Spiderman Ultimate Power Card Game a Winner for Kids of All Ages

My sister gave my son Spiderman Ultimate Power Card Game for Christmas and it has been a terrific gift. It is a board game that we play over and over again and it has lost none of its appeal. If you have a youngster that enjoys Superheroes, I heartily recommend getting the Spiderman Ultimate Power Card Game.

In Spiderman Ultimate Power Card Game, each player gets to be Spiderman. The goal of the game is to collect as many villains as possible. There are eight villains - Black Cat, Carnage, Doctor Octopus, Electro, Green Goblin, Kingpin, Rhino and Venom - each represented by a card laid out on the game mat.

Each villain in Spiderman Ultimate Power Card Game is rated in six different categories. The villains have varying degrees of Intelligence, Strength, Speed, Durability, Energy Projection and Fighting Skills. Spiderman is able to capture a villain by having more points in whichever category they tangle in, according to a spin of the enclosed wheel.

In addition to spots for each villain, the game mat has two piles of cards, reminiscent of Chance and Community Chest in Monopoly. These are the Ultimate Power and Daily Bugle cards. The Ultimate Power cards are the levels of Spiderman's strength. Each player starts the game with two Ultimate Power cards and the players add to their reserves by landing on certain spots on the board or by landing on Power-up Spidey on the wheel.

The Daily Bugle cards are the big X-factor in the game. These can be good, bad or neutral. They allow you to capture villains if you draw a yellow card or have to release villains back to the board if you pull a black card.

There are two other spots on the card mat. If you land on Web Swinger, you have to trade one of your Ultimate Power cards with an opposing player in the game. The Ultimate Power cards come in a range of one to four points and it is a big drawback to have to trade a four (if it is the only Ultimate Power card you have) for a one.

The other spot is I'm Outta Here, which allows the player to move to any spot on the board. Typically, you would go to capture a villain when you land on this spot, although you can go to Power-up Spidey if you need to add strength or go to Daily Bugle if you're behind in the game and hope that you pull a card that forces an opponent to return one of his villains to the card mat.

Spiderman Ultimate Power Card Game starts with a spin of the enclosed wheel to determine the game's ultimate power. If the ultimate power is Energy Projection, Electro is the most dangerous villain in the game. If it is instead strength, Rhino is the top villain.

Each player has a disc to represent him on the card mat and he moves however many spots designated when he spins the wheel. Each number on the wheel represents one of the game's six powers. For example, the number three corresponds to Speed. If you spin a three and land on a villain card, Spiderman and the villain battle in the Speed category.

The villain cards displays how much strength the villain has in each category. Spiderman needs one more level of strength than the villain in order to defeat him and remove him from the card mat. If you rolled a three in the game and landed on Green Goblin, you would see he has a rating of three in speed. You would need to have Ultimate Power cards adding to four in order to defeat and capture Green Goblin. You can use up to three Ultimate Power cards to defeat a villain. If you have the necessary cards to defeat a villain, you relinquish your Ultimate Power cards to the bottom of the deck and move the villain off the card mat and into your pile when you capture him.

The game is over once none of the villains remain on the board. The winner is determined by adding the point total of your captured villains in the game's Ultimate Power, which was decided prior to the start of play. Whichever player has the most points wins. A typical game takes about 15-20 minutes to play.

Spiderman Ultimate Power Card Game is for two-to-four players with a recommended age of seven and up. My son is five-years old and has no problem playing the game, even with virtually no previous board game experience.

I like Spiderman Ultimate Power Card Game because my son gets all of his Superhero action with none of the violence. Also, he gets a lot of practice in both counting and adding numbers. It also has taught him an element of strategy, as he now realizes that it makes a difference what he does when he lands on various spots on the card mat.

On a personal level, I get a kick out of how he has memorized each villain's level of power in each of the six categories. If you ask him how much power Black Cat has in Durability, he answers two without a moment's hesitation. It reminds me of how I used to know the prices of each Monopoly property, with or without houses or a hotel.

As with most games, Spiderman Ultimate Power Card Game is not an elaborate physical item. The idea is what makes it good. The spinner and cards are decent quality, both very colorful and easy to read. My only complaint is the card mat, which is folded to fit into the box and does not lay flat. But that is a minor issue.

Spiderman Ultimate Power Card Game is available at all major retailers and online merchants. The price varies, although Toys R Us currently has it available for $3.98, an incredible bargain considering how fun it is to play. If your children enjoy Superheroes, they will love playing this game.