SUMMARY:

Ages: 14+
Players: 1-4
Est. Length: 45-90 Minutes
Game Design: Michael Boggs, Nate French, and Caleb Grace
Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games
Genre: Customizable
Mechanics: Cooperative, Deck Construction, Hand Management

Reviewer: Andy Hickman

INTRODUCTION

Do you ever have that desire to be a super hero in the Marvel universe? Well, thanks to the Marvel Champions board game, you can do exactly that. This is a cooperative game that allows you to play with 1 - 4 players competing against a villain from within that universe.

This is a card game that is mid-weight in its complexity. There are quite a few rules to navigate, but with the abundance of online resources, you'll have plenty of help getting up to speed and ready to play your first game. It plays well at all player counts, and the amount of time it takes will increase with each additional player.

So, how does it play? The game consists of two phases, a hero phase followed by a villain phase. On your turn, you can play as many cards from your hand that you can pay for by the cards in your hand. Following all heros taking their turns, the villain will then take their turn and do bad stuff to you or just try to complete some scheme, like breaking in and stealing a shipment of vibranium. You win by defeating the villain while the villain may win by either defeating all heros or completing his main scheme. One additonal important and unique gameplay aspect is that your character is represented by a double-sided card. On one side is their alter-ego, Peter Parker, while on the other side is their hero, Spider-Man. How the villain interacts with you depends on your current form.

Once the game starts, you'll be drawing cards from your deck and playing them. Within the game itself, your deck doesn't really change. Prior to the game starting, you have to put together your deck by combining your chosen hero (each hero comes with a unique set of 15 cards), along with some aspect cards, as well as some basic cards. There are 4 aspects that can combined with each hero, and these change how your hero will play. This pre-game deckbuilding is pretty simple, and you are given suggestions on what specifically to choose for each of the heroes. You may also explore this further by combining each of the aspects (justice, protection, aggression, and leadership) with your favorite hero to see what works best for how you like to play. If you want to just smash stuff, then go with agresssion. If you want to lead a team, then you may choose the leadership apsect. You can wade as shallow or deep as you like into this part of the game.

THE MOMENT THE GAME “CLICKED”

Unlike watching television or reading a book, board games inherently have a learning curve. Every time you want to play a new game, you first have to learn how to play it. Games vary in difficulty and complexity, but every game has a moment where it just “clicks”. Once this moment happens, you’re able to fully grasp how the game is played, and what the goal is. This moment happens at different times for different people, but having an idea of when it can happen is a good indicator of whether or not you’ll enjoy learning and playing a game.

Like many games, the first several plays will be spent trying to make sure you've got all of the rules correct (or correct enough :)). Sometimes, this can result in a bit of a delayed gratification from the joy of playing the game itself. Once the rules start to melt away, this game really starts to shine. It shines in both the enjoyment of the challenge of the immediate game, as well as the variety of what combination to try next.

FINAL THOUGHTS

How does it feel? For just being a card game, the game does indeed feel like a marvel comic or one of the Marvel movies. The art on the cards really helps to create a thematic feel. Each hero (5 come in the base box) plays very differently while still having the same basic structure, which allows for trying a new hero to be a very easy transition. The different hero play styles add to the thematic feel. In the base game (yes, there are many expansions), it comes with 3 villains (Rhino, Klaw, and Ultron), and each of these play very differently. The amount of replayability is very high, and this is a game you'll want to keep getting to the table again and again.

The big question is, is this any fun? Absolutely! This is one of my favorite games of all time. If you enjoy highly thematic, cooperative games, then this could be an amazing choice for you as well. This game plays amazingly well solo or with multiple players working together. As my good friend Spider-Man says, may the force be with you...I mean, with great power comes great responsibility!

Happy Gaming!