Marvel United: Enter the Spider-Verse Review

Could any Marvel game truly ever be complete without the addition of Spider-Man? In the Enter the Spider-Verse expansion, not one but three Spider-Heroes weave their way into gameplay.

Continue reading our Marvel United: Enter the Spider-Verse review to see whether this expansion is a web-swing and a miss.

Contents

Marvel United: Enter the Spider-Verse Overview
Heroes
Villain —Green Goblin
Locations
Secret Identity Challenge
Marvel United: Enter the Spider-Verse Review
Final Thoughts

Marvel United: Enter the Spider-Verse Overview

Before you learn what’s new in Enter the Spider-Verse, it’s important to know it’s an expansion for the MarvelUnited game. If you’ve never played Marvel United, head over to our review to learn more about it.

The 4 minis in Enter the Spider-Verse: 1 Villain (Green Goblin) and 3 Heroes (Ghost-Spider, Miles Morales, and Spider-Man).

If you were disappointed not to see any version of Spider-Man in the original MarvelUnited, then this expansion will please you.

There are 3 new Heroes to play, 1 Villain, 6 Spider-themed Locations, and a Secret Identity Challenge mode in Enter the Spider-Verse.

All this new content can be played together in an epic Spider-Man adventure or added to your other MarvelUnited games.

Heroes

The 3 included Heroes — Spider-Man, Ghost-Spider, and Miles Morales — have their own deck of Hero cards that reflect their strengths and abilities.

Spider-Man

Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man plays as you might expect: he has more Heroic actions than a typical Hero, yet his deck still feels well-rounded and balanced.

Not surprisingly, he has incredible movement and can really help slower Heroes pick up the pace.

Spider-Man’s deck of Hero cards.

Ghost-Spider

Ghost-Spider is another solid addition to this expansion. Like Spider-Man, her card actions feel well-balanced, and she has some great special abilities that allow you to mess with the game state.

Ghost-Spider’s Hero card deck.

The one downside to Ghost-Spider is that a fair number of her cards only feature a single action icon, so she doesn’t always make the best teammate.

Miles Morales

Miles Morales is yet another well-rounded Hero. Of the 3 Spider-Heroes, he is the one whose focus is on Attacks and preventing damage.

Miles Morales’ deck of Hero cards.

Unfortunately, like Ghost-Spider, Miles Morales has more cards with a single action icon than I would like.

Villain —Green Goblin

In Marvel United: Enter the Spider-Verse, you’ll also get 1 Villain: Green Goblin. Unlike the Villains included in the base game, Green Goblin has special setup rules and an unusual way of enacting his plan.

Green Goblin’s Villain Dashboard, Threat cards, and Master Plan deck.

Most games of MarvelUnited are set up with a Threat card at each Location, covering its “End of Turn” effect. With Green Goblin, this doesn’t happen; Threat cards are off to the side in a facedown pile.

A Threat card is added to a Location whenever Green Goblin activates his “BAM!” effect — which is found on every one of his Master Plan cards. Threat cards are also added when there’s no room for Civilian or Thug tokens at a Location.

Moreover, once the Heroes clear a Threat card, it is shuffled back into its facedown pile.

This might not seem too difficult if it weren’t for the fact that players lose the game when all 6 Locations have a Threat card.

Furthermore, one of Green Goblin’s tactics is to use Civilian tokens as a protective shield. He’ll kidnap them from his Location and store them on his Villain Dashboard.

As long as Civilians are present there, Green Goblin can’t suffer any damage.

There are Civilians at Green Goblin’s Location, so he will kidnap 1 and add it to his Villain Dashboard. Until these are removed, the Heroes can’t attack him.

If all of that doesn’t seem like a challenge, he also has 2 “Goblin Formula” Master Plan cards that each have an ongoing effect that give him 1 extra health and allow him to deal 1 additional damage.

Locations

As you may have guessed, the 6 new Locations center around real and fictional areas of New York that are significant to the Spider-Heroes.

The 6 Locations included in Marvel United: Enter the Spider-Verse.

Secret Identity Challenge

The addition of a Secret Identity challenge is perfectly fitting for Enter the Spider-Verse. This challenge introduces 3 Journalist tokens that begin at the Villain’s Location and each of the 2 Locations adjacent to the Heroes.

When a Hero performs an action other than Move where there is a Journalist, their efforts have been exposed to the world. As a result, they get 1 Exposure token for that turn.

In the Journalist’s Location, Spider-Man attacks 2 Thugs. Even though he used an Attack twice, he only gets a maximum of 1 Exposure token per turn.

Thankfully, you can move the Journalists to other Locations using a Heroic action, but there is no way of removing these busybodies from the game.

If a Hero ever has 3 Exposure tokens, the Journalist has revealed their secret identity to the public and, consequently, they take 1 damage and must play their card facedown on their next turn.

Marvel United: Enter the Spider-Verse Review

Growing up, I watched all the Spider-Man cartoons, so Peter Parker very quickly became one of my favorite superheroes — and continues to be.

As such, I’m usually game for anything Spider-Man, but sometimes I can get my hopes up too much.

Happily, the Marvel United: Enter the Spider-Verse expansion did not disappoint.

Heroes

I got such a kick out of playing each of the Spider-Heroes, and, especially using Spider-Man, the sense of swinging around the various Locations really came through.

As I mentioned earlier, all 3 Heroes’ decks feel well-rounded, and all the actions were mostly balanced, so I never felt like any of the Spider-Heroes were lacking in their ability to accomplish whatever needed to be done.

Did that mean I always won? Of course not, but the experience was still fun and exciting anyway.

Villain

Speaking of losing, playing against Green Goblin is HARD. I’ve played over 50 games of MarvelUnited with various Hero and Villain combinations, and Green Goblin is the only Villain I have yet to beat.

This became somewhat of a goal for me as I played a couple of solo games in a row trying to defeat him, only to have to pack up the game to protect my bruised ego.

I could see some people not enjoying this level of difficulty, especially in comparison to many other Marvel United Villains.

For me, as darn annoying as Green Goblin is, I don’t mind losing to him. I feel like he outsmarts me every time, and that’s very fitting for the clever and crafty pest that Green Goblin is.

New York Locations

It’s nice to see both New York and Spider-based Locations added to the game, even if their effects aren’t particularly innovative.

I also wish they were a little more tailored to the Spider-Verse theme, like the Locations in Marvel United: Rise of the Black Panther are.

Secret Identity Challenge

While I appreciate the designers’ efforts to add thematic challenges to each expansion, much like in Rise of the Black Panther, the Secret Identity Challenge didn’t do much for me.

In theory, it sounds interesting; try to avoid journalists who might expose your identity while you attempt to accomplish Missions. It is very Spider-Man, after all.

In practice, the challenge mostly gets in your way and adds yet another obstacle to an already difficult game (particularly if you’re up against Green Goblin!).

I could take or leave the Secret Identity challenge since it serves as more of an unwelcome hindrance than an exciting addition.

Final Thoughts

If you enjoy Spider-Man and the Spider-Verse, Marvel United: Enter the Spider-Verse is a great expansion to add to your collection.

Ghost-Spider, Miles Morales, and Spider-Man are 3 well-rounded Heroes, Green Goblin is a beast (in the best way), and who doesn’t want more Locations to add variety to each game?

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