AsmodeeMarvel Splendor Board Game - Unite Heroes and Gems in an Epic Strategy Adventure, Family Game for Kids and Adults, Ages 10+, 2-4 Players, 30 Minute Playtime

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 :)

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!

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.

A great twist on the original Splendour game. Extra requirements and a different way to get points make it for an entertaining game.

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.

I guess it's like normal Splender, but with a Marvel theme. My kids, 9 and 11, like to play a few round every month. It's a good beginner strategy game where you can choose your path to 16 points. They mostly go for the colors or the heroes they like, so you might have to let them win every so often. I like that it's not super complicated and ready to learn on the first day.