Back in 2019, Tony reviewed a fantastic-looking dice chucker called Dice Throne Season 2. Then in 2022, he reviewed Marvel Dice Throne. In case you missed those reviews or the marketing blitz that appears in my social media feeds, Dice Throne is a dueling game that will have you taking control of one of a handful of unique characters, hoping to take out your opponent. The gameplay was engaging, streamlined, and a ton of fun.
Today, we are going to be looking at the newest offering in the Dice Throne line. The folks at Roxley have returned to the Marvel Universe with X-MEN, although this version was published by The OP games. While I was not a comic book reader growing up, for me, X-Men is what the Avengers are to my kids: The coolest, most interesting group of super heroes. I spent many hours watching X-Men cartoons (and am glad they made X-Men ’97 for me to have a chance to revisit with my kids), playing with my X-Men action figures, and spending my quarters playing the four player X-Men arcade game at Galaxy World (RIP) and in every arcade on vacation. So to say I was excited to play as Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Psylocke, and Iceman, or Cyclops, Jean Gray, Gambit, and Rogue, would be an understatement. Did it live up to the hype? Read on to find out.
Gameplay Overview:
If you want to know the ins and outs of how to play Marvel Dice Throne, then start by reading Tony’s review of Dice Throne Season 2. The core gameplay in Marvel Dice Throne X-Men is identical to the original Dice Throne and original Marvel Dice Throne. So identical that The OP simply added an X-Men cover to the Marvel Dice throne rulebook and Black Panther is still the star of the rule book. The only things new here are the characters.
But for the uninitiated, the quick of it is that you choose your character, and in a 1vs1 battle you start with 50 hit points, and 2 combat points. Each turn you can play some cards by spending combat points, roll your six dice (with 2 re-rolls), and try and get some runs or sets to activate your character’s powers to attack your opponent. Reduce your opponent to zero HP and you win in this game of combative Yahtzee.
There are multiplayer variants for King of the Hill with 3 or 4 players 1v1v1(v1) and 4 player team 2v2. There are even 5 and 6 player variants that appear to have too much down time for my enjoyment.
Game Experience:
Overall, I agree with Tony’s thoughts on the gameplay of Dice Throne in his Season 2 review, so I’m not going to rehash what he said there as nothing about the gameplay has changed. But, I do want to spend a moment on three and four player games. While I agree with Tony’s assessment that the game is best at 1v1, I think the King of the Hill game play and Team game play are fun games, but they play differently because of the decrease in total number of turns each player makes. This makes it harder for characters that have abilities that need to “charge up” or combo to reach their full potential. So playing with quick hitting characters makes these versions more fun. Or house rule it so that you start with more health, but know this makes the game take longer.
So on to the new characters:
In Box one we have:
Wolverine: Complexity level 2. Not surprisingly, Wolverine is a straight-forward brawler who does more damage the angrier he gets. When he is attacked, he does not try to defend against damage, he only attacks back, or gets filled with Rage. Each Rage token can deliver an additional 3 damage in future attacks.
Storm: Complexity level 4. Storm is more complicated and she takes time to charge her attacks with her lightning companion that makes the attacks more powerful. In 1v1 duels, she is very powerful. She also has a Wind Shear token which redirects 2 damage back at opponents and a Tornado token that gives her the unique ability to use opponents’ dice during her Offensive Roll Phase.
Iceman: Complexity level 4. Bobby Drake is a pretty cool character, but he excels with more turns in the 1v1 duel as he has a very powerful ability to Glide from one attack to another attack in the same Offensive Roll Phase. The drawback is that it requires that you have collected 5 Ice Shard tokens prior to earning the Glide token, there just doesn’t seem to be enough time to perform this in anything but a 1v1 Duel.
Psylocke: Complexity level 3. Always hard to play games of chance against a psychic. Her abilities give her a sixth dice, called the Manifest dice, which can be used to replace one of the dice you rolled to activate one of your Offensive Abilities or can be used as an attack modifier (half the die roll rounded up.) She also can use these tokens: Paralyze (Prevent a character from gaining/inflicting status affects), Agility (avoid half of incoming damage with a die roll 1-3), and Infiltration (force a re-roll of a defensive die)
In Box two, aka the couples box, we have:
Cyclops: Complexity level 4. Love or hate Scott Summers, he is the leader of the X-Men and when you play a leadership card you get bonuses. He also has powerful status effects, Battle Plan lets him examine opponent’s hand, put leadership cards into his hand, or inflict Focus Fire, a negative status effect that permanently (unless removed by a card) causes additional damage when anyone attacks the player with this token. Characteristically, Cyclops can also support his teammates with a token that gives a Combat Point, allows additional re-rolls, or draw cards. This is why he is an excellent choice in 2v2 team battles and King of the Hill.
