Splendor Marvel

Pros - Easy to learn and teach. - Fast to setup and play (less than 30 minutes). - Small table space is enough to play. - Simple and smooth to play but still requires strategy on what tokens and cards to collect. Can definitely be played after a long day at work. The few game components and the fast gameplay definitely is a plus. - Addictive. You would always want try try it again after a game. It's like poker, there is not much game variation, but it is exciting to see how it unfolds. It creates an addicting feeling that you want the next drawn card to be something that you need or want. - The game is replayable. As of 2024-05-08, I have already played it for 190 times! Although most of that is the digital version of the base Splendor (not Marvel) through Board Game Arena. What makes it replayable is the competition and tension among players and the addicting feeling of wanting the next drawn card to be something that you need or want. The strategy in the game will not change and the actions you are doing is repetitive which is collect tokens to collect cards to collect more cards, however, it is the race and competition on the available tokens and cards that will make you adapt and decide on what to do for every turn and the constant exciting feeling of seeing the next drawn cards. - The race! This game is a race, just like Century: Spice Road. You have to be first in getting the cards with the wanted color, the wanted tokens, the scoring cards, and of course be the first to reach the needed points to end the game. All of this creates a nice tension and results to tactical moves. - You can play the base game Splendor with this Splendor: Marvel. - The mechanic they added here that you need to have all different colors and 1 from the level of the highest valued cards makes this game more interesting than the original base Splendor. In analogy, this is like the game Agricola where you have to diversify and not just concentrate on 1 aspect, which is something that I want in games. Neutral - It is multiplayer solitaire... for half of the time only! The other half of the time could be used to make the life of your opponents harder. - This could be a cutthroat game. You're not playing Splendor right if you are not cursing at your opponent for hoarding and keeping the tokens or cards that you need. - A player can be locked out of moves and forced to do inefficient moves, which doesn't feel nice. If you drafted what others need, their life will be so much harder, and will result to them needing more turns, and thus benefiting you further if you can end the game faster. THIS IS IMPORTANT. If you played it this way, your soft-hearted opponents may not want to play Splendor anymore. - Repetitive gameplay. It is replayable, but the actions you are doing will be repetitive. This game shines in its simplicity. But if you are looking for more variations, Point City and Century: Spice Road might be better. - Similar to the other game: Century: Spice Road. - Both requires you to gain enough resources (symbols in Splendor, cubes in Century) to gain point cards - Both requires you to strategize on gaining those resources in the most efficient way. - But Century is a better game overall because what you are doing varies for every turn and for every game as it is influenced by the cards you collected which means there are more strategies in Century and there is more depth, unlike Splendor where it's always either collect resources or buy cards. - Don't get me wrong though with replayability because as of 2024-05-08, I have only played Century: Spice Road 4 times but Splendor 190 times as Splendor flows more smoothly and is faster. - Similar to the other game: Point City. - Each turn in Point City is more interesting than Splendor as you take adjacent resources / buildings and target to score the civic tokens. - In Point City, you just have to take the most efficient move for every turn until the end of the game. You also know exactly when the game will end. There's not much tension there. You can draft what others need but it may not be optimal for you and may actually not have any effect if the newly drawn cards offer something better. - Less cutthroat. In Point City, players always have different options. - Point City is more varied from game to game due to the varying civic tokens and thus varying engines you could build from game to game. In Splendor, the only difference from game to game is the color you are collecting. Don't get me wrong though with replayability because as of 2024-05-08, I have only played Point City 10 times but Splendor 190 times as Splendor flows more smoothly and is faster. Cons - The box is so big and heavy (heavy because of the heavy tokens) that this game pretends like it is as epic game like War of the Ring when the gameplay is just like Point Salad / Point City. You could fit everything in 1/4 of the box. The game is not portable and is hard to carry around. They could have easily designed this to be in a Tiny Epic game box. --- Now, here are is my initial beginner comment, which I have already proved to be wrong! - The game is multiplayer solitaire. While there is a common pool of cards and tokens to select from for all players, however, overall it just feels like all of you are just doing your own separate thing most of the time without talking. Not fully a negative because there is still some interaction like in my last game, I won because I was watching what my opponent has. I looked at my opponent's available tokens and cards and based my decision there. I won and after the game, she told me that I made her life very hard during the game, well, I just made Splendor a cutthroat game. - WRONG!

