Floop the pig! – Card Wars

Adventure Time is a fantastic show and the Card Wars episode really struck a chord with me as a CCG player. So when I heard that there was a Card Wars video game, I pounced on that sucker in a flash. I have to say that it’s a fun mobile game that really brings the feel of the source material to life. I’m really glad that someone over at Cartoon Network gave the thumbs up to this project and brought it to the light of day. Unfortunately, I also have a few criticisms about the way that the game is put together and the use of microtransactions in it.

The shiny part

Summon creatures to do your bidding.

Let’s start with the awesome parts of Card Wars. It’s based on an episode of Adventure Time from season 4 of the same name. As in the episode, the game is set up with two players that have a set of lands in front of them on a game board where they play their creatures and buildings. The holographic creature avatars spring from the table and are used to wage epic battles against your opponent! It’s pretty cool. Characters like the Cool Dog, Husker Knights, Wandering Bald Man, and of course The Pig are all in the game as well as a variety of new and imaginative creatures. The iconic spells Volcano and Cerebral Blood Storm are also among the dozens available to help bring victory to your righteous deck. Just be aware that other parts of the show are in the game too. BMO will not play such games with Jake; you have to play him as any other character.

Card Wars is easy to get the hang of as its phases of play are really simple. Each character has a limited number of magic points that can be spent to play cards or floop them. Once all magic is used up, combat begins. On the player’s turn an attack spinner is used to determine whether creatures miss, hit, or crit. Essentially there’s a needle going around a shaded circle and players tap the screen to stop the needle in part of a green shaded portion. On the AI’s attack phase, however, the player gets to try defending using the same spinner mechanic. Critical defense means not only defending against damage, but counterattacking as well.

Card Wars progresses in a reasonably straightforward manner. It’s set up as a linear path with nodes along the way from Finn and Jake’s Treehouse to the Ice Kingdom. You can always revisit previously vanquished nodes in order to max your star rating, grind xp to gain your next level, or accumulate more cards and money. The game provides goals to earn stars each time you play a node up to a maximum of three stars. When you earn your third star, you also receive a gem, the game’s premium currency.

The dark side

Ignore everyone else, give us your money.

This is where my problem with Card Wars comes in. It’s a $3.99 app that works like a free game. Each node requires that you pay a number of hearts to play. Hearts, however, require 15 minutes each to recharge. If you’ve used all of your hearts, you can either wait for some to recharge in order to keep playing the game or you can spend a gem for a full recharge. Gems are also how you expand your maximum card library size beyond its initial limitation of 50 cards. You can also spend a gem to continue a match you’ve just lost. And, of course, gems are how you acquire rare cards in the game using the cool or algebraic chests.

Beyond the limited number of gems you can get by replaying nodes on the map until you achieve a third star, the way you acquire gems is with real money. They range from $0.99 for a single gem to the best value of 50 gems for $29.99.  So even at best, gems are about $0.60 each. At 3 gems per algebraic chest (guarantees a card of rarity 3 or better), things can start adding up in short order. On top of these microtransactions, you’ll be greeted by an advertisement each time you load up the game.

Pick wisely

As much as I dislike the monetization of Card Wars, it’s a fun game to kill time with. It is lamentably only single player, though with the combat system set up as it currently stands, I can’t see how multiplayer would actually work. My advice when playing is to always try to go second. It’s more advantageous to set up your creatures when you know exactly what they’re going up against. It also means that you get the first attack round which is always a good thing. As long as you don’t mind putting money down up front for a wait to play game with an advertisement and microtransactions, Card Wars is must play. It’s currently available for Android and iOS systems. Don’t be a dweeb – drink from the cool guy cup.

Have you played Card Wars? Let us know what you think in the comments below!