Game Review: Marvel Dice Throne

There is nothing more exciting to me than seeing my favorite superheroes go toe-to-toe on the big screen. Trading punches and blows, swinging around and taking out bad guys, casting spells and wielding power beyond imagination these characters will give you an exciting experience to watch. But what if we could take those same characters and move them to your tabletop to control and take on your friends in a battle of the ages? Let’s look at a game that does just that!

Marvel Dice Throne is published by Roxley Games and The Op. It can be played with 2-6 players, lasts 30 mins and is appropriate for gamers age 8 and up.

Overview

Marvel Dice Throne is the basis of the game and it has been taken up a level by adding Marvel characters to the game in place of the original ones. For those unfamiliar with the game, Dice Throne involves card play and dice rolling to come up with variety of attacks to deal damage to your opponents. You win by having all of your opponents health down to zero.

Gameplay

In Marvel Dice Throne players will take the roll of a Marvel character and take all of the materials for it including a board, cards and dice, tokens and a health dial. Some characters have specific setup that you need to do as well.

The game is played through each player’s turn that goes through different phases of play. The basic play is that you will play cards and combat points to spend on cards that you can play before, during and after your dice rolls. The cards will allow you to make offensive moves, manipulate dice rolls or change the abilities on your player board by upgrading them to better options. The dice rolls can happen up to three times and you can use them to activate an ability on your board all the way up to your ultimate ability.

Gameplay moves through each player until someone is the last one standing with health. There are special powers called Status Effects you can use that can be positive or negative and given to players or used on your self.

Impressions

I love base Dice Throne. It is one of my favorite two player games, and although it plays up to six it really shines the best at two. When I heard we would be getting a Marvel-specific version, I was 100% in for the game. The art is outstanding first of all-I love that we get new, unique art of characters we love instead of recycled art from comics or shows. The style is similar to Dice Throne’s exciting characters so it flows great with the game already in place.

The gameplay was already familiar to me and it is a format I love to play. To expound on the game for those not as familiar, the game at its core plays best at 2 players but can also play vey well with 4 players playing a 2 vs 2 format. The game plays similar to a game like Dice Masters or Star Wars Destiny as you are combining play with cards and dice together. Here though the game feels more like Yahtzee or King of Tokyo in that the dice rolls in the right combinations matter the most. I have even heard this game called “battle Yahtzee” before and I think it works well for the description. Card play helps to mitigate or strengthen the dice rolling being done, rarely leaving you with a turn where you can’t do anything. If you love the head to combat format in games this has all of that built right in!

I love the way that Roxley and The OP came together here to give us this version of Roxley’s very successful Kickstarter of the game. Here they partnered with The Op to give us two head to head boxes featuring Dr Strange vs Black Widow and another one that gives us Captain Marvel vs Black Panther. There is also a four hero box with Thor, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man and Loki. Each set is interchangeable and able to be used together, so dream away to whatever ideal matchup you would like to see….Thor vs Loki? Dr. Strange vs Scarlet Witch? Make all of your favorite movie events come to live with a roll of the dice!

Overall this is a must-own and must-play for any Marvel fans out there. If games like Dice Masters, Yahtzee, King of Tokyo and other dice rolling games have caught your attention, this is a great game for you to check out. The combat, the upgrades and the luck of the draw and die face can make this game winnable for all players, but only the truly skilled will know how to best use your abilities, cards and dice to come out on top! Grab a character, find an opponent and settle in-Marvel Dice Throne is here to make your next combat at the table an epic adventure!

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