What Are Kickstarter Quick Picks?
Kickstarter Quick Picks are short looks at projects currently on Kickstarter that are of interest to me, and by extension, many of our GeekDad readers. A Quick Pick is not an endorsement of the Kickstarter campaign, nor have I (as yet) received any product copies to review. If you like what you see here, go check out the campaign and decide for yourself if you’d like to back it, or wait until GeekDad has had a chance to go hands-on. As always, caveat emptor—let the buyer beware.
New to Kickstarter? Check out our crowdfunding primer.
What Is Marvel United?
A collaboration between Spin Master Games (5-Minute Marvel, Wakanda Forever, Sinister Six) and CMON (Zombicide, Blood Rage, Arcadia Quest), Marvel United is a cooperative game for 1-4 players taking on the roles of heroes banding together to defeat some of the worst villains in the Marvel Universe. At the time of this writing, there are about three weeks left in the campaign. There is only a single $60 pledge level, with optional expansions available to add to your pledge. The campaign reached its funding goal in just 31 minutes and is currently at roughly $700,000 with 9.6K backers. You can check out their campaign here.
The game is largely card-based. Gameplay starts with a villain turn, whose actions are determined based upon the cards for their “Master Plan.” Following the villain turn, each hero will take their turns, where they will draw and play cards, move around to different locations, fight thugs, and rescue civilians. Once the heroes have succeeded at two of the three missions for the game, the villain then becomes vulnerable to direct attack. Heroes win if they manage to defeat the villain, but lose if the villain is able to complete their Master Plan. You can download and read an early draft of the rulebook.
Why Check Out Marvel United?
There are a few good reasons to take a closer look at Marvel United. For one, the pedigree of the designers, Eric Lang and Andrea Chiarvesio. Eric Lang is widely considered to be one of the top board game designers, having worked on such games as Blood Rage, Rising Sun, and Chaos in the Old World. Meanwhile, fellow designer Andrea Chiarvesio helped design Kingsburg, Munchkin Dungeon, and the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 card game. And artist Édouard Guiton is no slouch either: he is a prolific French artist who helped to found game production company Rackham and has done artwork for several games at CMON and Ankara Games.
As this is a CMON game, you can expect a lot of minis and a lot of stretch goals, many of them Kickstarter-exclusive. There are several fan-favorite characters that have been unlocking, such as Ms. Marvel and Bullseye.
And literally as I was writing this, Marvel United knocked down another stretch goal, unlocking The Wasp, and setting up Jessica Jones as the next stretch goal reward.
Finally and most importantly: the gameplay. Marvel United looks to be a game that is easy to learn to play but will require a lot of coordination and communication between players. And the optional expansions don’t just bring in new characters, but also expand on the gameplay possibilities. For example, the Tales of Asgard expansion allows you to introduce a traitor mechanic into your game!
I’ll be providing periodic updates on the campaign here at GeekDad. In the meantime, if you’d like to know more about Marvel United, be sure to check out the campaign. It runs through Wednesday, March 4th.
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