of all the family-weight cooperative games I've played, Marvel United produces the most reliably rewarding table discussions. Even beginners can start talking tactics right away, and feel like they're involved and have the opportunity to kick ass. One of the mainstays in my game collection for sure.
So i bought a copy of this one standalone box to look at, and as someone who doesn't consider themselves a Marvel fan i thought it would be a good idea to look through it. Just about all the coverage of this game has been hype and fomo and making a big deal about it having 1000 characters, so how does the game stand up in isolation. It's surprisingly simple and fun. I can see how they can add so much to this as the core ruleset is very simple. Personally, i think the gameplay is good, but i doubt i'd want to play more than a dozen games of it. Then again, as mentioned, i dont really care for Marvel (or DC, or any American comic franchises at all for that matter), so the appeal of owning "Cyclops, but that time he had big hair" or "Mirror universe chuck the amazing" holds zero appeal to me. So yeah, core gameplay is simple, solid, fun and engaging. This is a good game design and i recommend giving it a try.
I very much enjoy Marvel and DC, and I did get all of the Marvel sets and most of the X-Men ones. It was crazy how each character does have a unique feel to them with simply changing up some symbols, adding some special powers, and the text. You can picture Spider-Man’s double move and sharing the three hits so Gambit can charge up his power card and do some mega damage (made up example but basically what you can do). The game flows well, can be easy, yet can be tough as a boot. Man those Sinister Six took me multiple times to beat, while Thanos and Apocalypse were one and done. Honestly more than half the good guys and bad guys I’ve either never heard of or care less to use - product of growing up watching certain cartoons and not reading all the comics. Couldn’t settle with only using 40% of all the content and of course selling the scraps won’t cut it. So like playing with action figures I made my ultimate teams and did the boss fights like in the cartoons, and then I sold it all for just about what I paid for it haha. Didn’t want to store all of it, even shrinking it down was too big. Definitely came to realize I was buying the IP and not really the game. The game is good, just not what I want often.
Recommend you try something like Sinister Six, Days of Future Past, Apocalypse or Infinity War before moving on. If nothing else it will show you how much the game evolves and is different with some of the expansions.
YOU DON'T WANT MIRROR UNIVERSE CHUCK THE AMAZING!?!? HE'S THE MOST BESTEST CHARACTER THERE IS!!! MARVEL UNITED ISN'T WORTH PLAYING WITHOUT MIRROR UNIVERSE CHUCK THE AMAZING. YOUR WHOLE REVIEW IS NULL AND VOID.
The X-men Days of Future Past expansion is one of my favorite expansions of all time, and it just makes X-men marvel United that much better. I love this game: there’s so much content in the expansions to explore
That last line of the video really hit home for me (I own a fair bit of united and champions 😅). United is great for gateway gamers and a younger audience. Its really accessible to teach and kids love the minis. Champions is my go to solo game. I really enjoy deck construction and using different card combos to best different villains. I feel that despite them being both marvel, they both fit a different role in my collection. It's nice that they are not overly long games to play too, means you can get through all those expansions a bit more easily! Great review, thanks for all your content 👍
I honestly was just gonna make a dig at united having so many expansion, but I was stunned to find it's only in 3rd place. 3 games, almost 120 bits of game. It's amazing and scary
The modularity of the game is it’s real strength, it’s a simple game at its core and there’s just enough tweaks here and there across villains and expansion boxes to keep you wanting to explore the game further. Its consumed half my house but I do really enjoy the game and mixing up the characters name rule sets.
This sounds like a pretty solid co-op card game that'd be a blast as a game night opener for a few months, and then slowly fade into its dust-collection phase unless injected with an expansion every so often... so very similar to Marvel Legendary, in that regard. I can absolutely see why someone would love this game, and I'm sure I'd have a good time with it, but I don't wanna hop onto that money-and-storage treadmill, haha. I already have one game taking up too much space on my shelves with its expansions (Root), I don't need another!
You're right, it's a lot of fun at first. But the base game would only last you so long before shelving it. but if you don’t mind spending $30 and getting like 20 or 30 plays out of it with different people, then it’s worth the money.
Great game - Very light but sometimes that just the niche that's needed, and I enjoy the theme so having all the stuff is great. Though it does drive me a little crazy to have multiples of some heroes that I really don't need :P I'm pretty excited for the new gameplay additions in Multiverse - Equipment Decks look great and I think the campaigns could be really good for such a short game.
I wouldn't mind all the expansions because of how modular this game is, but the extreme amounts of FOMO and kickstarter exclusives makes me afraid to even try the base game(s). I guess it would be FOFOMO? At least it looks like an easier setup and teardown than Legendary.
Love this game so much, a bit of a guilty pleasure but it's so modular I can set it up to be light as a feather and easy breezy to play with kids and tune it up to be a stressful challenge. Really is a bit of a sandbox product line. Gets a bad rap because of cmons fomo business practices and, like, totally fair.
We almost got on the FOMO for this game. Then we spent WAY TOO MUCH for Thor. We still get stuff (Galactus, anybody?) but we're selective. My kids love it.
"You Marvel fans really like expansions, don't you..." Yes...yes, we do. Although Champions here feels a little like a cheap shot since it's an LCG literally designed to continuously "live" through expansions...but ironically I've always preferred expanding games I own rather than adding a new game to my collection.
of all the family-weight cooperative games I've played, Marvel United produces the most reliably rewarding table discussions. Even beginners can start talking tactics right away, and feel like they're involved and have the opportunity to kick ass. One of the mainstays in my game collection for sure.
