With millions of downloads and an iron grip on a spot near the top of the App Store charts, “Marvel Snap” — a new Marvel-themed card game from a team led by “Hearthstone” boss Ben Brode — is clearly a hit. The polish of its initial offering, however, belies its bare-bones nature: For now, it’s not possible to play against friends. But soon, it will be.
In most popular card games, playing against friends is the core appeal. “Marvel Snap,” on the other hand, is entirely digital and uses a simple online ranked ladder system that matches you against random opponents of a similar skill level. It’s easy to slip into the game’s compulsively svelte six-turn rhythm, but it’s also only natural — while watching a friend on their phone, in their match, open with a tried and true Squirrel Girl gambit, producing multiple squirrel tokens to rack up points alongside their queen — to say, “I could do that better.”
“Marvel Snap” players will be able to prove it soon. A spokesperson for developer Second Dinner told The Washington Post that an update containing a friend-centric “battle mode” is set to release “this calendar year,” meaning sometime this month or next.
A development road map published shortly after the game’s release in October includes more details on the feature: Instead of competing in one-off games like in “Marvel Snap’s” current ranked mode, battle mode will see two players compete in multiple games until one player’s pool of 10 health is extinguished.
Snapping — in which players essentially bet that they’re going to win in order to force extra ranking points out of their opponent — will still play a role; players will just snap for health points instead of rank. So if one player snaps and wins a game, they’ll do four damage to their opponent. Their opponent will then carry six health points into the next game, and so on.
This twist on the mechanic may serve a dual purpose: If players could snap against their friends for ranking points over and over, they could artificially inflate their rank. Snapping for health removes the risk of fraudulent progression.
“We think Battle Mode is the best way to play against friends, or run community tournaments, because it provides a clear winner while still incorporating the snap mechanic,” wrote Second Dinner in the road map. “We can’t wait to see the community play in battle mode!”
