I recently noticed that my local game shop in Japan has dropped the price of Kousoku Card Battle: Card Hero (High Speed Card Battle: Card Hero) down to barely $20, I picked it up and have REALLY been enjoying it.
Famitsu gave this game 9/9/9/9
but on the web, I feel like this game has been very UNDER THE RADAR.
This is a CCG, and the biggest flaw of the game is the kiddie-oriented narrative Intelligent Systems decided to wrap it in. Kid discovers Card Battle, meets a "rival", joins a tournament, has to defeat various opponents for pokemon badges, ... oops, no, I mean to win the tournament and face his rival...
The basic format uses a 14 card DECK.
You have 10 creatures and 4 EFFECT cards, and the first player to beat the snot out of 5 creatures (half of the other guy's army) wins.
The meat of the gameplay and strategy is within the creature battle and the field system that the game uses.
The field is divided into the FRONT and BACK.
The FRONT is immediate to the opponent, while the BACK is more protected and harder to attack. The creatures are fundamentally divided into ones that are more suited to be in the FRONT, brawlers, tanks, and ones that are more suited to be in the BACK, range attackers, ones with powerful abilities, but low life. But in actual play, the creatures run a deep range between ones that have to be in the FRONT, ones that have to sit in the BACK, or ones that can sort of play in both the FRONT and BACK lines, but lack more specialized and powerful abilities.
The strategy comes in because the opponent can screw with your field setup. If a Front liner is knocked out, the Back liner is automatically moved to the FRONT, and you are given a chance to replaced the BACK spot afterwards. Usually, you want to try and save that Back liner and move the creature out of the FRONT, but not always, sometimes sacrificing a creature can be very beneficial in the long run if you plan for it.
This part of the game really feels like a condensed version of creature combat from MTG, minus the summoning sickness.
On top of this creature combat are EFFECTS (I'm a MTG player, so I think of them as spells) that can change the way the board looks. But unlike MTG, there are no lands to worry about, so no land screw and definitely no mana screw. The RESOURCES in this game come in only one flavor, POWER, and it is limited by only one factor, HOW MUCH YOU ARE WINNING/LOSING. If you are dishing out the beat down, then your pool is small and your POWER STONES few, so you won't be able to play anything other than cheap effects. But if you are receiving the beat down, then your pool automatically becomes engorged and your POWER STONES numerous, allowing you to play more expensive and powerful cards.
This really keeps the game tense because even when you are winning, you have wonder what crazy shit your opponent might be able to pull off with that much more POWER than you have.
This game also does WIFI play, so I highly recommend it to all the SNK vs Capcom Card Fighters Clash fans, or if you were disappointed with Card Fighters, this one is a gem IMO.
Famitsu gave this game 9/9/9/9
but on the web, I feel like this game has been very UNDER THE RADAR.
This is a CCG, and the biggest flaw of the game is the kiddie-oriented narrative Intelligent Systems decided to wrap it in. Kid discovers Card Battle, meets a "rival", joins a tournament, has to defeat various opponents for pokemon badges, ... oops, no, I mean to win the tournament and face his rival...
The basic format uses a 14 card DECK.
You have 10 creatures and 4 EFFECT cards, and the first player to beat the snot out of 5 creatures (half of the other guy's army) wins.
The meat of the gameplay and strategy is within the creature battle and the field system that the game uses.
The field is divided into the FRONT and BACK.
The FRONT is immediate to the opponent, while the BACK is more protected and harder to attack. The creatures are fundamentally divided into ones that are more suited to be in the FRONT, brawlers, tanks, and ones that are more suited to be in the BACK, range attackers, ones with powerful abilities, but low life. But in actual play, the creatures run a deep range between ones that have to be in the FRONT, ones that have to sit in the BACK, or ones that can sort of play in both the FRONT and BACK lines, but lack more specialized and powerful abilities.
The strategy comes in because the opponent can screw with your field setup. If a Front liner is knocked out, the Back liner is automatically moved to the FRONT, and you are given a chance to replaced the BACK spot afterwards. Usually, you want to try and save that Back liner and move the creature out of the FRONT, but not always, sometimes sacrificing a creature can be very beneficial in the long run if you plan for it.
This part of the game really feels like a condensed version of creature combat from MTG, minus the summoning sickness.
On top of this creature combat are EFFECTS (I'm a MTG player, so I think of them as spells) that can change the way the board looks. But unlike MTG, there are no lands to worry about, so no land screw and definitely no mana screw. The RESOURCES in this game come in only one flavor, POWER, and it is limited by only one factor, HOW MUCH YOU ARE WINNING/LOSING. If you are dishing out the beat down, then your pool is small and your POWER STONES few, so you won't be able to play anything other than cheap effects. But if you are receiving the beat down, then your pool automatically becomes engorged and your POWER STONES numerous, allowing you to play more expensive and powerful cards.
This really keeps the game tense because even when you are winning, you have wonder what crazy shit your opponent might be able to pull off with that much more POWER than you have.
This game also does WIFI play, so I highly recommend it to all the SNK vs Capcom Card Fighters Clash fans, or if you were disappointed with Card Fighters, this one is a gem IMO.
