Snap is a game that’s been available to download on Android and iOS for some time now, but it’s only recently taken off as something more than a novelty. It’s a good example of how you can take an existing idea and make something fresh out of it.

The premise of Snap is simple enough – you play as one best cards in Marvel snap (Spider-Man, Wolverine, Iron Man or Captain America) fighting off hordes of villains who are trying to steal your power core. If you die, you lose everything you’ve collected up so far and have to start over with nothing.

On top of that, there are also various challenges to complete. These range from collecting specific items like coins or Power Stars to defeating bosses and taking down huge enemies. You earn points for all of this, which you spend to unlock new abilities and costumes for your character. All of these things add up to a fun little game that’s easy to pick up.

One of the most interesting aspects of Snap is the upgrade system. Upgrades are acquired by spending Gems, which you get through various activities and challenges. For instance, you might get a Gem after completing an activity where you defeat a certain amount of enemies. This will let you upgrade one of your characters to give them a boost at the expense of another character’s ability.

If you want to keep playing Snap after you beat it, you’ll need to buy upgrades for each of your characters every few days. To do this, you head into the store, where you can use your accumulated Gems to purchase various items.

There are two types of upgrades that you can buy: Power Stars and Card Packs. Each card pack contains 10 cards, and each power star costs $0.99 USD. Cards vary based on their rarity, ranging from Common to Legendary. Here’s what those cards contain:

Common

•  Cards that aren’t terribly useful.
•  Cards that help you acquire other cards.
• Cards that give you bonuses when used against specific enemies.
• Cards that can be used to change your appearance.
• Random effects.

Uncommon

• Rare cards.
• Highly valuable cards.
• Cards that make your attacks stronger.
• Cards that increase the damage of your special moves.
• Cards that increase the speed of your special moves.

Legendary

• Super rare cards.
•  Unlimited use cards.
• Cards that grant immunity.
• Cards that increase the attack power of your special moves.
• Cards that increase the defense of your special moves.
•  Cards that increase the number of times you can perform a special move.

Each card has its own set of stats. You start with zero stats, and you have to build up your character before they become powerful enough to affect the outcome of battles. When you reach a certain point in a battle, you’re given a chance to upgrade your cards and gain new ones.

This is done through a simple interface. Tap on the menu button to see a list of cards, then tap on a card to select it. The next screen shows you the stats of the card. Next to this is a button that lets you swap between the current card and any others that you may have selected. A bar at the bottom indicates how close you are to using the latest card.

After you’ve made your selection, you’ll see it appear on the right side of the screen. You can tap on it again to replace the card that you just selected if you don’t like the one you chose. If this isn’t enough, you can simply hold on the card until a blue bubble appears above it. At this point, you can press the back button to go back to the previous card, or tap anywhere else on the screen to cancel out of the swap.

As I mentioned earlier, this is a pretty simple mechanic. There’s not much to learn when it comes to upgrading cards, and the fact that the process doesn’t involve a lot of choices makes it easier to get used to.

However, there are a couple of problems with this approach. First of all, the number of slots you can fill is limited. There are three slots for each character, and you can only equip one card per slot. That means that you can only have up to six total cards equipped at any given time, for a maximum of 12 total cards. This means that you’ll often find yourself without any usable cards when you hit the hard limit.

Secondly, it’s difficult to tell exactly how many cards you have left because of the way the numbers are displayed. They seem to jump around quite a bit, making it difficult to know whether you’re within striking distance of reaching your goal.

The final problem is that it takes too long for the game to figure out what you’re going to be able to equip. In my experience, it took me about 15 minutes of gameplay to realize that I was never going to be able to equip anything beyond my first card. Sure, it gave me a boost, but it didn’t feel like it did much to improve my chances of winning.

To be fair, Snap does a decent job of keeping track of your progress, but I think it could have been better. As it stands, the whole “upgrade” system feels tacked on, and it ends up being unnecessary because you can barely use all of the cards you’re equipped with anyway.

That said, there are a few other things worth mentioning here. One of the great features of Snap is that you can customize your character’s appearance. You can choose from different outfits and accessories, and even modify their hair color and skin tone. While it’s not nearly as deep as it is in Pokemon Go, it’s still nice to have the option to change things up.

Another thing that I really liked is how the game handles multiple players. You can invite friends via the app to join you in your adventures, or you can create groups of random people. Snap uses Google sign-in, so anyone who signs in can join you in the same adventure. If you happen to win, everyone gets a share of the prize money.

These are both convenient ways to play Snap with friends. On top of that, Snap offers an offline mode that you can turn on whenever you want. This removes all of the ads and adds extra content, including new characters to play as.

Overall, Snap is a solid game. It’s a free-to-play title that gives you a reasonable amount of content for free. The upgrade system doesn’t work very well though, and the lack of customization options means that you won’t be able to fully enjoy the game. Still, if you’re looking for a new multiplayer game to try out, Snap is certainly worth checking out.