5-Minute Marvel

Today's review is of the 2018 release, 5-Minute Marvel.  For 2-5 players, it takes 5 minutes.

Overview
This game is quite similar to 5-Minute Dungeon.  It's a cooperative, real-time affair where each player plays cards from their hand with symbols matching those on 'monster' cards to overcome them and move on.  As you have a set hand size, once you play a card, you draw another to replenish your hand. You have to get through a set number of cards, and beat the final boss, before five minutes are up.  As the games are so similar, see my Dungeon post for pictures and more explanation.

Marvel differs from Dungeon in only this respect- here, each player has two decks of cards.
- One deck is formed from a common pool of cards, shuffled and distributed equally before the game begins
- One deck is specific to the hero you're playing (Spider-man has a deck of ~10 cards with his logo on the back, for example)
When you need to draw a card, you choose what deck to draw from.  The hero-specific cards are generally more powerful, but fewer in number, so use them wisely.

Review
I like this mildly better than its predecessor.  At its heart, it's the same game, but I like the common pool of cards (in Dungeon, each player get one predetermined deck based on the hero they choose) supplemented by smaller hero-specific cards.  Dungeon's one-deck approach can create a problem, since each hero's deck has a focus.  If players choose heroes with similar foci, they'll struggle mightily.  Marvel fixes that with a common deck.  The theme is cool, too.  If you have to pick one, pick this one.

Rating: A