Marvel Snap | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Second Dinner |
Publisher(s) |
|
Engine | Unity [1] |
Platform(s) | Android, iOS, Windows |
Release |
|
Genre(s) | Digital collectible card game |
Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Marvel Snap is a digital collectible card game developed by Second Dinner and published by Nuverse for Android, iOS, and Windows. [2] The game features a collection of different characters from the Marvel Universe. [3] The game was released on October 18, 2022, after a period of beta testing. [4]
Access to the game in the United States was partially restricted on January 19, 2025, due to the implementation of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA) banning software owned or published by Bytedance, which owns the game's then publisher Nuverse. The restrictions were later removed, and the developers have since announced that they would work with US company Skystone Games to bring publishing duties in-house.
Players each have a deck of 12 cards. Each card depicts a Marvel character with cost, power level, and potentially a special ability. At the start of each round, players simultaneously put one card or more face down on one of three locations. Locations are randomly assigned for each match, and each location has a unique effect. [5] At the end of each round cards are revealed and special abilities of cards trigger. Whoever has the highest power at a given location wins that location. The goal of the game is to win two out of the three locations. The game usually lasts six rounds, each of them giving an increasing "energy" to play more powerful cards. [6] [7]
Players climb the game's ranked ladder by earning "cubes". A game begins with a single cube as its stakes, but a player may double the stakes at any time by "snapping", at which point their opponent has the option of retreating or acceding to the snap. [6] [7] Designer Kent-Erik Hagman, and chief development officer Ben Brode compared the mechanic to the doubling cube of the traditional boardgame Backgammon. [8] [9]
The actual gameplay of Marvel Snap is considered relatively simple compared to other collectible card games, and individual games typically last a few minutes. [6] [9] [10] However, the doubling stakes adds extra gameplay depth through betting and bluffing, while the random effect of locations forces on-the-fly adaptation to a player’s original strategy. [9]
At the time of the global release the game featured over 170 characters, with the number increasing weekly. [11] [12] [13]
In Marvel Snap, players can obtain variants of some of their favorite cards through the in-game shop or season rewards. Variants are alternate versions of a base card's artwork, and do not offer any gameplay advantages as they are purely cosmetic. As of January 2023, there are over one thousand different variants in the game. [14] Players can use an in-game currency to further upgrade a card’s cosmetics, which provides progression on a “collection level” reward track. [15] [16] Improving a collection level provides additional rewards, such as more cosmetics, in-game currency, and new base cards. [16] New base cards may also be gained each month, on a rotating basis. [15] Base cards are organized into pools, with the first two pool of cards acting as the initial collection for all players. After collecting the first two pools, pool 3, 4, and 5 cards become available, each with ascending rarity. [16]
Some of the more notable artists who have variants named after them include Rian Gonzales, Kim Jacinto, and Dan Hipp. [17]
The normal gameplay mode involves one-on-one matches where a player competes against a randomly selected human opponent. In this mode, the game employs pre-made decks that are restricted to the cards the player has unlocked. Currently, the Standard mode only offers a Ranked game mode. At the start of every month, the Ranked season concludes, resulting in a soft reset of a player's season rank. Every player loses a total of 30 ranks, rounded down to the nearest multiple of 10.
