Marvel Snap criticized as Chinese Lunar New Year event celebrates Japanese heroes

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Players are puzzled over inclusions and exclusions

Marvel Snap best card
(Image credit: Nuverse)

Marvel Snap's Lunar New Year event is being criticized over its handling of Asian characters. 

Marvel Snap just launched its Lunar New Event last week on January 13, and it'll be sticking around until later this month on January 30. The event encourages players to use characters Shang-Chi, Colleen Wing, Armor, and Psylocke, all of whom are Asian characters in Marvel comics. 

However, the Lunar New Year event has been criticized by some for focusing nearly exclusively on Japanese characters. The player just below, for example, feels as though Marvel Snap made a mistake with this, putting Japanese (or British-Japanese) characters front and centre for the event instead of Chinese characters, where the Lunar New Year celebrations are far more prevalent. 

There's also confusion as to the exclusion of certain other characters. Another Twitter user points out that Aero, from the Agents of Atlas comics, would've been a perfect fit for the Lunar New Year event, as would Marvel's Spider-Man villain Mr. Negative or Lin-Lie's depiction of Sword Master/Iron Fist, although it's worth pointing out, as the original Twitter user does, that Sword Master is technically featured in the event via a player icon.

Another Twitter user wonders why Wong wasn't included in the event, but the sorcerer has always been a Tibetan character throughout his appearances in Marvel comics, and the Tibetan New Year isn't the same as the Lunar New Year. 

Marvel Snap players were also recently left astounded by a staggering $100 card bundle, which contained merely one actual card. 

In more positive news for the game though, Marvel Snap recently added full artist credits for every in-game card, meaning players can now see who's responsible for their favorite variants. 

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer
Freelance Writer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.