The house of Hulk has entered the card collecting game business with Marvel Snap, and Steve McNeil can’t stop buying them…
I love CCGs. In the last five years, I’ve gone from never playing one to having blown an embarrassing amount of money on cardboard and digital rectangles. I have every single card for Marvel Legendary and so, it will come as no surprise when I tell you that I have become obsessed with MARVEL SNAP.
If that last paragraph meant absolutely nothing to you, allow me to briefly explain. CCG stands for collectable card game, which fairly concisely tells you what you’re getting into. You acquire new cards, and use them in a game. Some take the form of deckbuilders where, during gameplay, you receive better cards that improve your power or abilities. Others allow you to gather better cards between rounds and choose which ones to take into any given battle with you. Whether it’s physical games like Star Realms and Boss Monster, or digital titles like Slay the Spire and Monster Train, there are very few where I don’t find something to love and obsess over.
MARVEL SNAP is the latest, and highest-profile, addition to this world and, if you’ve been wondering what all the fuss is about, I’d encourage you to leap in. It’s free-to-play, which I appreciate will already have some of you running for the hills.
That said, unlike other titles, you genuinely don’t need to throw money at this one. You might want to but, as is the trend with Fortnite et al, almost everything you can blow money on offers only cosmetic changes, rather than gameplay-breaking power-ups – the £8.99 Season Pass, which refreshes each month, only grants you one exclusive new card, which, in a game with over 250 to acquire through free play and multiple different valid strategies, is by no means essential.
The game even rewards you with free credits on a daily basis, as does the ‘Collection Level’ path where you’ll also unlock all those free cards, and boosters which contribute to upgrading them. It also sets you new missions every few hours that can give you additional free rewards. Matchmaking is so fast it’s almost instant, and each game only lasts maybe three minutes, making it the ultimate toilet game (do with that what you will).
When you first play it, you get a series of intro battles that gently guide you through the core gameplay mechanics so, if you’ve always felt a bit intimidated by these sorts of games, rest assured it’ll get you educated in no time. I appreciate this sounds like I work for Marvel. I wish I did*, but I don’t. Download it today and, I promise you, you’ll be enjoying toilet trips more than ever. No doubt that will be the review quote used on all future promos. There is no higher praise.
