Marvel Snap is awesome. Here’s my wish list of additional features.
Marvel Snap burst onto the scene earlier this year and I have been playing a TON of it. Aside from my morning Wordle and an occasional Pokémon hunt in Pokémon Scarlet, Snap is pretty much the only game I’m currently playing; though I’m pretty eager to get my hands on Marvel’s Midnight Suns. Marvel XCOM? Yes please! But I digress.
What sets Snap apart from other deckbuilding games is accessibility. Decks are made up of just 12 cards and you can complete a match in under five minutes without sacrificing any of the strategic gameplay that makes deckbuilding so much fun. That is crazy impressive for a free-to-play game. In the spirit of full transparency, I should mention that I have made a couple of in-game purchases. At the time of this writing I have spent a grand total of $13 on Snap and will probably continue to purchase the Season Passes for ten bucks a pop. You can absolutely be competitive in Snap without spending money; I just think the price of the Season Pass is well worth the goodies it offers.
Snap is pretty generous with free in-game gifts. While I was writing this, they announced that every player will receive 1,000 credits and a Mystery Variant. Early next year they plan to gift players a Game of the Year Card Back and Title. Credits are used to upgrade the visual appearance of your cards which also raises your Collection Level, unlocking new cards to use in your decks. Variants give you the option to play with alternative art versions of your cards. They even have Peach Momoko Variants. If you’ve ever interacted with me about comics you probably know how much I love Peach’s watercolor art. Similarly, Card Backs give even more options when personalizing your decks. Titles are bylines under each player’s name. There are many clever and humorous choices including “Mom Said This Is My Last Game” and “Can Lift Mjolnir.”
Obviously I’m pretty excited to see where Snap goes from here. I mean, this is the first blog post I’ve written in years. Here’s my personal wish list of features I’d love to see implemented.
Probably my most wished-for change would be a safety net that prevents players from falling below a newly-achieved rank. Gaining ranks is incredibly satisfying. Playing against opponents who have access to more cards than I do, and losing ranks, is not. Feels bad, man. Like, really bad. Losing is essential to improving, but dropping ranks suuuuuuuucks.
Snap allows for some pretty humorous interactions between players. Using the Pointing Spider-Man emoticon, when my opponent plays the same card I do, never fails to amuse me. Being cognitively impaired, I’d love an update to the interaction menu, with the emoticons listed vertically to the left of the text options rather than scrolling through them horizontally. This would allow for quicker responses and fewer instances of fat-fingering the wrong emoticon
I’d also like a text option to let my opponent know when I think they’ve made an exceptional play. The Ms. Marvel thumbs up emoticon is great, but sometimes it’s hard to tell in what context it is being used.
The Marvel Snap Player Support page is full of useful information and frequently asked questions. But unless I missed it, a thorough breakdown of how Season Pass experience (XP) works would be awesome. In the meantime, here’s an immensely helpful article at Out of Cards.
Titles are fun. They make me laugh. You know what else makes me laugh? Player names. There are some really creative members of the Snap community with genuinely funny names. I would love an option in the interaction menu to let my opponent know “I love your name!”
So there you go. My short, but sweet, Marvel Snap wish list. As I mentioned above, this is the first blog post I’ve written since before my medical trauma and resulting cognitive delays. It took me a REALLY. LONG. TIME. TO WRITE. What used to be second nature is now a time-consuming struggle. But being passionate enough about something to make the effort feels pretty good.
It’s unlikely anyone at Second Dinner will read my wish list, but you never know. Miracles do happen, like the time Deadpool himself responded to one of my tweets. *swoon*
The bloodless ghost of traditional network television. https://t.co/WY1kmLirKO
— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) April 15, 2015
