CMON’s Marvel United lets players assume the role of classic superheroes to battle famous villains and prevent their evil plans, with simple and fun mechanics. This cooperative game supports 1-5 players, who use their heroes and unique decks to move around six different locations, completing missions and defeating the villain.

Players draw and play cards to perform actions each turn, like moving, punching, or heroism. Teammates can borrow basic actions from the last hero card that was played. This invites some very careful teamwork, which makes Marvel United a bit of a puzzle game.

The missions involve punching 9 thugs, saving 9 civilians, or clearing Threat Cards, which are unique to each villain.

While gameplay moves quickly, it takes an unusual amount of time to set up. There are far too many tokens at any given time, so the tabletop can end up a little messy. Also, although the core rules are simple, the rulebook sometimes uses fussy, unclear language.

Once you quickly get the hang of the rules, winning can be a little easy sometimes. But there are additional challenges you can add, and some villains are definitely more challenging than others. You might seek out the variations that appeal to you.

Theme adaptation

Marvel United generally does a superb job of translating the IP into gameplay mechanics. There are nods to popular movies, but most references stem from the comics. The fundamental rules are strong enough to build on with some very unique villains, who each have their own win conditions. There are some very clever twists.

Sadly, some heroes simply have the same ability card three times over, which can be disappointing. Especially with so much potential, and the effort put into the figures.

It should be immediately evident that the miniatures alone are worth any asking price. Even if you don’t plan on painting them, they look very detailed, and far outshine the rest of the physical components.

Marvel United has been around for a while, and the volume of the expansions is truly impressive. However, many of them were stretch goals from the Kickstarter campaign, so they’ll be tougher to find than the retail bundles.

Either way, the sheer number of heroes and villains is overwhelming, so there are endless combinations. You can make amusing pairs, or even relive familiar stories and movies.

Final Thoughts

Marvel United has a very straightforward gameplay formula, and despite some of its minor flaws, it can be very addicting. It’s family-friendly, plays quickly and has terrific artwork. The various abilities and win conditions for each hero and villain smartly represent the IP. This is a simple, rewarding way to nerd out over comic book characters.

Score: 8/10