Make no mistake: surprise snapshot is one of the best games of 2022. I know, as always, the awards discussion is mostly about big console games – but seriously, I’ve definitely played this free-to-play card battle game by now, not the one that pretty much everything that came out last year wasn’t called Elden Ring. Marvel Snap is an almost perfect experience…unless it’s trying to take your money.
Marvel Snap is one of those rare games that I feel compelled to show off. Over the holidays, I poke it under the noses of friends and family who usually only play a few games a year. “It’s a great time killer”, I’d be excited. “It’s the perfect toilet game”. this is. A bathroom break has never been more exhilarating.
Part of it is just a brilliant combination of stuff. Synergy, you know? The MCU may feel like it’s stagnating a bit in the public consciousness (over the holidays, I’ve heard variations of the “I’m done after Endgame” sentiment about a half-dozen times), but Marvel’s characters are now baked into the public consciousness. In a way they didn’t before. This makes Cosmos more fertile ground for a great collectible card game than some of its competitors like Magic or WarCraft, which, let’s face it, are for nerds like us.
So, the first point is in Snap’s favor: The mainstream appeal here is probably matched only by the Pokemon trading card game, which for some reason continues to launch its digital version.
The second thing about Marvel Snap’s unexpectedly short-term plan for world domination is that it’s a really good card game. This is perhaps unsurprising, since the studio behind the game is all ex-Blizzard employees from Hearthstone, an excellent card game that just lacks the mainstream character that drives it. Hearthstone walks so Marvel Snap can run. Marvel IP is the gamma particle that turns an equally great design into something truly huge.
It probably is.But man, an element of Marvel Snap terrible. Did you see how much they charge? !
At the time this article and its main inspiration were published, there was a Marvel Snap bundle available for £90/$100.titled professional suit, which gives players absolute points and boosters for leveling up cards, plus a 250 “collection level” boost that unlocks new cards and card variants. It’s a lot of money and it’s stupid and disgusting.
However, this was just one of the more recent bundles that was more of the straw that broke the camel’s back and inspired me to write rather than the first red flag of alarm. The game’s earliest bundles were a few bucks each, but prices quickly skyrocketed.
With its three currencies, you can exchange real-world cash for all of them, which is the typical confusion of how much you actually spend.That sweet bundle and an incredible variant of a very popular deck anchor card is “only” 6000 gold, and yes, that sounds great until you realize it’s about £70. For cards, avatars, and some other digital crap.
Honestly, it feels a bit like the people behind the game are pissing on our money. literally. So far, I’ve bought all of the Marvel Snap season passes, the monthly packages that allow you to unlock more stuff throughout the season than a true free-to-player – and that’s it. But seeing the prices of other bundles, and being priced on principle as cool card variants etc (I refuse to pay £70 for a digital trading card no matter what I have in my bank account)… this is testing me patience. It makes me not want to buy season tickets either. This in turn may keep me away from the game.
And — I can’t help but think of those friends, the most casual of gamers, firing up their original Marvel Snap accounts. The first thing they’ll see is a bright red notification dot pointing them to the store and the latest “deals.” How many people are putting off an otherwise fantastic game at these silly prices? a shame. Hope they take a step back, realize they can make more money with accessible pricing that boosts sales, and get rid of this nonsense.
