Again in 2019, Tony reviewed a fantastic-looking cube chucker referred to as Cube Throne Season 2. Then in 2022, he reviewed Marvel Cube Throne. In case you missed these evaluations or the advertising and marketing blitz that seems in my social media feeds, Cube Throne is a dueling sport that may have you ever taking management of one in every of a handful of distinctive characters, hoping to take out your opponent. The gameplay was partaking, streamlined, and a ton of enjoyable.
At the moment, we’re going to be trying on the latest providing within the Cube Throne line. The oldsters at Roxley have returned to the Marvel Universe with X-MEN, though this model was printed by The OP video games. Whereas I used to be not a comic book guide reader rising up, for me, X-Males is what the Avengers are to my children: The best, most attention-grabbing group of tremendous heroes. I spent many hours watching X-Males cartoons (and am glad they made X-Males ’97 for me to have an opportunity to revisit with my children), enjoying with my X-Males motion figures, and spending my quarters enjoying the 4 participant X-Males arcade sport at Galaxy World (RIP) and in each arcade on trip. So to say I used to be excited to play as Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Psylocke, and Iceman, or Cyclops, Jean Grey, Gambit, and Rogue, can be an understatement. Did it reside as much as the hype? Learn on to search out out.
Gameplay Overview:
If you wish to know the ins and outs of how you can play Marvel Cube Throne, then begin by studying Tony’s evaluate of Cube Throne Season 2. The core gameplay in Marvel Cube Throne X-Males is equivalent to the unique Cube Throne and authentic Marvel Cube Throne. So equivalent that The OP merely added an X-Males cowl to the Marvel Cube throne rulebook and Black Panther remains to be the star of the rule guide. The one issues new listed below are the characters.
However for the uninitiated, the short of it’s that you just select your character, and in a 1vs1 battle you begin with 50 hit factors, and a couple of fight factors. Every flip you possibly can play some playing cards by spending fight factors, roll your six cube (with 2 re-rolls), and try to get some runs or units to activate your character’s powers to assault your opponent. Cut back your opponent to zero HP and also you win on this sport of combative Yahtzee.
There are multiplayer variants for King of the Hill with 3 or 4 gamers 1v1v1(v1) and 4 participant group 2v2. There are even 5 and 6 participant variants that seem to have an excessive amount of down time for my enjoyment.
Sport Expertise:
General, I agree with Tony’s ideas on the gameplay of Cube Throne in his Season 2 evaluate, so I’m not going to rehash what he mentioned there as nothing in regards to the gameplay has modified. However, I do wish to spend a second on three and 4 participant video games. Whereas I agree with Tony’s evaluation that the sport is finest at 1v1, I believe the King of the Hill sport play and Crew sport play are enjoyable video games, however they play in a different way due to the lower in complete variety of turns every participant makes. This makes it more durable for characters which have skills that must “cost up” or combo to achieve their full potential. So enjoying with fast hitting characters makes these variations extra enjoyable. Or home rule it so that you just begin with extra well being, however know this makes the sport take longer.
So on to the brand new characters:
In Field one we’ve:
Wolverine: Complexity degree 2. Not surprisingly, Wolverine is a straight-forward brawler who does extra injury the angrier he will get. When he’s attacked, he doesn’t attempt to defend towards injury, he solely assaults again, or will get crammed with Rage. Every Rage token can ship a further 3 injury in future assaults.
Storm: Complexity degree 4. Storm is extra difficult and she or he takes time to cost her assaults along with her lightning companion that makes the assaults extra highly effective. In 1v1 duels, she could be very highly effective. She additionally has a Wind Shear token which redirects 2 injury again at opponents and a Twister token that provides her the distinctive capacity to make use of opponents’ cube throughout her Offensive Roll Part.
Iceman: Complexity degree 4. Bobby Drake is a reasonably cool character, however he excels with extra turns within the 1v1 duel as he has a really highly effective capacity to Glide from one assault to a different assault in the identical Offensive Roll Part. The disadvantage is that it requires that you’ve got collected 5 Ice Shard tokens previous to incomes the Glide token, there simply doesn’t appear to be sufficient time to carry out this in something however a 1v1 Duel.
Psylocke: Complexity degree 3. At all times onerous to play video games of likelihood towards a psychic. Her skills give her a sixth cube, referred to as the Manifest cube, which can be utilized to switch one of many cube you rolled to activate one in every of your Offensive Talents or can be utilized as an assault modifier (half the die roll rounded up.) She can also use these tokens: Paralyze (Forestall a personality from gaining/inflicting standing impacts), Agility (keep away from half of incoming injury with a die roll 1-3), and Infiltration (pressure a re-roll of a defensive die)
In Field two, aka the {couples} field, we’ve:
Cyclops: Complexity degree 4. Love or hate Scott Summers, he’s the chief of the X-Males and once you play a management card you get bonuses. He additionally has highly effective standing results, Battle Plan lets him study opponent’s hand, put management playing cards into his hand, or inflict Focus Hearth, a damaging standing impact that completely (except eliminated by a card) causes extra injury when anybody assaults the participant with this token. Characteristically, Cyclops also can assist his teammates with a token that provides a Fight Level, permits extra re-rolls, or draw playing cards. That is why he is a superb selection in 2v2 group battles and King of the Hill.