So i bought a copy of this one standalone box to look at, and as someone who doesn't consider themselves a Marvel fan i thought it would be a good idea to look through it. Just about all the coverage of this game has been hype and fomo and making a big deal about it having 1000 characters, so how does the game stand up in isolation. It's surprisingly simple and fun. I can see how they can add so much to this as the core ruleset is very simple. Personally, i think the gameplay is good, but i doubt i'd want to play more than a dozen games of it. Then again, as mentioned, i dont really care for Marvel (or DC, or any American comic franchises at all for that matter), so the appeal of owning "Cyclops, but that time he had big hair" or "Mirror universe chuck the amazing" holds zero appeal to me.
So yeah, core gameplay is simple, solid, fun and engaging. This is a good game design and i recommend giving it a try.
I very much enjoy Marvel and DC, and I did get all of the Marvel sets and most of the X-Men ones. It was crazy how each character does have a unique feel to them with simply changing up some symbols, adding some special powers, and the text. You can picture Spider-Man’s double move and sharing the three hits so Gambit can charge up his power card and do some mega damage (made up example but basically what you can do). The game flows well, can be easy, yet can be tough as a boot. Man those Sinister Six took me multiple times to beat, while Thanos and Apocalypse were one and done.
Honestly more than half the good guys and bad guys I’ve either never heard of or care less to use - product of growing up watching certain cartoons and not reading all the comics. Couldn’t settle with only using 40% of all the content and of course selling the scraps won’t cut it. So like playing with action figures I made my ultimate teams and did the boss fights like in the cartoons, and then I sold it all for just about what I paid for it haha. Didn’t want to store all of it, even shrinking it down was too big.
Definitely came to realize I was buying the IP and not really the game. The game is good, just not what I want often.
Recommend you try something like Sinister Six, Days of Future Past, Apocalypse or Infinity War before moving on. If nothing else it will show you how much the game evolves and is different with some of the expansions.
YOU DON'T WANT MIRROR UNIVERSE CHUCK THE AMAZING!?!? HE'S THE MOST BESTEST CHARACTER THERE IS!!! MARVEL UNITED ISN'T WORTH PLAYING WITHOUT MIRROR UNIVERSE CHUCK THE AMAZING. YOUR WHOLE REVIEW IS NULL AND VOID.
The X-men Days of Future Past expansion is one of my favorite expansions of all time, and it just makes X-men marvel United that much better. I love this game: there’s so much content in the expansions to explore
That last line of the video really hit home for me (I own a fair bit of united and champions 😅).
United is great for gateway gamers and a younger audience. Its really accessible to teach and kids love the minis. Champions is my go to solo game. I really enjoy deck construction and using different card combos to best different villains. I feel that despite them being both marvel, they both fit a different role in my collection. It's nice that they are not overly long games to play too, means you can get through all those expansions a bit more easily! Great review, thanks for all your content 👍
I honestly was just gonna make a dig at united having so many expansion, but I was stunned to find it's only in 3rd place. 3 games, almost 120 bits of game. It's amazing and scary
The modularity of the game is it’s real strength, it’s a simple game at its core and there’s just enough tweaks here and there across villains and expansion boxes to keep you wanting to explore the game further. Its consumed half my house but I do really enjoy the game and mixing up the characters name rule sets.
Really helpful!
This sounds like a pretty solid co-op card game that'd be a blast as a game night opener for a few months, and then slowly fade into its dust-collection phase unless injected with an expansion every so often... so very similar to Marvel Legendary, in that regard. I can absolutely see why someone would love this game, and I'm sure I'd have a good time with it, but I don't wanna hop onto that money-and-storage treadmill, haha.
I already have one game taking up too much space on my shelves with its expansions (Root), I don't need another!
You're right, it's a lot of fun at first. But the base game would only last you so long before shelving it. but if you don’t mind spending $30 and getting like 20 or 30 plays out of it with different people, then it’s worth the money.
3 Seconds Board Games: “It’s just like the Marvel one, and you can do teams”
The marvel on is just like the marvel one? What?
I like the mechanics but what's up with X-Men in chibi style?
Great game - Very light but sometimes that just the niche that's needed, and I enjoy the theme so having all the stuff is great.
Though it does drive me a little crazy to have multiples of some heroes that I really don't need :P
I'm pretty excited for the new gameplay additions in Multiverse - Equipment Decks look great and I think the campaigns could be really good for such a short game.
I wouldn't mind all the expansions because of how modular this game is, but the extreme amounts of FOMO and kickstarter exclusives makes me afraid to even try the base game(s). I guess it would be FOFOMO? At least it looks like an easier setup and teardown than Legendary.
Its pretty hard not to look at a game that releases with 30 expansions as exploitative
the villain runs out of cards yet we lose? F that
it means they finished off their scheme. You are on a timer to beat them, like most marvel movies.
Love this game so much, a bit of a guilty pleasure but it's so modular I can set it up to be light as a feather and easy breezy to play with kids and tune it up to be a stressful challenge. Really is a bit of a sandbox product line. Gets a bad rap because of cmons fomo business practices and, like, totally fair.
We almost got on the FOMO for this game. Then we spent WAY TOO MUCH for Thor. We still get stuff (Galactus, anybody?) but we're selective. My kids love it.
"You Marvel fans really like expansions, don't you..."
Yes...yes, we do. Although Champions here feels a little like a cheap shot since it's an LCG literally designed to continuously "live" through expansions...but ironically I've always preferred expanding games I own rather than adding a new game to my collection.
I looked up champions assuming ti had a ton more than the others, and i was wrong. Which is why i put this in.
@@3MBG It's still relatively new...especially considering COVID delays. Check again in 5-10 years, haha.