Trading card games have been finding their way onto video game consoles for a while now, and Marvel Trading Card Game is just the latest in a long line of attempts to cash in on successful licensed card games. Unfortunately, while some video game TCGs can attract new players or teach newcomers how to play the game, Marvel requires a fairly decent amount of knowledge about the rules before actually playing it, so if you aren’t already interested in the card genre, this game’s probably not for you.
Marvel TCG is a straight-up simulation of the TCG genre, as each player has a turn where they’ll play cards from their customized deck and use them to attack their opponent’s cards. Players can buy new cards and build their own deck, but no matter how much strategy is poured into building the best deck possible the end result is largely based on luck. Luck which the computer seems to have a disproportionate amount of, and it seems like the AI player tends to draw the cards it needs when it really needs it. This is where the frustration factor kicks in, and unless you really, really like the card genre you’ll tire of having to play the same matches over and over again because you couldn’t get that one card you needed at the right time.
You play Marvel with the DS held sideways, as a full card is shown on the left (top) screen and the playing field is shown on the right (bottom) screen. Graphically the game has some nice artwork, but for purposes of fitting the field on the screen it’s shown at a scale that’s really tiny and unclear. Cards are scanned in nicely when they’re blown up on the top screen, and the comic book style cutscenes are nice to look at, which is good because the only things to look at in this game are cards and comic book cutscenes. As I said before, Marvel TCG is certainly not newbie-friendly, and while the tutorial is helpful, it isn’t going to really teach you how to play the game if you don’t have any prior experience with the genre. As someone who found himself in that exact situation I can say I found the game very confusing at first, which wasn’t helped by the fact that the game interface itself is pretty confusing. It’ll take a while for you to learn everything you need to know about this game, and the majority of people just aren’t going to find the end result worth the hassle. You can choose to either play games in the campaign mode or “challenge mode” which is basically a free play match. On top of that you’ve got a multiplayer Wi-Fi mode (which is sadly just as impersonal as we’ve come to expect from DS online games) which again will appeal to fans of the Marvel properties who can play against each other through the DS instead of having to pay for actual cards, but isn’t exciting enough for those without the patience to play a TCG.
The developers seem to have gone a long way to try to include as many characters from the Marvel universe as possible, but you’re going to have to be familiar with a large number of obscure comic book characters to be able to fully appreciate it. Marvel TCG is something aimed at fans of the company, and it’s been directed at hardcore fans at the expense of alienating anyone who doesn’t have experience with the genre or characters it’s based on.
Bottom Line:
While TCGs can be fun, they don’t generally provide edge-of-your-seat excitement, and so the video game versions tend to be a bit dry. Marvel is no exception, and it’ll probably start to get boring before you can finish the game’s very long hero and villain campaigns. The developers did a decent job of emulating the experience of playing an actual card game, but even if you manage to find the patience within yourself to learn how to play you’ll be slapped in the face by the confusing controls (and this is a card game we're talking about here). This is something I’d recommend to anyone who must own all things Marvel, but not the casual gamer, since even if you can stick with it long enough to learn to play you won’t be rewarded with anything particularly stunning.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
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| 6.3 |
Posted: 2007-08-21 16:27:04 PST