5 MINUTE MARVEL (2018)

PLAYERS	TIME	DESIGNER	PUBLISHER
2-5	30 mins	Connor Reid	Spin Master Ltd

In this Marvel branded version of 5 MINUTE DUNGEON, players race against the clock use their card symbols to beat the minions and fight the Super Villain Boss of the round.

There isn’t much in the way of tactics here. This is a fun party game and nothing else. But it is enjoyable as players just throw various cards into the middle of the table screaming what they do and don’t have.

Each character also has their own seperate deck which has better cards than the basic set, but is limited. This means that with everything else going on around you, there is also the tough decision of which deck you draw cards from.

The challenge of the game comes from the Bosses. 5 MINUTE MARVEL comes with 6 of them, and each one puts a higher number of cards before it without an increase in the time limit.

It also comes with a good selection of Heroes, from flagpole characters like Iron Man and Captain America through to lesser knowns like Medusa and Squirrel Girl.

Though I will say that, while they are all illustrated really nicely on the boards, it’s a shame that most of the cards themselves are quite basic and void of character art.

Another downside for me is that, while each villain fight takes up to the time limit of 5 minutes, the overall game of working through them, as well as the clean up (there is a big mess of a pile once you’ve taken down a villain that needs sorting out before the next battle), means a game can take between 30 and 45 minutes.

WIth the high energy of each round, it can be exhausting by the end, and a little bit of a downer to reach the last villain and just run out of cards with time still left on the clock.

Overall, 5 MINUTE MARVEL is an energetic blast, with cards flying and Super Villains getting what’s coming to them. It’s a nice game to put at the end of the night. Switch off the brain and fight!