 powerups, to destroying other cards or even doubling the power of all the other cards, which suitably is an Iron Man powerup.

Marvel Snap – Not Reinventing the Wheel

As with seemingly every mobile game, there are daily missions and seasonal objectives, of which you’re rewarded with the usual experience and gold which can be used to unlock new cards, upgrade current ones and more. Upgrading the cards is a particular highlight, with the card’s appearance rather than attributes getting better with each upgrade. In fact the game as a whole is extremely pretty to look at, whether it’s the battles, the locations, the cards or the rest of the features, its a pretty, if not empty game.

I’m sure there will be more content added to the game as time goes on, and hopefully that’ll include other game modes, because for now there’s the solitary one v one game mode, and that’s it. There’s no story mode, no challenge mode etc, just PVP.

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The other missed opportunity Marvel Snap made was not to include a more accessible or useful collection viewer. All your cards are laid out in one giant collection, but this is a game made to suck players in with the simple premise, so why not have it similar to a sticker book?

All in all, the game feels half done and a mish-mash of unfinished and poorly implemented features. Again, no doubt this will change with time, as many long life mobile games have, for example Marvel’s Strikeforce being an obvious comparison, but for now once you’ve played the game for twenty minutes, you’ll have experienced everything it has to offer.

5/10

Marvel Snap reviewed on a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4.

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