Marvel leapt from comics to film, becoming the highest grossing film franchise of all time. It should come as no surprise that it has similarly jumped to the tabletop, garnering a massive amount of attention and money. These stories and characters translate well to board gaming. They allow for bombastic expression and tense drama.
The diversity on offer is strong. There are smaller and more accessible games, larger and more heady ones, and plenty of titles with attractive miniatures and gorgeous illustrations. This list includes 8 of the top Marvel games on the market. There is something here for nearly anyone. |
TL;DR: The Best Marvel Board Games
- Marvel United: Spider-Geddon | See it at Amazon
- Marvel: Crisis Protocol | See it at Amazon
- Marvel Champions | See it at Amazon
- Marvel: Remix | See it at Amazon
- Marvel Dice Throne | See it at Amazon
- Marvel Zombies - A Zombicide Game | See it at Amazon
- Marvel D.A.G.G.E.R. | See it at Amazon
- Unmatched: Marvel | See it at Amazon
The Best Marvel Board Games
Marvel United: Spider-Geddon
Marvel United is a rules-light and affordable adventure game that works superbly for nearly any age. Each player takes on the role of a unique superhero and work together to thwart a villain and their henchmen. Heroes are fueled by their deck of action cards, with players utilizing these cards to activate various locations around a city, beat down minions, and confront the main rival. While there are a series of Marvel United titles and many product options, the best starting point is the recently released Spider-Geddon set. This offers a large amount of content with an intriguing set of heroes and adversaries.
Marvel: Crisis Protocol
Ever wonder what it would be like to play Warhammer 40,000 but with Marvel heroes instead of Space Marines? Marvel: Crisis Protocol is the answer. This is a heavily detailed miniatures game that requires players to assemble figures. You can dive deep into this hobby, painting each character with painstaking precision, as well as constructing buildings and elements of terrain to fight over. The ruleset is splendid as it focuses primarily on small teams of mixed heroes. Each character is distinct with their own suite of abilities and powers. It’s a dynamic and exhilarating game with a wonderful flow. For a more thorough look, you can read our review of Marvel: Crisis Protocol.
Marvel Champions
This fully cooperative card game has players wielding unique decks for superheroes such as Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, and Black Panther. Each hero has a number of specific ability cards representing their various powers in combination with a central character card that can flip between their hero persona and their alter ego. Players manage their hands and decks in order to dish out damage against a central antagonist such as Rhino or Ultron. The villain, which is controlled entirely by a personal deck of cards, pursues their own agenda to threaten the innocent and achieve world domination. For those that are particularly smitten with this title, you can expand your collection with dozens of additional hero packs and larger expansion boxes.
Marvel: Remix
As the smallest game on this list, Marvel Remix is a tidy card game that can be tossed in a bag and taken nearly anywhere. This competitive design has players trying to assemble a hand of heroes, villains, locations, and items. Each card has various symbols that interact with other cards, as well as its own scoring condition. With deft play you can build a hand with several intersecting combinations that yield enormous point gains. Since you only make your way through a portion of the deck and there are a wide range of creative synergies, this little game beckons continual play and exploration.
Marvel Dice Throne
Dice Throne is the successful competitive dice battler that has been kicking since 2018. Just recently the series made the jump to Marvel, featuring heroes such as Black Widow, Captain America, and Thor. Each character has their own set of dice and abilities, and players take turns rolling their dice and assigning the results to their various unique powers. The goal is to deal enough damage to defeat your opponent in this quick and clever head-to-head bout. While play is streamlined and relatively uniform, the asymmetric playstyles for each hero encourage experimentation and add just enough texture to maintain long-term interest. There are some truly empowering moments when you manage to roll your special finishing maneuver and unleash maximum power.
Marvel Zombies - A Zombicide Game
Zombicide is the popular miniature heavy cooperative survival game where players fight the dead while seeking to accomplish various scenario-specific objectives. Marvel Zombies shifts the series to the popular Marvel storyline where an infection has spread and the heroes have begun to turn into powerful undead legions that crave flesh. Beyond the naturally slick adaptation of the Marvel property to this series, this game flips the traditional Zombicide script by having players take on the role of superhero zombies hunting humans. It features an entirely new hunger mechanism while pushing gameplay into several distinct directions that changeup the formula. This may very well be the best Zombicide yet, as its crammed full of wonderful ideas and shining Marvel miniatures.
Marvel D.A.G.G.E.R.
D.A.G.G.E.R. stands for “Defense Alliance for Global and Galactic Response”, and this is the organization that players are affiliated with this in globe-spanning adventure game. The scope here is larger than any other title on this list, as players travel around the world to put out fires and confront enemies. Villains terrorize cities and launch evil machinations for greater purpose, and heroes such as Daredevil, the Hulk, and Elektra must do everything within their power to shut it down. This is a lengthy game, but it’s one with scope that provides for a more epic adventure with many ups and downs. It delivers a fully realized vision of characters responding to threats and traveling to various regions in order to thwart evil. There is a real sense of being overwhelmed and having to triage threats in order to stay ahead of the curve and prevail.
Unmatched: Marvel
The Unmatched series is a collection of games that pit fighters against each other in head to head bouts. Think Street Fighter on a tabletop, except it trades out Ryu and Ken for heroes of all different time periods and properties. There are sets that feature mythic and literary figures such as King Arthur or Alice from Alice in Wonderland, and there are also sets that highlight pop culture characters such as Grant from Jurassic Park or even Ghost Rider. Yes, there is an entire suite of Marvel characters spread across several products, allowing players to wield icons such as Moon Knight, Spider-Man, and Black Widow. The game itself is smooth and simple as each character is fueled by a deck of asymmetric cards that represent their unique attacks and powers. In just 20 minutes, two participants can square off and beat the heck out of each other utilizing a simple and rewarding ruleset. Over multiple plays you can come to understand the nuance of these characters, just as if you were learning a moveset while playing an electronic fighting game. This is a fantastic, inexpensive product line that is entertaining and lean.
