MARVEL SNAP

Developer: Second Dinner
Publisher: Nuverse
Release: 2022
Platform: Android (played), iOS, PC
Genre: TCG

You know the most successful aspect of a game is PR when professional reviews are unanimous in pointing out “it’s too generous a F2P” even if it blatantly throws the player through a tunnel of tempting seasonal rewards that can only be snagged through some ol’ real money dropping–as casual players pass them by just to watch their locks refuse to rattle–every 3 weeks or so. But market stuff aside, yes: MARVEL SNAP breathes some (welcome) fresh air into the genre without simply resting on the strength of the tied-in IP.

The trimmed down main setup–12-card decks, only six turns before a full match is over–works surprisingly well not only for its by-design casual appeal; the twist of randomizing available playfields/locations (and the way such are progressively revealed as a match unfolds) adds up a good deal of variety (as an extra pinch of luck) to the mix while allowing the devs to keep a healthy, expansive framework without necessarily having to spend tons of resources on creating/balancing new cards again and again.

As for climbing the prizes ladder and getting extra cards, the way to go is… expanding the very collection itself. This “Collection Level” system is meant to “auto-cap” the amount of new cards a player can add to their ranks, once again elegantly avoiding constant “manual tweaking” by the devs when it comes to regulating the game’s economics. It’s such a Swiss Army knife of a feedback method that it can’t help itself being both good-natured and noxious to the player at the same time: e.g., as it randomly digs prizes from an invisible “tier pool” it relegates casual players to their “rookie” level for a long time before handling them a “chance to have a chance” of getting real game-changer cards; when synergy starts coming into play this gets even worse, since the odds of pulling more cards that are both a) good and b) work well together are slim. On the other hand, allowing a player to increase their Collection Level by spending resources on cosmetic upgrades to cards they already own lends them a decent deal of agency on how to do it in satisfying personal fashion.

The infamously tempting ladder.

Talking about cosmetics, there’s no cohesion to be seen among the collectible cards’ art pieces: they’re all over the place both aesthetically and quality-wise. A sad (but perhaps unavoidable) departure from how solid a “historic” curation approach–like the one previously available in Marvel Puzzle Quest, for instance–would have been with such a decades old IP-focused project; regardless, results tend to be good enough to keep it afloat, given the fact that the current audience’s nostalgia only trace back to, roughly, MCU’s beginnings or so. Credit where credit's due though, the game does pretty well in other presentation areas–especially VFX and sound design/music.

Issues aside, MARVEL SNAP is very well positioned to grow bigger by the day and become a F2P juggernaut–and an ever healthier one while at it. That’s only possible because the development team made the clever decision to plant its structural foundations far beyond some shallowly obvious Baby Groot fan service would.