Battle Mode enables players to compete against friends by inviting them to private battles. Cubes in this mode do not contribute to your season rank; instead, they affect your health. Each player begins with 10 health, and winning a round inflicts damage on the opposing player that corresponds to the cube value. Starting from Round 5, cube values are automatically doubled. [18] This mode was released in January 2023 [19] [20]
Conquest is a game mode that incorporates the gameplay style of Battle Mode and introduces its own ranked system in the form of leagues. Each match, players can select which league they want to compete in, such as Proving Grounds, Silver, Gold, or Infinite. Proving Grounds is always open for play, while the other leagues require a corresponding ticket to enter. Players can obtain a ticket by defeating a series of consecutive opponents in the preceding league. This mode was released in June 2023. [21] [22]
In July 2024, a new limited time game mode named Deadpool's Diner was added. The game mode is a tiered competition mode with ladder-climb mechanics. There are 15 tiers, each requiring a certain number of Bubs, which are comparable to casino chips. After paying the entry fee, players can go all-in and win up to double the amount of chips they started with. The game mode also has a unique automatic Snap feature that doubles the stakes three times starting at the end of turn three. Players can also Snap once to increase the stakes at any point during the match—which brings the total number of possible Snaps to five. [23]
A new limited time mode named High Voltage was added in October 2024. In this game mode there was only three turns and each turn both players drew two cards and gained 2-5 max energy. [24]
The game follows a free-to-play-model featuring microtransactions for the purchase of in game currency, cosmetic skins and a battle pass. [7] The game's beta release included Nexus event with loot boxes to acquire certain cards or in-game cosmetics, allowing players to gamble for new cards and skins with in-game currency or real money, [25] which sparked controversy among the player base [26] and was called out as predatory by video game journalists. [27] [28] Nexus event and its loot boxes were ultimately removed from the game, [29] and in a later patch gold was refunded to anyone who bought loot boxes. [30] The current system allows players to buy a premium currency and exchange it for cosmetic skins, in-game currency, or various rotating bundles. [31]
Marvel Snap is the debut game from Second Dinner, a game development studio founded by former Hearthstone developers Hamilton Chu, Ben Brode, Yong Woo, Jomaro Kindred and Michael Schweitzer. [32] [33]
The developers stated they used a "grocery cart" approach when designing the game, taking partial inspiration from multiple games, including Clash Royale , Backgammon and Paul Peterson's Smash Up. [9] A key aspect of development was attempting to create a deep game without introducing complicated game mechanic; developers found that the doubling "Snap!" could provide significant opportunities to bluff and counter-bluff in the game. [9] The game originally had a significant plot, but developers were not able to find any compelling story and decided complete removal of story altogether was preferable to a poor story interrupting the game. [9]
The promotional trailer for the game features Samuel L. Jackson reprising his role as Nick Fury, returning to S.H.I.E.L.D. to discover that he was informally fired and replaced with a nerdy, teenage girl. [34] [35]
On January 19, 2025, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA) banned software that was deemed to be controlled by foreign adversaries. The publisher of Marvel Snap at the time was Nuverse, whose parent company ByteDance was explicitly restricted under PAFACA, [36] causing the game to be removed from American storefronts like Google Play and the App Store and preventing players from accessing the game. [37] The game was made available again for US players two days later, with Second Dinner saying that they were "working to bring more services in-house and partner with a new publisher". [38] The game later returned to the App Store [39] and Google Play in the US. [40] On January 28, Second Dinner announced that US-based Skystone Games would be their new publisher, with many publishing duties brought in-house. [41]
Thanks to the developers' focus on accessibility and fast-paced gameplay, Marvel Snap has been the focus of several tournaments. Second Dinner hosted a community event tournament in August 2023 called "Conquerors" with a Conquest Mode’s Infinite Run, hosted by Cozy and Dekkster featuring several well-known gamers such as Attrix, Alexander Coccia, DeraJN, and Bynx. [42] Bynx won the broadcast time and DeraJN won the fastest overall time in the 48 hours after the broadcast. Marvel Snap was the focus of several other tournaments, including those hosted by ER Esports and EGL. In August 2023, the streaming platform, Twitch, announced Twitch Rivals: MARVEL SNAP Duos Showdown, an invite-only tournament, featuring a $20,000 prize pool. [43]
Aggregator | Score |
---|---|
Metacritic | 85/100 (iOS) [44] |
Publication | Score |
---|---|
GameSpot | 9/10 [45] |
GamesRadar+ | [46] |
IGN | 8/10 [47] |
NME | [48] |
PCMag | [49] |
Shacknews | 9/10 [50] |
The Guardian | [51] |
TouchArcade | [52] |
According to the review aggregator website Metacritic, Marvel Snap has received "generally favorable reviews". [44]
In a review, GamesRadar+ noted the game is angled towards "a generation of players too distracted to keep track of an overly complicated metagame," while praising its approachability and replay value. [46]
The Guardian praised the game's approachable nature in combination with its complexity due to the large variety of locations and cards. The game's use of microtransactions within its monetization was also praised, as they were found to not be necessary for a positive experience within the game. [53]
By 2023, Fortune noted that Marvel Snap had become the top rated digital collectible card game, beating both Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game, and Magic: The Gathering Online. [54] By 2024, Marvel Snap had achieved 22 million downloads, and more than $200 million in revenue. [55]
Date | Award | Category | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
8 December 2022 | The Game Awards | Best Mobile Game | Won | [56] |
17 January 2023 | New York Game Awards | A-Train Award for Best Mobile Game | Won | [57] |
24 February 2023 | D.I.C.E. Awards | Mobile Game of the Year | Won | [58] |
Online Game of the Year | Nominated | |||
Outstanding Achievement in Game Design | Nominated | |||
22 March 2023 | Game Developers Choice Awards | Game of the Year | Honorable mention | [59] |
Best Debut | Honorable mention | |||
Best Design | Nominated | |||
30 March 2023 | British Academy Games Awards | Best Game | Nominated | [60] |
EE Game of the Year | Nominated |
Pokémon Stadium, known in Japan as Pokémon Stadium 2 is a 1999 strategy video game video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. The gameplay revolves around a 3D turn-based battling system using the 151 Pokémon from the Game Boy games Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow, with several in-game challenges for players to overcome. The game includes four "Cups", each of which is a series of three-on-three Pokémon battles against an ordered lineup of opponents. The "Gym Leader Castle" mode involves battles against several boss opponents who appeared in the Game Boy games. Pokémon Stadium also features mini-games and numerous features available through its compatibility with Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow. Using the Transfer Pak accessory that was bundled with the game, players are able to view, organize, store, trade, and battle using Pokémon uploaded from Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow.
