Marvel United: X-Men Kickstarter campaign X-ceeds $1 million in less than one day
Co-designer Eric Lang calls the game’s success a “validation”.
The Kickstarter campaign for the next entry in the Marvel United series has successfully raised over $1 million in just a matter of hours.
Launching at 8pm (BST)/ 3pm (EST) on April 14th - yesterday - the Kickstarter for Marvel United: X-Men has since raised £921,211 ($1,270,888) of its £217,829 goal. Eric Lang, co-creator of the upcoming game, posted a tweet expressing his amazement at the amount that had been raised after just a few hours of the campaign going live. “Holy god 1M in 4 hours.” Said Lang, “What a validation for the vision of a lifestyle gateway game.”
A co-op game for one to five players, Marvel United: X-Men was initially announced via a trailer released early last month as a spin-off title to the original Marvel United, which was also launched on Kickstarter - successfully raising over $2 million in March 2020. The newest entry in the series introduces a beloved collection of superpowered mutants made famous in the Marvel comics franchise. Players will have to work together as a team to prevent the master plan of whichever villainous individual decides to terrorise the world.
Featuring the likes of Wolverine, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Storm, Beast and Professor X, Marvel United: X-Men challenges players to use their unique character decks alongside one another, collaborating their moves together to maximise their effectiveness each turn. As in the original game, Marvel United: X-Men revolves around the central mechanic of players laying down action cards in a circle - otherwise known as the storyline - with the effects of the current card, and the effects on the bottom of the card played before it, activating on every player’s turn.
The players will be able to decide who goes first at the start of the hero phase, which enables them to devise a plan around the current play order and what players have in their hand. Potential actions include moving between locations, attacking enemies, using a heroic action or a wild card action - which can include any of the above. Certain cards also have some unique effects depending on the specific character, which will only occur on the turn it is played.
With formidable villains such as Sabretooth and Juggernaut, as well as anti-heroes like Magneto and Mystic, to contend with, the players will need to choose their cards carefully in order to thwart their evil schemes. Before the heroes’ turn, the players must survive the villain’s turn. During the villain’s turn new henchpeople will appear on locations - taking hostages and furthering the master plan - the villain may attack the hero characters or increase the current threat level. Too much threat level can result in the players outright losing the game.
Anti-heroes like Magneto and Mystic - in line with their chaotic and unpredictable natures - can be played as both hero characters or chosen as the game’s villain, with each one providing the players with a different challenge.
Besides Lang - who is otherwise known for designing Bloodrage and co-creating the horror game Cthulhu: Death May Die - the other co-creator of Marvel United: X-Men is Andrea Chiarvesio, with both designers having previously worked together on the original Marvel United.
Marvel United: X-Men is being published by CMON, the studio responsible for releasing the Zombicide and Massive Darkness series, and Spin-Master Games, the two studios behind the previous entry in the series.
The Kickstarter campaign for Marvel United: X-Men is live until May 6th with a pledge of $65 (£48) getting backers a copy of the core game in March 2022.