Jean Grey: Complexity level 6. In keeping with the X-Men theme, the most complicated character, Jean Grey, is… complicated. She alternates every turn between being Jean Grey and Dark Phoenix. While she is Jean Grey, she gains additional cards and is a great teammate with Acuity tokens acting similar to Scott’s Battle Plan token. She can also prevent damage. When she is Dark Phoenix she does not gain extra cards, can’t prevent damage, but she can pack a serious punch with extra damage being added. Flame Blast is a Dark Phoenix specific token that is an attack modifier. Phoenix Burn is a token that damages people during their upkeep phase. She plays best in 1v1 Duel, but does have abilities that can help her teammates. Unfortunately, with fewer individual turns in 2v2 team battles, there are fewer opportunities to use her tokens.
Rogue: Complexity level 3. Rogue sucks… opponent’s power and health. She has an always active passive power that when she takes damage she absorbs it and gains Ionic Energy, a token that can be spent as an attack modifier. She can also steal the opponent’s power by playing her Influence token which can limit the opponent’s Offensive Rolls. Her Skyward token is another power that allows her to block damage or attack the original attacker back. Rogue does not require time to build her attacks, so she is a great player in the games with fewer individual turns, 2v2 and King of the Hill.
Gambit: Complexity level 6. Rogue’s boyfriend has always been unique, whether in the comics or cartoons, throwing playing cards that explode or in the MCU with Channing Tatum’s amazing performance. The deck of Aces of each suit makes up a unique play style that requires charging to explode the cards as an attack modifier, and some have additional powers. Gambit can also heal or remove status effects with his Dissolution tokens, or with his Disruption tokens he can steal Combat Points or cause 2 damage in a player’s upkeep phase. Gambit has a passive ability that accelerates the charging of the Aces and involves a little gambling. Gambit, like all of the higher complexity characters, is better in 1v1 duels. I have loved playing with him. Geaux Gambit.
Final Thoughts:
I enjoyed the original Dice Throne Seasons with unique characters that were original IP, I enjoyed when they skinned the game as Marvel (Black Panther, Loki, Thor, Scarlett Witch, Miles Morales, and Captain Marvel), so of course I loved it when the chose my favorite Marvel IP, The X-Men.
If you already have previous incarnations of Dice Throne and don’t love X-Men, no need to buy this. But if you want more characters or you are looking to jump into Dice Throne, I think X-Men is the best place to start with a nice variety of complexity with characters that stick to their theme really well. With Dice Throne Missions available, a co-op game that I have not yet played, having more characters to use in this game seems like an additional reason to pick up X-Men.
Now for the first negatives of the review. As of this writing, the only version available in retail is the version I reviewed. It was released by The OP games and it uses an old school 10.25 in x 16 in x 2 in box that really doesn’t fit well on a shelf with modern games. Although it does fit with the 80’s-90’s appearance of the characters. Roxley has an upgraded version that they always call “battle chest” for pre-order and for nearly the same price, so I would personally pre-order that version as Roxley’s card stock and foldable player mats are better than The OP cards and solid player mats. The only negative about the gameplay is frequently, especially in team or king of the hill, it can be more advantageous to concentrate on straight damage versus using the character’s special powers, which is where a lot of the fun lies.
Final Score: 4.5 Stars – As Dice Throne is always fun and this is my favorite themed version and is compatible with all previous versions. That being said, it is the exact same game as previous versions.
Hits:
• Excellent variety in the Characters—both in complexity and unique powers
• Gives additional characters for Dice Throne Missions
• X-Men theme is carried through each character
Misses:
• It is exactly the same game as it has been since Dice Throne.
• The quality of The OP game is inferior to the Roxley versions.
• In the King of the Hill formats and 1v1v1(v1) modes the reduction in health decreases the amount of turns each player takes and limits the more complex characters. (we house rule more health, which increases the play time but is worth it)
