I was addicted marvel snap since I got access to its beta in May 2022. The basic and fast-paced gameplay has kept the card game on a single match type and very few game-changing updates outside of the token shop. That feeling probably won’t last forever, though. If Second Dinner is to keep the Marvel game relevant after a strong launch period, it must continue to grow and spice it up in exciting new ways. The new Friendly Battle is a solid first step for that.
Marvel Snap’s the developers have teased a Friendly Battle mode that lets players create private games with friends for a long time. The mode finally arrived on January 31 and lived up to expectations. In fact, playing it whetted my appetite for the future of marvel snap as I consider how the game could expand and improve with more social systems and modes to keep players coming back for years to come.
Friendly Battle Mode Highlights
Marvel Snap’s The Friendly Battle mode uses the same formula based on six towers, location, and map capacity that Digital Trends praised so highly. What’s different is the length of the fights and who you can go up against. Typically, matchmaking is random, but Friendly Battle allows players to create and join matches through a generated match code. That means there’s finally an easy way to play marvel snap with your friends, showing off your deck or testing new strategies with them.
However, it’s not just one-off matches as usual. Instead, each player takes one of their decks into a round-based battle where they start with 10 life. Whoever loses each round will also lose health equal to the value of the cube. This continues until a player runs out of health, with higher cube value stakes from round five onwards, ensuring Friendly Battle retains the speed of the default game mode. The health-based setup is a nice variation of Marvel Snap’s basic formula.
This gives another goal for capture in a match outside of account progress. Meanwhile, the turn-based setup allows players to stretch their strategic muscles as they adapt to each new turn, finding the opposing deck’s weaknesses and trying to avoid their own. Also, even when I joined games using the codes posted by players on Marvel Snap’s Discord, there was a greater sense of community by finding out what decks other players were using and communicating more with my opponent through in-game messages and emotes.
Seeing the highlights of the Friendly Battle mode, it became clear what elements of the game the developers need to focus on and expand on in the future.
Create a precedent
Watching games like Magic: The Gathering and Foyerit is their communities that have allowed these card games to stand the test of time. marvel snap may be as good as those from a gameplay standpoint, but it needs interested gamers to continue supporting it for the long haul if it is to be more than the fad of mobile gaming. With players growing increasingly angry with its microtransactions and progression, it’s a critical time to renew interest.
Friendly Battle is a great first step for this. This new mode finally gives marvel snap players a more direct way to connect and potentially host tournaments that can keep the competitive scene alive. However, Second Dinner still needs to add more social features into the game. Second Dinner teased that it considered adding player guilds last year, and that being able to join a guild or at least friend the account from another player would encourage players to stick around and play and socialize more with their friends.
Being able to trade cards with other players is a feature I would love to see because of the weirdness Marvel Snap’s progress is. For something like this to work, however, guilds or an account friend system are necessary prerequisite additions. The need for a dedicated social community of gamers also means that developers need to add more new modes so that veterans have a reason to stick around and new players have new reasons to join.
The Friendly Battle update ticks both of these boxes by making the social element of marvel snap stronger and adding a set of “game modes” which should include more than friendly battle. Luckily for Second Dinner, the core gameplay of marvel snap is so entertaining that it should sustain players’ enjoyment as they take the time to figure things out.
Yet any live service requires noticeable and consistent updates to keep players’ attention; Second Dinner should keep that in mind as it takes place on the game’s first anniversary for beta players. Like the honeymoon period with marvel snap wears off, the game needs to invest in keeping its community strong and retaining players. Increasing social systems in the game and adding new modes as fun and social as Friendly Battle will be key to this.
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