SNK vs. Capcom, or alternately Capcom vs. SNK, is a series of crossover video games by either Capcom or SNK featuring characters that appear in games created by either company. Most of these are fighting games, and take on a similar format to Capcom's own Marvel vs. Capcom series, in which the players create teams of fighters and have them fight each other. Games in this series either contain SNK vs. Capcom or Capcom vs. SNK in their titles, with the first company named denoting the company behind the game's development.
Super Mario Strikers, known in Europe and Australia as Mario Smash Football, is a 2005 sports video game developed by Next Level Games and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. The game's developers had worked on NHL Hitz Pro before development of Strikers, which served as an influence for the fast-paced and physical nature of the game. This was also the last Mario game to be released on the GameCube in Japan and North America.
Sonic Rivals is a 2006 action-racing video game developed by Backbone Entertainment and Sega Studio USA, and published by Sega for the PlayStation Portable (PSP); it is a game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, and follows the heroes needing to stop Doctor Eggman Nega from turning everyone and the world into cards. The gameplay involves racing against other characters to get to the goal before them, as well as defeating the boss before the opponent does.
Marvel Trading Card Game is a video game for the Nintendo DS, Windows, and PlayStation Portable. It was developed by Vicious Cycle Software and 1st Playable Productions and published by Konami. The game is based on Upper Deck Entertainment's Marvel Comics-based collectible card game, and was released across all three platforms in several regions in 2007.
Marvel Super Hero Squad Online was a massively multiplayer free-to-play online game for younger audiences based on the Marvel Super Hero Squad, developed by American video game companies the Amazing Society and Gazillion Entertainment. The open beta version of the game was released on April 29, 2011. It was a freemium in-browser game that offered two types of microtransactions: To purchase in-game currency, or a monthly subscription that gave the player additional perks.
Hearthstone is a 2014 online digital collectible card video game produced by Blizzard Entertainment, released under the free-to-play model. Originally subtitled Heroes of Warcraft, Hearthstone builds upon the existing lore of the Warcraft series by using the same elements, characters, and relics. The game is available on the Windows, macOS, iOS and Android platforms, featuring cross-platform play. It has been a critical and commercial success, with Blizzard reporting more than 100 million Hearthstone players as of November 2018, and the game has become popular as an esport, with cash prize tournaments hosted by Blizzard and other organizers.
Video game monetization is a type of process that a video game publisher can use to generate revenue from a video game product. The methods of monetization may vary between games, especially when they come from different genres or platforms, but they all serve the same purpose to return money to the game developers, copyright owners, and other stakeholders. As the monetization methods continue to diversify, they also affect the game design in a way that sometimes leads to criticism.
Clash Royale is a real-time strategy video game developed and published by Supercell. The game combines elements from collectible card games, tower defense, and multiplayer online battle arena. The game was released globally on March 2, 2016. Clash Royale reached $1 billion in revenue in less than a year on the market. In three years, Clash Royale made $2.5 billion in revenue according to market intelligence company Sensor Tower. It is the first spinoff of Clash of Clans.
Gwent: The Witcher Card Game is a 2018 digital collectible card game by CD Projekt. It was released free-to-play first for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in 2018, and for iOS in 2019, Android in 2020, and macOS in 2021. Gwent is derived from the card game of the same name featured in Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher novels and playable in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt video game. A standalone single-player expansion, Gwent: Rogue Mage, released in 2022 to mixed reception.
