Tag: Collectible card game »

I am someone who wrote Hearthstone off a while ago. It was hard not to try and stick with it. The game has incredible production values and a core of really great talent working on the game continuously to keep it feeling fresh and fun (full disclosure: I have a friend who actively works on Hearthstone). I can appreciate all of that from a distance, but when it came to actually playing the game, I would always bounce off of it.

It took me a while to realize, but the thing that always stuck in my craw about Hearthstone is how disingenuous it often feels. No matter how approachable it looks or fair toward free players it seems, the game is a hardcore collectible card game (CCG). The more that time went on, the easier it was for me to recognize this. From the separation of cards into the two buckets of Standard and Wild formats to single-player expansions like Rastakhan’s Rumble, the game was preoccupied with keeping multiplayer extremely competitive and single-player content extremely challenging. None of these updates spoke to me, a player that felt like occasionally dipping a toe into the game once every couple weeks.

To be fair, Blizzard has very few reasons to prioritize folks like me over their huge pool of dedicated players. I totally get that. But with each passing day, Hearthstone had started feeling less and less relevant to anyone who wasn’t already all the way bought in. That is, until now.

Spellsword Cards: Demontide is a wonderful little single-player card game, but it can also be quite unforgiving. Parts of it definitely look and feel like Hearthstone, but you can’t just play this game like its your favorite collectible card game (CCG) and expect to do well.

Specifically, Demontide’s Campaign Mode will punish you heartily unless you learn a few key lessons that the game unfortunately doesn’t do a great job of teaching you. Luckily, I’ve put in many hours into the game as of this writing and can step in to help any card battler that’s been banging their head against Demontide’s tough Campaign with some tips. See below:

With the Pokémon trading card game finally bringing those precocious pocket monsters to the App Store, it was only a matter of time before that other 90s, vaguely Japanese, childhood nostalgia hot property Power Rangers tried to get in on the action. Yes, Power Rangers: UNITE is a Power Rangers collectible card game. But is it as mighty as the morphing rangers themselves? Find out in this edition of It Came From Canada!

Obviously you should have a lot of reverence for the Power Rangers franchise to get the most out of Power Rangers: UNITE. But we should also examine its merits as a card game, too. Perhaps given its young target audience, the systems are actually pretty simple. Both players face each other and lay cards on their five-by-two grid. Unit cards placed on the front row, like rangers and powerful Zord robots, provide defense against enemy units directly opposite them. If there is no enemy, the card can target the opponent's health directly. The game ends when one player runs out of health or cards. Meanwhile, players use the back row to activate various spells like drawing from the enemy’s discard pile or increasing a unit’s likelihood of scoring a critical hit. One particularly neat mechanic has players placing a ranger on the board in their civilian form only to then morph them into their Power Ranger form on the next turn. Strategy ultimately boils down to effectively managing your offensive units. You have to know who to pit against who, who to power up and when, and when to tag someone out or sacrifice them.

But really, Power Rangers: UNITE wisely places its focus on copious amounts of Power Rangers fan service. As players build their deck they can choose from over 20 years’ worth of heroes, villains, and giant robots. The artwork is clean and high-res, the sound and music samples are exciting and numerous, and the original Mighty Morphin' series is, deservedly, over-represented. The limited animations somewhat bring down the production value - images just slide around - but the volume of content is still impressive and especially noticeable when encountering new challengers online.

While it may not be as provocative as the recent POWER/RANGERS short film, at least Power Rangers: UNITE won’t subtly mock fans for still enjoying the franchise. It should be launching everywhere soon.

Stone Blade Entertainment has updated SolForge with a new Campaign Mode for solo players. You'll be able to play missions using pre-designed decks against an AI to win rewards. Some of the missions will allow you to build your own decks and see how you fare as well.

The update also includes 48 new cards that do not bode well for the rest of the world. The cards can be found in booster packs, legendary chests, and prize packs, or you can purchase them in Reign of Varna booster packs and chests.

Check out the new campaign and cards in SolForge by downloading it for free.

2K has released new content for WWE SuperCard. The update adds the Fusion Chamber, which allows players to merge lower-ranking cards to create 48 new super-powerful Fusion cards.

There will be eight rarity levels of recipes for merging, from Common to Survivor. You'll also be able to purchase new card packs, Ultra Rare, Epic, and Legendary WWE Divas to expand your lineup.

You can download WWE SuperCard for free on the App Store.

Storm Casters, by Get Set Games, has gone on sale. Now you can get all your action-packed dungeoneering for less.

The collectible card game lets you collect battle cards to get elemental spells and evolve your character. It also has over 50 levels and 30 different enemy types to discover. Each floor has a limited time for you to explore, so you'll need to act fast in order to get to the next level.

You can download Storm Casters on the App Store for $0.99 for a limited time.

Metaversal Studios is currently working on a new officially licensed game based on the BlazBlue fighting game series, called BlazBlue: Battle Cards.

You can challenge your friends to a real-time card battle using one of the 9 customizable fighters: Azrael, Bang, Hakumen, Hazama, Jin, Noel, Ragna, Tager, and Taokaka. You can also collect battle cards to gain more attacks, defenses, counters, projectiles, and special moves. The game will, of course, allow you to purchase card packs to enhance your deck and give you the edge. After it launches, Metaversal Studios also plans to add more BlazBlue fighters to the roster.

BlazBlue: Battle Cards will be launching on the App Store soon, but until then take a peek at this teaser video.

Earthcore: Shattered Elements, by Tequila Games, is a new collectible card game that's coming out soon.

In the game you not only collect cards, but can use them to craft new, more powerful cards. This allows you to customize your deck with over 500,000 possible cards to fit your play-style. The cards use a 3-element battle mechanic in a "rock, paper, scissors" fashion - Fire, Nature, and Water battle it out against each other. Earthcore includes a single player campaign as well as ranked multiplayer leagues and online PvP modes to satisfy competitive players.

There's no official launch date set yet, but until then you can drool over AppSpy's preview video of Earthcore: Shattered Elements.