This new offering from Stonemaier Games is a gorgeous little engine builder. It feels like the struggles of a super starting out, not quite sure which path to take, making decisions good and bad. The core mechanic is trick taking: we’ve seen this increase in popularity of late with the likes of Arcs and LotR, but, frankly, it’s more straightforward – and hence accessible – here. It is a classic 4 suit game, replacing the traditional with Speed, Brains, Strength and Love. For most people, this will feel familiar – simple, even – but I love that about it, and indeed that Love is the trump suit. Wonder Woman would be proud! It also looks familiar on the table if you’ve ever played Whist or Bridge, laying out your stacked tricks, which just like regular games are high card wins, unless trumped (and trumps can’t lead until you have no choice otherwise).
This new offering from Stonemaier Games is a gorgeous little engine builder. It feels like the struggles of a super starting out, not quite sure which path to take, making decisions good and bad. The core mechanic is trick taking: we’ve seen this increase in popularity of late with the likes of Arcs and LotR, but, frankly, it’s more straightforward – and hence accessible – here. It is a classic 4 suit game, replacing the traditional with Speed, Brains, Strength and Love. For most people, this will feel familiar – simple, even – but I love that about it, and indeed that Love is the trump suit. Wonder Woman would be proud! It also looks familiar on the table if you’ve ever played Whist or Bridge, laying out your stacked tricks, which just like regular games are high card wins, unless trumped (and trumps can’t lead until you have no choice otherwise).
The gameplay over 5 rounds is fast and satisfying. It's always challenging to find a competitive game that satisfies all 3 of us - the 15yo prefers low-mid weight co-op or light dungeon crawlers, as a rule, whereas 18yo prefers cutthroat mid weight engine or tableau builders - so the fact that this made for a great experience for all 3 of us is really impressive (I'll play pretty much anything, I just like fresh takes on familiar mechanics).
Stamina builds over rounds, and can be used as a resource to power up super abilities and backstory elements. Highly thematic, as each round you draw 3 new power cards and pick one to add to your tableau - BUT on R3, an EVENT (think Crisis, or storyline comic) impacts all of you, and on R5 you become your super identity, for good or ill. These powers can interact in interesting ways with the cards in the deck, allowing you to discard from hand, for instance, or change values.
One of the most interesting decisions, on a round to round basis, is whether to aim to win tricks, playing the Hero side of your score dial, or lose them ALL, playing the Villain side. Hero is easier, a point per trick one; Villain is much harder, but worth a lot of points if you pull it off. As you declare this at the start of the round, everyone knows what you’re up to (maybe… you might have a triggered effect up your superpowered sleeve, after all), or you might be trying as Villain to win tricks anyway to stop Hero players from scoring.
A note on the excellent solo which, as ever, SM games excel in. Here, you are playing against not one but 2 AI “Vancardians” – think Viltrumites – Automaton and Factoryum (ha), who battle you and have access to weird card numbers (9 ½ of Love, anyone?!) which can throw off your plans. It’s a very tense, nasty game in solo, and extremely satisfying if you actually beat those self-righteous aliens.
Production values on this are extremely impressive. It's rare that a small box game has such a big footprint - it certainly doesn't feel small. I also applaud that it's so well priced, SM meeting head-on the marketplace challenges (though I would've maybe liked another wee divider in the box to keep stuff organised). The Stamina tokens are chunky, satisfying and clear, whilst the game boards absolutely feel like a one-shot origin comic. Also, the art by Doodleblule is in stunning watercolours that are reminiscent of (though quite distinct from) the work of David Mack (Kabuki, particularly, but familiar to most folk for Daredevil and Cap) and Alex Ross.
This game is, well, super. I challenge you not to love it; an outstanding effort from the SM team, certainly our favourite game any of us have played in our house over the last year – can’t wait for the mini-expansion later this year, not that the game needs it, but certainly excited for more super-content!
