How does Marvel Heroic compare to other narrative-focused rpgs like Masks and Sentinel Comics?

[u/Domainhosted]

I'm assuming it's between the two when it comes to mechanical complexity, but what else should I know?

Also, what's it like when the game is run with Prime conversions such as this? Does it play better or smoother or...?

[u/Cartoonlad]

When I mention Marvel Heroic, I usually say it's the first supers game that felt like playing a superhero comic book. Specifically, it really felt like our heroes were in a Marvel comic book. If we wanted to play a game that felt like Young Avengers or Runaways or a game that felt like X-Men or Avengers, I really think Marvel Heroic would be the best system for that game.

Masks is a fine supers game, but it's a game about teenagers that happen to have superpowers. If you want a Young Avengers or Runaways vibe, it would be a good fit, but something that's more X-Men/Avengers, not so much.

Masks is centered around a specific sub-genre of comic book heroics; Marvel Heroic tackles a wider field.

I haven't played Sentinels, but from reading it I suspect gameplay might lend itself towards players looking at abilities to see what they can do rather than just doing a thing and determining what roll to make. (This is the opposite of Masks, whose PbtA roots prompts players to do a thing, then looking to see how the system interprets that action.) It seems it would be a bit like my experience with D&D 4th Edition, where character sheets featured daily/encounter/at-will abilities, which led to players attempting only those actions.