Fun game. High quality pieces

It’s perfect game for 2 people and upto 4 people. This is the best 2 people game I have found and I and my husband love to play it. Every time we play it requires us to think differently, new strategies. It’s never the same, and is quick to set up and takes around 30 mins to finish the game. The Avengers theme goes perfectly it as it’s about assembling gems.

Out of all of the board games that could get a licensed Marvel version, this one was pretty far down on the list of ones I would think of. I'm going to be reviewing it mostly from the perspective of someone who is very familiar with the original game. The original game is not exactly known for it's theme. Most people would be hard-pressed to even tell you what it was about. I'm pretty sure it's about being a jeweler building up your business by spending gems to acquire mines, artisans, storefronts, having nobles visit and earning enough prestige points to win the game. This new version is about collecting infinity stones, traveling to iconic locations, and building a team to take down Thanos. This Marvel version replaces ALL cards with different Marvel characters. While the original game had repeats of every card, this version has a unique character on each one. While you will see just about every character good or bad represented in the MCU and then some, you will not find some characters like X-Men, Fantastic Four, Deadpool, etc...even if they were in the Infinity War comics. It's also worth noting there are a LOT of Spider-Man characters. The quality of the box, chips, tiles, and cards are all exactly that of the original Splendor. I would actually say the tray liner is better than the original. The gem chips are now infinity stones, the gold/joker chips are now Shield chips, the mines/artisans/storefront cards are now heroes/villains, and the noble tiles are now locations. The tiles are now double-sided and there are only 8 locations as opposed to the 10 nobles in original Splendor. The gameplay is mostly the same with a few new rule twists: -Some cards have Avengers logos on them. The first player to acquire three cards with logos gets the new Avengers tile which is worth 3 points. If any other player has more cards with the Avengers logo, then they steal the tile. This causes a new dynamic where points can swing pretty wildly. -Mostly because there were 5 gem types in the original game but 6 infinity stones, they added time stone icons to the third row of cards. When a player acquired their first tier 3 card, they take their time stone. There is one for each player. This basically just adds the requirement for the winner to need to have purchased at least one tier 3 card. -That brings me to the new winning condition. While still needing 15 points to win, In the spirit of the theme, you need at least one of each infinity stone card along with the time stone chip. It would be pretty easy to ignore the new rules and play a standard game of Splendor with this set if you desired to do so. I wouldn't say this version is better, but it's nice and if the theme draws more people into the world of Splendor, then I'm all for it.

The box itself was dinged upon arrival but it didn’t affect contents! So fun! Great bonding time with my 7 year old! Definitely helps both our critical thinking and math skills!

I like the differences in this one compared to the original game. It’s a little more dynamic and requires a little more to win. You have to have one of each five colors, you have to get 16 points, and you have to have one of the top tier cards, which means you get a green infinity stone, and that counts as part of your 10 chip limit. So you don’t wanna get this too early since it counts as part of your limit. So it’s much more strategic. Also, because everyone gets equal turns, the person who triggers the last round Is interesting. If you were the last player to start and you triggered the last round game immediately ends and no one has a chance to catch up. If you’re not the last player to start the last round others still have a chance to catch you. When the last round is triggered, and if the person triggered, it has the Avengers Assemble, if another player plays a card with more tags, then the Avengers Assemble be stolen from the player triggering the final round. And if the person losing that then falls below 16 points, it untriggers the last round! Play continues till all Conditions are met including 16 points. More exciting play. Love this game.

I played this at a friend’s house and got totally hooked. I’d never played the original Splendor, but this Marvel version is awesome. It’s easy to pick up, and once you get going, it’s hard to stop. I ended up buying it myself and now it’s basically a permanent fixture on our dining table. My roommates and I play random games all the time. It’s fast, fun, and very replayable :)

I purchased the Marvel version of Splendor and the regular version of Splendor a little while afterwards. My wife and I like both versions but prefer the Marvel one. I think having the cards assigned with character names gives it a different feel when you acquire cards versus the original version.