I love how proud Tom looked when Violet said "DPS" at 13:34 :)

Sad you cooled on it so much Tom, I loved how excited you were about Sentinels in the old reviews. I think this version is far better, but it took me a little bit to get into it again when I first got it. I think that’s because the games can be so wildly different depending on what Heroes you play as (let alone the villain and environment) so it took me a while to learn what each hero was good at and which ones work together for my play style. Thanks for the review all the same, I was excited to hear you talk about it!

Just for the record...there actually are NOT comic books. There are huge backstories and references to non-existent comic books, but the books themselves do not actually exist....and yet they have a huge following :D.

The real fun, for me anyway, is exploring the decks and the permutations of decks. It’s very thematic to have a group of heroes lose, then you try another group out! It’s like when Spider-Man loses to Mysterio but then consults Dr Strange! Heroes are constantly battling and trying new combos to see what works and what doesn’t. If you enjoy that exploration, I think you will love Sentinels. Once you know the decks, then the game heads to a new level of enjoyment and cooperation

Marvel Champions does not give me the feeling of a hero versus villain "battle". That was the biggest turn off for me with that game. Sentinels (DE) is AMAZING and feels like a turn based battle with a superhero theme. The superheroes do feel powerful when you play them and there are decisions to be made other than just hitting big guy or small guy. Tom is dead wrong. I never played original Sentinels because it looked too complicated (fiddly) and difficult to follow. This game caught my attention with the changes they made, which seemed to improve the game immensely and is now my favorite cooperative game in my collection.

I find that the game is excellent at 2 players with each person having 2 decks. That way turns feel a lot more meaty as I get to do several things at once, and down time is lessened. It really feels like your turn is about 1 minute once every 10 minutes if your playing say 3 players.

Just played a game recently with my 7 year old... we loved it. =)

I'd have to disagree with anything lower than a 7.5-8. I was introduced to this game with the Definitive Edition and I love it! As far as cooperative super hero card games go... it's to this day one of the best. I love the simplicity of the turn mechanics and that you don't pay to play cards! Very cool. I would have to say this is better than Marvel Champions, and I play both.

I absolutely love Sentinels. It’s easily one of the top 10 most played games within my group. The new version makes the characters feel stronger than previously and makes it easier to rebuild when your setup gets messed up.

I too am getting a bit choked up over this game, but mostly from liking it so much. The fiddliness sure got a bit easier with this edition, and is still one of the bits I like so much. I went the other way, I upped my rating a bit with this one instead. :) Of course, I don’t have everything for the old edition so I was pretty happy to know in advance to budget for this every year. :D

Great review and matches my thoughts from playing the game. Great job family!

I always feel like absolute zero is more a riff on Mr freeze. Except sympathetic villain to reluctant hero.

A new Vaselism was created here today ladies and gentlemen, "summdown". Summdown is a combination of summary and breakdown. The Dice Tower needs to release a Tom Vasel dictionary some day. 🙂

I would disagree with a lot of points here. I never thought that you would probably want to know which type of character the heroes are. I think the difficulty rating is already an indication. Also, some characters are hard to categorize. Don't think that the game doesn't give you interesting choices. At least the type of choices it gives you are the choices a lot of other coop games give you as well. No big deal with that. Sometimes things can get quite challenging when you have a nasty environment you might want to stop but there are dangerous villain cards in play at the same time but you cannot destroy all of them. Also, especially when you play more complex characters, you often have the choice if you want to support some heroes (and in which way) or if you want to try to deal damage yourself of ir you want to optimize future plays / set up. The game isn't as fiddly as the original was. Gameplay is much smoother now as it used to be. Character setup is faster as they have more ways to get the cards they want/need. Yes, there might be situations where a lot of stuff is going on. But let's be true: Marvel Champions and other games like that are much more fiddly. In the games I played I spent more time with reading through the rulebook to look up other special terms and cases than I played. Doesn't happen in Sentinels. I already like the original a lot, but the DE made this game even better and I would play this over other superhero games any day.

Good review. I own everything in the previous edition. I played a demo of the new edition on TTS and concluded that while Definitive Edition did streamline some things it remains the same game. There's still a lot of upkeep in it and I prefer the app version. An important game in the history of boardgames, but shows its age.

