Konami's Marvel Trading Card Game delivers the popular Upper Deck VS. card game to the PSP, and while the fundamentals of that game are brought to the PSP, the overall presentation could have been better. The biggest problems that the game has is its overall lack of a decent presentation, some load times that we’ve seen associated with plenty of other PSP titles and the game's confusing nature which may turn new fans away. If you can get by these problems and can wrap your head around the game's mechanics, than Konami's PSP implementation can be fun - but that's a big question mark that gamers will have to answers for themselves.
Marvel Trading Card Game is a pretty straightforward strategy where two players take turns drawing cards from decks featuring Marvel heroes or villains, with the end result being victory. Each player's deck is comprised of different types of cards - from hero cards that feature marvel characters like Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, etc.. to equipment cards, location cards and plot twists. Character cards are by far the most important in your deck, while other cards serve to add special affects to your attack or defense. Plot Twists, which can be chained together, can cause a myriad of affects to your battles, causing your opponent to suffer some terrible fate during his turn. There's also another layer where positioning character cards add a bonus to another cards defense.
The action builds up slowly during your turn and your opponents because each card you play has a resource requirement, so while you can play any card you draw from your deck, you're under the control of how many resource points you have at that time. As we mentioned earlier, there's a front and back row on the playing field, and placing cards in these areas has different meanings. Basically the front row is where the action is, so placing a character in the back offers a defensive bonus -- and depending on some other factors like the unit's ability to fly, it's type of attack (long range for example) and it's team affiliation to the other character cards on your side of the board -- means additional actions in a turn.
To say the game is complicated is an understatement, and it may be a little too difficult for new players to pick up, but once you get past the learning curve, the game starts to get interesting and fun. Once you do get a grip on how it all works, you can play through two rather lengthy single-player campaigns or you can play against real players online. This is probably the most compelling reason to pick up the game, because it allows you to take on anyone in the world in single battles or user made tournaments. Players can also purchase additional booster packs for the game, which is great for those aforementioned online battles.
Graphically, the game has it's issues, due mainly to the small size of the PSP screen and the game's graphics. While the card graphics are pretty nice, the board graphics aren't all that compelling and reading text can be difficult at times. Likewise, card affects during battle aren't all that flashy. Half of this game's shortcomings are due to it's poor presentation. The learning curve is the other.
While Marvel Trading is a good implementation of the Vs. System that will make fans of that franchise very happy, the game doesn't do a good job of facilitating new players by making things easy. On the other hand, perhaps it is enough to give core fans what they want, albeit with no frills. If you liked the Vs. card game, then you'll probably want to check out this PSP adaptation for its single-player and online play.
