Marvel Snap, released on October 18th, 2022, is a collectible card mobile game that was created by publisher Nuveese and developer Second Dinner Studios for iOS and Android. Upon a first showing of this game, I was very confused by the gameplay and at first thought, this is going to be another lackluster mobile game money grab. However after many, and I mean many, hours of playing I can easily say that I am hooked on this game.

I’ll address the elephant in the room, or should I say Hulk in the room first. Yes, there are microtransactions in this game just as you would assume for any mobile game. I am very happy to say that they are not necessary to play or win nor have I really felt that urge or pressure to spend money to enjoy my time with Marvel Snap. Microtransactions in this game come in the form of buying gold, ranging from $4.99 USD for 300 gold, to $99.99 USD for 8,000 gold. gold will let you buy credits, which are points you can use to upgrade your card’s appearance, but not power or skill. This is where the no, “pay to win” aspect comes in which is absolutely fantastic. During my play I never felt like I was missing out on all this game has to offer because I wasn’t swiping my card. I never felt as though I was losing my matches due to my opponent spent more money than me, microtransactions are so unnecessary in this game that I even forgot they were an option for a while. You can earn credits and even gold just by playing the game and completing daily challenges.

When you win you earn ranking points that you use to move up in the rankings. You can gamble your ranking points by “snapping” during the match if you feel like you are going to win, doubling your winning or losing points. You also earn “boosters” for cards every time you play which in combination with credits you get by completing challenges allows you to upgrade cards. Upgrading cards in my eyes is the weakest part of this game. Upgrading a card’s appearance seems underwhelming at times. You can upgrade your common card up to the infinity level with it going from 2D to 3D, getting a shiny border, and becoming animated along the way. When I got my first animated upgrade at the Epic level of the card I was hyped, only to be let down by a hard-to-see wave-type motion moving on the card. The infinity upgrade is more noticeable giving the card a rainbow-like holographic background that can be quite nice. During play, however, these visual upgrades are not that noticeable due to the fact the cards are so small on the zones. The real value in upgrading is to raise your collection level which will allow you to unlock more cards, credits, and card boosters. There is a battle pass for purchase as well for $9.99 USD that will allow you to get variants of cards you can upgrade as well as new cards and other rewards. The good news is cards in the battle pass are able to be unlocked randomly by increasing your collection level.

The loop of locking a new character’s card and seeing how to use it in your deck or build a new one around it, is what keeps bringing me back to this game. With well-balanced and fair gameplay and a decent amount of strategy for the card game enthusiasts to get lost in Marvel Snap. It is available to download now.