Marvel Snap | Cheerful Ghost

Some Kind of Top 20 List for 2022

After the jingle of the bells quiets down the fresh new year is upon us. As part of the glow of the new year I always think a bit about the previous year. As part of that, it's fun to consider what things I enjoyed that bubbled to the top of the rest and since lists are fun, here we go. It's not a top 20 gaming list(as in I don't have 20 things), not sure I played that many games but a list of all the stuff I enjoyed in the book, movie, music and game space.

Feel free to drop your lists in the comments.

Andor: It seems Star Wars life is now lived as a series of Disney+ TV shows. Most of them have been fine, some have been pretty good (Obi-Wan) but one show punched out... Read All

Marvel Snap is Fantastic!

Marvel Snap launched last month to quite a bit of press and accolades and I'm here to say it's fantastic. Yeah, yeah it's free to play going heavy on cosmetics but none of that is annoying, in fact I think it nails the free to play curve.

Second Dinner is the development shop that created Marvel Snap and it formed up a few years ago from former Blizzard employees that made Hearthstone great. Hearthstone at launch was one of the most refreshing digital card games that later went so heavy into free to pay to play that caused me to go from a long time player to a former player. Marvel Snap changes the digital card game format by making the matches faster and removes... Read All Marvel Snap launched last month to quite a bit of press and accolades and I'm here to say it's fantastic. Yeah, yeah it's free to play going heavy on cosmetics but none of that is annoying, in fact I think it nails the free to play curve.

Second Dinner is the development shop that created Marvel Snap and it formed up a few years ago from former Blizzard employees that made Hearthstone great. Hearthstone at launch was one of the most refreshing digital card games that later went so heavy into free to pay to play that caused me to go from a long time player to a former player. Marvel Snap changes the digital card game format by making the matches faster and removes nearly all the pay for power aspects. Some cards you can unlock FASTER by paying for the season pass but if you want to wait, you can unlock them normally through the card upgrade mechanics later.

The basic game premise is fairly simple, there are three lanes and you focus on winning 2 out of the 3 lanes to win the match. Each lane has a Marvel effect that changes how you can win it such as doubling the strength of your cards or lanes you can't play cards in at all. How you approach these random lanes can really mix up the matches and they keep adding new lanes all the time really changing how the game works.

If you want to you can buy gold to unlock new cosmetic cards (essentially card skins) or power to unlock other cards faster, but there is a daily limit to the amount of cards you can upgrade this way. So even if you unleashed your credit card to buy everything, you'd still need to play daily matches to unlock all the cards quickly.

With a quick yet fun base game and progression system that doesn't, to me, feel excessively grindy, Marvel Snap is the game I now play daily. I don't think I'd ever NOT buy anything in game, but at this point, I'm not sure what the point would be. I'm content playing free to play games like Fortnite without buying cosmetics and Marvel Snap seems like a perfect game for that. In fact, you can earn enough gold in game to buy cosmetics and I've just been hording mine for the perfect card skin or ... something else.

If you are interested in playing Marvel Snap, as I said, it's entirely free and available on Android, iPhones, tablets and PC on Steam. When I tried the Steam port it had a phone aspect ratio but at some point the developers will add proper widescreen making the PC version better.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/10/2022 at 06:42am

I'm glad you gave this a great review! I haven't checked it out yet, only added it to my Steam library when I realized it was available. I got a "new" phone. It's the best phone I've ever had, but it's still not the greatest (Samsung Galaxy A01), so I'm not sure which games I'll play on it. I've been playing a few. I tried Marvel Strike Force on my old phone and I never got passed the loading screen, haven't tried it on the new one.

I enjoyed the single player part of Hearthstone, but that didn't last long. I really don't like competitive play, so I came to the conclusion that the game (and similar games that force competitive play) just isn't for me. I'm still interested in MtG and Gwent, just not competitively. I played MtG staring in high school along w/ the Star Trek: The Next Generation CCG. I loved Gwent in Witcher 3.