Animation Throwdown: The Quest for Cards is a free-to-play digital collectible card game that combines content and characters from the American animated television shows by 20th Television Animation, including: Family Guy, Futurama, American Dad!, Bob's Burgers, King of the Hill, and Archer. The game is available for Android, iOS, Steam, Kartridge and on the web via Kongregate.
A gacha game is a game, typically a video game, that implements the gachapon machine style mechanics. Similar to loot boxes, Live Service gacha games entice players to spend in-game currency to receive a random in-game item. Some in-game currency generally can be gained through game play and staying up-to-date, and some by purchasing it from the game publisher using real-world funds.
Brawl Stars is a multiplayer online battle arena and third-person hero shooter video game developed and published by Finnish video game company Supercell. The game was released worldwide on 12 December 2018, on iOS and Android platforms. The game features a variety of game modes, each with a distinctive objective. Players are able to choose from a large selection of unlockable characters, called "Brawlers", whom each have different abilities and playstyles.
Legends of Runeterra (LoR) is a 2020 digital collectible card game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by the physical collectible card game Magic: The Gathering, the developers sought to create a game within the same genre that significantly lowered the barrier to entry. Since its release in April 2020, the game has been free-to-play, and is monetised through purchasable cosmetics. The game is available for Microsoft Windows and mobile operating systems iOS and Android.
Overwatch 2 is a 2023 first-person shooter video game produced by Blizzard Entertainment. As a sequel and replacement to the 2016 hero shooter Overwatch, the game included new gamemodes and a reduction in team size from six to five. The game is free-to-play on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S and features full cross-platform play. Overwatch 2 was announced in 2019 and was playable in early access from October 2022 until officially releasing in August 2023. The game was planned to feature more story-based cooperative modes, but these were scrapped in 2023 to focus on its player-versus-player (PvP) elements. Overwatch 2 received generally favorable reviews from critics.
Party Animals is a multiplayer physics-based brawler/party video game developed by Recreate Games and published by Source Technology. The game was released for Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on September 20, 2023. A PlayStation 5 port was released on January 23, 2025.
Pixel Gun 3D is a 2013 first-person shooter game developed by Lightmap and published by Cubic Games for iOS and Android. Players choose from a variety of single-player and multiplayer modes, with single-player revolving around fighting enemies and multiplayer putting several players up against each other in competitions. These competitions range from attempting to get the most kills, to being the last person standing in battle royale. A single-player campaign is available, which puts the player in the role of an unnamed protagonist investigating the sudden "square-ification" of the world and the outbreak of numerous monsters.
Bloons TD 6 is a 2018 tower defense game developed and published by Ninja Kiwi, where various monkeys pop "bloons". The sixth and latest entry in the Bloons Tower Defense series, it first released on June 13, 2018, for iOS and Android. It was later released on Microsoft Windows in December 2018, and macOS in March 2020 via Steam. It was later released in Epic Games Store on June 19, 2022. In February 2022, Bloons TD 6+ was released for Apple Arcade. On June 12, 2023, Bloons TD 6Netflix was released on iOS and Android for Netflix members only. On September 5, 2023, it was released on Xbox One and Xbox Series X, and on July 31, 2024 on PlayStation 4 and 5, And on January 24 2025, Bloons TD 6 is added to the Epic Games Store Mobile and it is free until February 20
Marvel Rivals is a 2024 third-person hero shooter video game developed and published by NetEase Games in collaboration with Marvel Games. The game was released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on December 6, 2024. The game is free-to-play with a current lineup of 37 characters from Marvel Comics, and features cross-play across all supported platforms.
Fortnite is a free-to-play video game platform developed by Epic Games. Fortnite originally was developed as the cooperative player-versus-environment survival game, Fortnite: Save the World, released in July 2017. The game's developed shifted significantly following the beta release of the Fortnite Battle Royale in September 2017, a battle royale game where 100 players compete to be the last player standing after dropping from an airborne Battle Bus onto an island featuring several points of interest (POIs), a wide spread of various weapons and gear, and a harmful storm front that periodically shrinks in size to draw players into smaller areas on the island. This new mode drew numerous players to the game. With Fortnite Battle Royale's success, Epic expanded the Fortnite platform for other games and user-created modes built atop the Unreal Engine and Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) system. By 2024, Fortnite supports the Epic-developed Fortnite Battle Royale, Fortnite: Save the World, Lego Fortnite, Fortnite Festival, and Rocket Racing, along with user-created games in Fortnite Creative and Fall Guys.