I had played Sentinels in the app previously and enjoyed it, so I backed the Kickstarter and got it a few months ago. And maybe it's because I'm new to it in person, but I LOVE it. I find each deck plays really differently, each villain feels super different, and there are a lot more interesting choices than "should I hit the big guy or the little guys?" in terms of how you build your engine and support the other characters vs going hard at the villain. Maybe I'll cool on it over time but it's rocketed to the top of my list of games right now.

Is it worth it to get this version if you already have the original and many expansions for it?

Can you combine this set with expansions from the original version?

I disagree with the choices thing Tom said. The game is not all about damaging stuff. There's dozens of things that can and should be done and every turn it's all about choosing the right card/power to maximize play and optimize actions. You have to deal with effects from the enemies and the environments as well as manage your hit points, your hand of cards and your allies' hit points and hand of cards. Unlike other "cooperative" games where you're essentially playing alone and cannot actually cooperate, this one you have tons of cards where you can decide who to help. It's still a great game after all these years. It's better than most out there but...It's still very fiddly. Also, yet another edition of this game (on its fourth edition in 10 years) makes it a cash grab. I do agree that the heroes should be categorized in, well,categories. I like discovering the heroes but if I haven't played in a while, I will not remember who's who since there are (thankfully) tons of characters.

That's why I prefer playing 2 player each controlling 2 heroes.

I was kind of impressed when she said "dps" also 🙂

One of the games I prefer to play digitally. Cuts down on the upkeep quite a bit.

I never got the fiddly criticism. We never put out the tokens, and just remembered effects, which is not hard to do even with 4-5 players. In fact, part of the game is remembering how to combo things together. It faded for me over time, but I still got probably 30 plays out of my set with some expansions before I got rid of it.

Great review. I think this game kind of belongs on its app. It cuts down the fiddly counters and down time. It does all the math. I just enjoyed it a lot better that way. The definitive edition was a little nicer, but felt no need to buy it.

Love the game and love this new edition! A lifetime 10/10! Yes there's still admin to be dealt with but it still retains that same feel while making it easier for new players to get into! ...................😳😳😳😳😠😠😠😠😠😠😡😡😡😡😡😡👹👹👹👹👹👹👹👹👹......

I played SotM for the first time this year (when this version arrived from KS). I really enjoyed it! Little fiddly, but it was fun…. …then, about a month later this year, I started playing Marvel Champions. I no longer see any reason to play SotM. It’s too bad really; but they scratch the same itch. They’re both very quick to set up. But the gameplay combined with the emotional attachment to the Marvel characters means I’m just never going to choose SotM over MC unless someone specifically wants to play it. I’ll likely keep this base version, but I’m not getting the new ones after this.

I almost skipped this game because of this review. I am SO glad I didn't. It quickly became one of my few 10/10 games alongside the latest expansion, while Marvel Champions is closer to a 6 for me.

Man I remember how excited I was to play this when it first came out. Love comic books, and there was SO much hype for this game. Then I played it - SO slow, limiting, and uninteresting. The most engaging part of the game was how the different characters were differentiated from each other, but only in comparison to each other. None of them are fun to play, because the base turn of play 1 card, do 1 action, draw 1 card is just too narrow of a decision space to do anything interesting. And on top of all that, the overlapping conditions and having to run the environment/villain turns were a pain to manage, and playing with more than 1 or 2 people takes ages.

After owning everything 1st Ed and only playing it one time . There is no way will I reinvest in this game system . Anyone looking to by the 1st Ed ?

Thank you guys for playing this so I don't have to. I'm doing fine with Marvel Champions and United. Both are clean, thematic, and easy to set up. Great review as always though Vasels!

Hmmmmm I def think this game is at least a 7.5..... Im not actually sure it's a great game for young children somehow tho. Perhaps that made the ratings a little lower?

I feel it's a cool game that isnt as good due to other games being better at this point.

I enjoyed my time with this game and now Marvel Champions is a better version of it.

This game feels like it's old. Champions does everything sentinels does and more and does it better. I traded my set away immediately and haven't missed it in the least.