FUNKO MARVEL BATTLEWORLD REVIEW
We were sent the Funko Marvel Battleworld toys for the purposes of this review.
Click here for our Toy Review Catalogue to read our reviews before you buy!
FUNKO MARVEL BATTLEWORLD
Earlier this week we were having quite a bit of fun playing Funko Something Wild! card games – and now we have another chunk of Funko fun for you! Designed by Prospero Hall, we had high expectations for Funko Marvel Battleworld.
For 1-4 players aged 6+, game play is around 15-30 minutes and it makes a great little game to play whilst waiting for dinner.
What’s not to like? Funko Marvel Battleworld is an expandable [thanks to the blind box manner of collecting game pieces – my boys’ favourite hobby is collecting anything they can’t see the insides of when they puppydog eyeball me into getting it] game system featuring Funko Avenger characters.
Once collected, you get to play as your favourite Hero, and battle to defeat Thanos and rescue your friends! Thanos attacking is a favourite pastime of our family.
Marvel Battleworld is a cooperative gaming system, which is great for teamwork with children – it has with countless adored characters from all over the Marvel Universe to make play even more exciting! Players get to crack open the mysterious Thanostones during the course of play to reveal mystery characters inside. Choose your favorite hero, and use their unique special abilities. Roll to attack and win three battles to achieve victory!
MEGA PACKS AND BATTLEBALLS
There are two ways to buy your way into game play. There’s the Mega Pack and Marvel Battleballs, which are what our boys keep adding into the trolley whenever they possibly can. There are 30 heroes in series one of Marvel Battleworld, and our boys are on a mission. Haha.
Inside the Mega Pack are six characters. There are four starting Heroes; a Negative Zone Spider-Man character with his rather special foil card, and three random heroes loose inside [but which can’t be seen until you’ve bought the Mega Pack and opened it] and two more heroes who are trapped in orange Thanostones! There’s a 12-sided custom die, 13 Battlecards, and pop out tokens for play. The instructions are also included of course.
The Marvel Battleworld Battleballs are solid blind balls [if there is such a thing] containing two random hero figures, one of which is loose in the ball and the other again trapped in a Thanostone. Included is also the 12 sided die, 5 Battlecards and some tokens. Again, you can play a game with just one Battleball!
The Mega Pack would make an amazing birthday gift for anyone wanting to take a leap into Battleworld, and then pocket money can be saved up [or you can be guilted] to buy Battleballs to add to the collection and trade with friends.
What we love about Battleworld is that like Disney and Marvel Villainous [which we’re quite sure you’re are of our dedication to] is that even a battleball is standalone game. You can invest £7 at ASDA and you’re in business – the Battleballs are expandalones to the Mega Pack. You know how I love that word, so when I can, I’m going to use it. Haha.
HOW TO PLAY FUNKO MARVEL BATTLEWORLD
The story behind the game is that Thanos has trapped the most powerful forces in the Multiverse [and Howard the Duck] in mysterious Thanostones and dropped them on his treacherous Battleworld. Your job is to rescue the heroes and win enough battles to defeat Thanos!
To get started, decide on a loose hero and place them, along with their hero card in front of you. Take a look at the special power that your hero has, as that’s going to be important.
Shuffle the battlecards! Place them face down in a pile.
Take the hero trapped in a Thanostone, the accompanying mystery hero card, danger tokens and coin, and 12 sided die next to you. If you’ve already opened your Thanostone, pop them next to you instead.
In a single player game, you need to win three battles to defeat the purple one [Thanos] and conversely if you lose three, you lose the game.
Depending on how many people are playing, there’s a chart which illustrates the number of heroes, battlecards, thanostone battlecards and battle wins needed to play.
Each player’s turn has three steps.
Ready Heroes and Add Battles – Getting Ready
Flip all of your active hero cards to their colourful, vibrant active side which shows their powers.
Take one Battlecard for each of the heroes in play. Put them next to each other touching.
Move and Attack – The Good Guys
Take your hero and decide who to attack! Place them on one of the Battlecards and roll the die to see how many punches they have, and add to the punching fist number on your card. If it’s the same or more, you win the attack.
If you win, place your Hero on the first blue space on the battlecard. Once three battles have been won, the battlecard is yours and you’re on the way to winning three cards and defeating Thanos! The blue spaces are called the hit track.
On the flip side, if your die roll is less than the number needed, you place a danger token on the red track at the top – three defeats and the battle is lost. If the battle is lost, flip the card and place a danger token on the back.
Once you’ve used your hero, flip their card to the less colourful side to show that you’ve used them.
Danger – The Bad Guys
Once each hero has had a battle, and won or lost, it’s time to flip a danger coin and let the bad guys have their turn. They can advance along the red track on the top of the Battlecard, if their symbol matches that on the danger coin such as a moon.
Once all of this has happened, flip the hero cards back to their colourful sides.
THE THANOSTONES
Inside the Battleballs and Mega Packs, there are orange Thanostones – containing more heroes! Once you win a battlecard featuring a Thanostone, you can free one of the heroes from a Thanostone! Add them to the game, and they can attack on the turn they’re liberated from their Thanostone prison.
If, like my boys, you’ve opened your battleballs together and have multiple stones and cards that are unwrapped, you can match them with the code on the card back and the code on the underside of the Thanostone.
Also, I feel I should note that if, once all of your Thanostones have been opened and during play a Thanostone Battlecard is on the table, you do not, unlike the advice given to me by my boys, need to rush to the shop to buy more. Funny that. All you need to do is introduce a new hero that has yet to be played during that game into play.
New Battleworld Rounds – What Happens Next
At the beginning of each new round, a fresh battlecard for each hero in play is taken from the pile and placed on the table ready to be attacked.
What did we think?
They’re collectible, tradable, and most of all, Funko. We love them. Hero is 6 and loves the maths involved in playing the game. It’s been great for his mental arithmetic skills and although he loves maths anyway, it’s a fantastic way of spurring reluctant mathematicians into action in the name of saving the Multiverse…!
