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Ah Konami and their bevy of card battling games. You have the ever popular Yu-Gi-Oh! titles that have sold by the millions and see tons of additions to the series a couple times a year on various platforms. Heck they even found a way to take their beloved Metal Gear franchise and turn it into a card game. So when Marvel Trading Card Game arrived on my desk, I wasn’t surprised to see Konami’s name on the box. If you are into the vs. card collecting phenomenon, then by all means keep reading. If you were hoping of something cool like voiceovers, animations, or FMV movies of your favorite Marvel Universe characters, then stop now and move away from this review. For me, I just don’t understand this genre. Other than being a more cost efficient way to play cards than buying packs at 5 bucks or more I don’t understand why you would sit around your handheld playing these games. Prejudice aside, what Marvel Trading Card game offers is pretty enjoyable and a great way to familiarize yourself with obscure Marvel characters you may not have seen if you haven’t picked up a comic book in quite some time.
Using a battle formula similar to what Magic offers, MTCG pits you against another, whether it’s a friend or CPU in order to take your more powerful cards and drain the endurance points of your foe. The concept is weaker than say Magic or Pokemon, but does a good job of supplying entertainment for hours on end. While the game offers characters from every corner of the Marvel Universe, you only begin with a starter deck of heroes and villains, which are your common cards of the series. What this means is going through the rigorous story mode to gather up booster packs of possible greater characters to add to your gaggle of starter losers. The card visuals are great, if not compact and low res. No animations accompany them, so it is up to you to use your imagination as you stare at the still shot of your favorite hero or villain. You also hear no voice over from the cards or even in the story mode’s storyboards. For audio you get some decent but repetitive musical score that fits the bill, but frankly gets old rather quickly. Not being a fan of this genre, I found myself engaged in reliving some fond memories of heroes and villains I nearly forgot about. I can only imagine what a fan of this genre would think while playing, which is why I can only recommend this highly to those folks. I can see where it can become addicting, and if you find a friend with a copy and some really good cards, I can only foresee a good time for a fair amount of hours. Card and Marvel fans should not pass this up. ‘Nuff said.
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