Funko Games has recently come out with a new game that combines Marvel heroes, b𒁃lind bag collectibles, and a strategy board game into a one-of-a-kind experience that I'm pretty sure is going to ruin𒆙 my life.
Called, Marvel BattleWorld: Mystery of the Thanostones, the new game adapts the classic Marvel storyline into a devilishly clever toy line. BattleWorld products contain a random assortment superheroes that serve as the game pieces for a dice-based strategy came. While the game itself is fairly simple — designed to be accessible for kids 6 and up — the evil geniuses at Funko have come up with a mechanic that going ♊to make this game fly off the shelves come Christmas time: you have to earn the heroes you just bought by playing the game.
Mystery Of The Thanostones
Let's break it down: Currently, there's only 1 type of BattleWorld product available (more types are coming soon, though🌸) which includes a Negative Zone Spider-Man and 5 random characters. When you open the box, 3 of those characters spill out and can be used, along with Spider-Man, to play the board game. The other 2 characters are trapped inside Thanostones.
As you play the game you and your teammates will discover and win different battles. Eventually, you'll come across a Thanostone Battle. If you win a Thanostone Battle you are allowed to rescue a new hero and immediately add them to the board. This is where the game hit its peak: if you have an opened Thanostone when you win a Thanostone Battle, you can open it up, re🐭vealing the new hero and add them to the game.
The Thanostones are little cardboard eggs with a figurine trapped inside. They're easy to pull apart or even smash on the table to reveal your prize, which can then help you win the game. It's truly a brilliant concept: You get the satisfaction of opening a blind box immediately when you unwrap the game because there are 3 secret characters inside, but THEN you get to do it again when you play the game, only this time you've earned the new character. Not only is the blind bag now a reward for playing the game, but it also has the immediate effect of helping you win the game by joining the team and battling in the rest of the challenges. The resulting is a really engaging experience of tabletop storytelling and incredibly satisfying bling bag openin꧂g that makes it feel earned.
Collectibles Worth Collecting
Walk into a Gamestop these days and you'll see thousands of blind bag products stuffed onto every shelf and spilling out of the clearance bin. It's an absurdly oversaturated market, but BattleWorld stands out from the crowdᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ because of its unique game mechanics and the quality of the figures.
In Series 1 there are 30 adorable mini-figures to collect in 3 different rarities: common, rare, and ultra-rare. The story of the game is that Thanos has kidnapped heroes from across the multiverse to fight on his patchwork BattleWorld (there's an for the game) so alongsi🔥de characters like Black Panther and Iron Man is a huge collection of zany multiverse characters like Croctor Strange, Captain Americat, and Throg (Thor, but a frog). The ultra-rares are crystal-like solid color chase variants called "Infinity" figures and ya, I want all of them.
Those tiny, the molding and paint lines on the figures is top-notch. Admittedly, a lot of the game components feel pretty cheap. There'🍃s a cardboard coin you need to flip after every round that's impossible to flip because it weighs nothing and there isn't any kind of storage included. All my figures, battle cards, tokens, and dice are just in a ziplock bag on♏ my board game shelf. That being said, the figures themselves look fantastic and they come with display bases when you can slot in their character cards too.
Later this month a new Series 1 product com🐈es out called the Battle Ball. The ball is more like a booster pack, containing 2 figures, 1 in a Thanostone, and some new challenge cards for less than half the price of the Mega Pack. There's also an expansion set called Thanos Ship Showdown coming soon that adds new mechanics to the game.
As a Marvel fan, collector, and board game player I'm enamored by BattleWorld. If this game was around when🦂 I was a kid I would have ꩵbeen begging my parents for a new Battle Ball during every trip to the store. The rules have expanded scaling options for games that include up to 5 heroes and 5 Thanostones, and I'm extremely tempted to start stocking up on new Mega Packs and Battle Balls so I can play a full, sprawling game and open a whole pile of new heroes to join my team. BattleWorld has all the charm of Marvel and the addictiveness of Pokémon. I'm hooked.
Funko provided a Mega Pack sample for th꧑is review. Learn more ⛎about