Forum Overview :: Reviews :: Marvel Trading Card Game for DS (quick review)

[quote name="Last"]It is hard to figure out how to even play the fucking thing since the instructions assume you already know how to play, but then once finally you figure it out the game gets fun in a hurry. The gameplay is only about 3/4 the fun, the other 1/4 is you really liking Marvel comics and characters, which I do. It helps if you also like the DS a lot (and I do). Instead of having mana cards ala Magic or a billion other TCG games, you just count the number of rounds you've played and that's the number of points you can spend per round. So, first round you have 1 point, second round 2 points, etc. This is fine in that you don't have to sit on your dick waiting to draw a land card, but it sucks in that the game snowballs and if you don't have a 1 or 2 point character in your hand when the game starts then by the fourth round your opponent will be fucking your lvl 3 character to death with his lvl 1-4 characters and (after that) you will die. Another downside is that the game screen is kind of cramped. But, you get used to it and soon you don't notice. The game also has a 'chain' system whereby you can queue up a stack of cards to play all at once. What makes it fun is that your opponent can insert his cards into your queue and there's no way to take a card out of the queue. For example, I am going to punch you with Spider-Man for 3 points, so I put him into the queue. You then put in a card that blocks 3 points of damage this turn. Realizing that you've cut Spider-Man's balls off, I put in another card that increases his attack power by 1. If you have nothing else to put in the queue, then all the cards are flushed out and applied in reverse order (First, +1 power to Spider-Man, then +3 defense to you, then the punch hits for 1 damage). I assume that this feature will become more interesting as I get more varied cards. It is pretty fun to set up an elaborate line of cards in your queue and then having your plan come together spectacularly. You get money for winning combat, and also there is a storyline if you care about that sort of thing. The money can be spent buying booster packs that you can add to your deck. There are also a few puzzles where you have to beat the CPU in one round given certain preset cards. They are puzzles because there is usually just one way that you can play that particular hand in that particular round to kill the enemy. These are fun but also brief, which is good. The other good qualities of the game are the skippable cutscenes, fast moving gameplay, and the Marvel characters. So far I've seen mostly Spider-Man cards but also some X-Men and Dr. Doom cards. I understand that there are plenty of other cards with FF, X-men and others waiting to be unlocked. The last thing that I really enjoy about that game is that there are plenty of cards that you can play or tap whenever you want. This forgives mistakes that you might make early in the round when you can't really predict that She-Hulk is going to need the +1/+1 power card later in the round. It also keeps you interested because you can affect gameplay even when it is technically your opponent's turn. Not that game speed is really a concern; you can set the game to "autoskip all bullshit waiting around for the computer" via the option menu. If anyone picks the game up, post any gameplay questions you have here and I'll be happy to answer them. I think there are still things that I don't really understand but it's getting better the more I play. Positive! P.S. If you are debating between this and SNK vs Capcom Card Game for DS, get this one. That SNK game sucks shit and is slower than balls with unskippable cutscenes and tons of sloooooooooooow moving shit that the developers put in just to waste your fucking time. The Marvel game is at least a little fun and you won't hate your hobby after having tried it.[/quote]