I AM MT: Card Battle

I AM MT: Card Battle is perhaps one of the strangest concepts for a game I've encountered in recent memory. It is a game based on a Chinese cartoon that is based on World of Warcraft. In other words, it is a game based on a TV show based on a game. To top it all off, the entire game is an abstraction of the actual action of the show, opting instead to simulate characters and their battles through a card system. I wish that I could say that such a bizarre premise resulted in some peculiarly interesting gameplay, but sadly, I AM MT: Card Battle is an adventure in tedium.

The first thing to note about I AM MT: Card Battle is that its name is a bit of a misnomer. The words "card battle" imply that there is a card game to be played in this game, but that is not exactly true, at least not in the conventional sense. In I AM MT, characters are simply represented as cards that navigate through dungeons and fight enemies that are also represented as cards. Players will collect cards as they go, but there is no deck building or rules that would allow this game to be played outside of the app itself. This makes I AM MT more like a dungeon crawler with a card aesthetic than a card game.

Although there is nothing wrong with I AM MT being a dungeon crawler rather than a card game, there is so little to actually do in the game that it quickly becomes a boring grind. Players can pick up quests, arrange their heroes, and from there, the game basically plays itself. Your heroes and their foes take turns exchanging blows until a winner is determined, then they move on to repeat the process. There is a certain amount of satisfaction to be derived to this gameplay thanks to a character progression system, but the game places a limit on how much progress you can make per day thanks to an "action point" system that players can only bypass through spending runes, an in-game currency (which is also available for purchase with real money).

The entire concept of I AM MT just feels like a game designed to hook players based on its branding, and then keep them hooked using carrot and stick approach to player progression. Perhaps, if I AM MT were a more recognizable or lauded property, I could see some more appeal, but I AM MT offers so little in terms of actual gameplay, that it is difficult to recommend.