Jean Gray: Complexity degree 6. Consistent with the X-Males theme, essentially the most difficult character, Jean Gray, is… difficult. She alternates each flip between being Jean Gray and Darkish Phoenix. Whereas she is Jean Gray, she positive aspects extra playing cards and is a superb teammate with Acuity tokens appearing just like Scott’s Battle Plan token. She will additionally stop injury. When she is Darkish Phoenix she doesn’t acquire additional playing cards, can’t stop injury, however she will pack a critical punch with additional injury being added. Flame Blast is a Darkish Phoenix particular token that’s an assault modifier. Phoenix Burn is a token that damages individuals throughout their maintenance part. She performs finest in 1v1 Duel, however does have skills that may assist her teammates. Sadly, with fewer particular person turns in 2v2 group battles, there are fewer alternatives to make use of her tokens.
Rogue: Complexity degree 3. Rogue sucks… opponent’s energy and well being. She has an all the time energetic passive energy that when she takes injury she absorbs it and positive aspects Ionic Vitality, a token that may be spent as an assault modifier. She will additionally steal the opponent’s energy by enjoying her Affect token which may restrict the opponent’s Offensive Rolls. Her Skyward token is one other energy that permits her to dam injury or assault the unique attacker again. Rogue doesn’t require time to construct her assaults, so she is a superb participant within the video games with fewer particular person turns, 2v2 and King of the Hill.
Gambit: Complexity degree 6. Rogue’s boyfriend has all the time been distinctive, whether or not within the comics or cartoons, throwing enjoying playing cards that explode or within the MCU with Channing Tatum’s superb efficiency. The deck of Aces of every go well with makes up a novel play model that requires charging to blow up the playing cards as an assault modifier, and a few have extra powers. Gambit also can heal or take away standing results together with his Dissolution tokens, or together with his Disruption tokens he can steal Fight Factors or trigger 2 injury in a participant’s maintenance part. Gambit has a passive capacity that accelerates the charging of the Aces and entails a bit of playing. Gambit, like the entire greater complexity characters, is healthier in 1v1 duels. I’ve cherished enjoying with him. Geaux Gambit.
Remaining Ideas:
I loved the unique Cube Throne Seasons with distinctive characters that have been authentic IP, I loved once they skinned the sport as Marvel (Black Panther, Loki, Thor, Scarlett Witch, Miles Morales, and Captain Marvel), so after all I cherished it when the selected my favourite Marvel IP, The X-Males.
If you have already got earlier incarnations of Cube Throne and don’t love X-Males, no want to purchase this. However if you’d like extra characters otherwise you need to soar into Cube Throne, I believe X-Males is the very best place to start out with a pleasant number of complexity with characters that keep on with their theme rather well. With Cube Throne Missions out there, a co-op sport that I’ve not but performed, having extra characters to make use of on this sport looks like a further cause to select up X-Males.
Now for the primary negatives of the evaluate. As of this writing, the one model out there in retail is the model I reviewed. It was launched by The OP video games and it makes use of an old-fashioned 10.25 in x 16 in x 2 in field that actually doesn’t match effectively on a shelf with fashionable video games. Though it does match with the 80’s-90’s look of the characters. Roxley has an upgraded model that they all the time name “battle chest” for pre-order and for almost the identical value, so I might personally pre-order that model as Roxley’s card inventory and foldable participant mats are higher than The OP playing cards and stable participant mats. The one damaging in regards to the gameplay is continuously, particularly in group or king of the hill, it may be extra advantageous to focus on straight injury versus utilizing the character’s particular powers, which is the place quite a lot of the enjoyable lies.
Remaining Rating: 4.5 Stars – As Cube Throne is all the time enjoyable and that is my favourite themed model and is appropriate with all earlier variations. That being mentioned, it’s the very same sport as earlier variations.
Hits:
• Glorious selection within the Characters—each in complexity and distinctive powers
• Provides extra characters for Cube Throne Missions
• X-Males theme is carried by way of every character
Misses:
• It’s precisely the identical sport because it has been since Cube Throne.
• The standard of The OP sport is inferior to the Roxley variations.
• Within the King of the Hill codecs and 1v1v1(v1) modes the discount in well being decreases the quantity of turns every participant takes and limits the extra advanced characters. (we home rule extra well being, which will increase the play time however is price it)