Is there a single player part of it or do you have to play against others?

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 11/14/2022 at 10:22pm

I have been enjoying snap. Even when I lose, I don’t feel penalized too much. Makes for an enjoyable experience.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/15/2022 at 02:20pm

It’s always against others but like Will said, it’s prob the best kind of online multiplayer in that it isn’t soul crushing.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 12/07/2022 at 05:56pm

I've tried Snap for a week or so, and I just don't think it's a game for me. The game kinda just feels grindy, trying to upgrade my deck and card appearance, but there's no other objective that I could find?

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 12/08/2022 at 03:35am

I haven’t played in a week or so. Focusing my time on Marvel Strike Force.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/08/2022 at 09:35am

So with these kinds of free to play games it seems they need a progression system that’s in some way tied to money to pay the bills. Marvel Snap ties progression to cosmetic card upgrades hated around gems. Once you upgrade card cosmetics your get rank which allows you to unlock more cards. This is a grind for sure.

They keep adding more cards and I’m at a good place with my level now (959) where I have a lot of cards to upgrade and get gems slower. Which means I can pay a bit to speed it up or wait some and grind. Good news is the base game, for me, is fun enough so it’s ok to do that.

If the base game isn’t fun enough I can see where the grind wouldn’t be fun enough. Right now I unlock about one card every day or two so it’s slower but still fun.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/08/2022 at 09:35am

> hated around gems

Should be GATED 🤣

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Marvel Snap Coming to PC and mobile 10/18/22

At this year’s D23 expo (https://d23.com/), a new game called Marvel Snap was announced for PC and mobile. You can pre-register on the website (https://www.marvelsnap.com/pre-register) or within the Apple store and Google Play. It’s coming to PC, too, but I wasn’t able to find a link for it, so I visited Google Play on my phone.

Marvel Snap is the debut from Second Dinner, which is an indie studio composed of Blizzard veterans who worked on Hearthstone. It doesn’t sound like a Marvel variant (keyword there if you’re following the MCU). It’s hard to describe what I’ve just read and I think the best thing to do is to point you towards the links below to read for... Read All At this year’s D23 expo (https://d23.com/), a new game called Marvel Snap was announced for PC and mobile. You can pre-register on the website (https://www.marvelsnap.com/pre-register) or within the Apple store and Google Play. It’s coming to PC, too, but I wasn’t able to find a link for it, so I visited Google Play on my phone.

Marvel Snap is the debut from Second Dinner, which is an indie studio composed of Blizzard veterans who worked on Hearthstone. It doesn’t sound like a Marvel variant (keyword there if you’re following the MCU). It’s hard to describe what I’ve just read and I think the best thing to do is to point you towards the links below to read for yourself. You’ll probably understand it better than I do.

I got into CCGs w/ Magic the Gathering and the Star Trek: Next Generation CCG. I still have cards from both. My son has a nice collection from the Pokemon CCG. My problem with Hearthstone is simply that I do not enjoy PVP. I’d rather play against an AI. I did enjoy it to a point and I do believe it’s a good and popular game, but there was little for a single lone player to do when I played, so I stopped.

I’ve never had a great phone nor have I had a ridiculously expensive iPhone nor have I had the interest in them. So, I’ve never really gotten into mobile gaming when it applies to cell phones. I hate cellphones, most especially due to stupid touch screens. I’m only glad now that there’s a Windows Phone Link app that lets me use my PC to text and call. Texting is far superior with a full keyboard to type on!

I’m Marvel-ously obsessed (Dad joke, check!), so I’ll probably at least check this out for a bit. Let me know what you think about this and if it’s something you’re interested in.

Sources:

Announcement: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/marvel-snap-releasing-on-pc-and-mobile-october-18/1100-6507228/

In-depth interview with Ben Brode: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/how-marvel-snap-puts-a-new-spin-on-the-card-game-formula/1100-6503598/