by StormKnight
My point is simply that people who dismiss the cooperative aspect as fluff meant to be incidental to the play experience are doing a disservice to the game's successful implementation of narrative consistent with the superhero team dynamic — something DC just doesn't do.
Narrative consistent with the...what the hell? This is a slightly tweaked Thunderstone or Ascension. I don't know what superhero dynamic and narrative you are seeing. I don't even know what the half the things in the game represent. (What the hell are 'Stars' anyway?)
The fact that those who disdain it can play as competitively as they want is a testament to the superior flexibility of the game's design.
There's no "superior" flexibility here. If you're trying to play competitively, the possibility of a player "throwing" the game, or the boring games when all the Scheme Twists come up and top and just end it before the players even get to really play, absolutely suck.
If you're trying to play cooperatively, then several game elements simply don't apply. In the worst case, in many scenarios you don't even want to fight villains. It's better to just let them fill up so you can bump out the hero cards that are jamming the deck.
Then you've got the difficulty of powering a card that's awesome in competitive play (rescuing bystanders) and useless in co-op play.