Review - Marvel Battle Dice

The new Marvel Battle Dice game from Playmates Toys was designed to be
an easy to understand game that basically anyone can pick up and play.
I have to admit that I'm not much of a game player these days, so this
is something that I would not normally pick up and play, but I figured that since
Spider-man is involved I'd give it a shot.

The play is simple: each player roles a six-sided die with a Marvel
character inside. Each die and superhero have their own unique powers
and abilities, so rolling against an opponent and winning isn't left
completely to chance. However, the person who loses the dice role
chooses the category that the figures will fight over. Over all game
playtime is about 15 to 20 minutes once you have learned all of the
directions.

The Starter Pack comes with everything you need to play, two arena
cards to show where to place the figures and dice during a battle, a
carrying case and an instruction booklet that includes a character
breakdown of each army, six dice and six action figures: Captain
America, Spider-Man, Doc Ock, Wolverine and two mystery figures, one
from each of the following armies:
· X-Men
· X-Men Villains
· Fantastic Four and Avengers
· Fantastic Four and Avengers Villains
· Spider-Man and Marvel Knights
· Spider-Man and Marvel Knights Villains

Each figure has six different attributes including speed, strength,
durability, intelligence, energy projection and fighting skills, plus
symbols and numbers signifying the strength of their power.

You play by loading your dice with the action figures, then rolling
simultaneously with your opponents. The player with the lowest number
selects the attribute to be used and the battle begins. Each battle can
involve one, two or many characters in a player's army and victory
depends on each character's strengths versus those of the opposing
forces, meaning figures must be strategically selected before each
battle if you lose you must surrender your figure to the opponent's
army. The first player to collect all of the opponents' figures wins the
war and the game. If you are looking for something a little more complex
you can check out the game extensions included in the instructions to
turn it up a notch if you get bored quickly.

Overall a quick fun game for people like me but it also can be
built up with the booster packs to make it much more enjoyable for the
hardcore gamer. Later on this year Playmates will be releasing a DC
Comics version of this game, I'll pick that one up just for Batman
figures alone.

You can pick the Starter Pack for $9.99 along with Booster Packs for
$5.99 at your local Target store, they will also be available elsewhere
but so far Target is the only place I have seen them.

Four series of booster packs will be launched throughout the year. The
first booster series will have 60 randomly chosen figures with varying
degrees of rarity from each of the six different armies and the
subsequent series will consist of seven new figures for each of the six
armies, bringing the count to more than a 190 characters. A chart is
included to allow players to identify the rarity of each figure. Each
booster pack also includes one more die to add to your collection.

Visit our photo gallery to see more of the Marvel Battle Dice game