Cardpocalypse wants to hit you in two spots that never quite overlap. Taking place ambiguously in the late 90s, Cardpocalypse follows Jess, an elementary school girl now joining a new school with only two things on her mind: how do I not embarrass myself, and when can I play the new trading card game Power Pets? Lucky for her, the entirety of her new school is obsessed with the game and the tie-in TV show. Striking up friends turns out to be a breeze - find the dweebs who love the game and are generally too dorky for other friends, and Jess' charisma just seems to naturally take care of the rest. But even with this motley crew of geeks, Jess isn't out of the woods for embarrassment. An altercation on her first day of school gets the card game banned, creating an underground market and competitive scene that even starts to interest the older kids bent on rebelling against the teachers. Jess' folly may have made her something of a social pariah, but it also created an economy she thrives in. Jess passes through the halls taking up tasks for people in order to gain cards and build her deck, all the while investigating a supernatural mystery that has kids disappearing, leaving behind a strange familiar goo.
Pokemon was released in the US in late 1998, and the developers at Gambrinous have left little out from the time. The art style is reminiscent of early South Park, the writing and story right out of a 6th grade mystery novel, and the fury and obsession that was the Pokemon craze of the 90s is skewered with love and nostalgia. But most of the game's charm strikes a very particular chord, one meant to provoke fond memories for those who were this age when Pokemon was first released, while also being written with the younger demographic in mind. When was the last time you read an elementary school level book? They don't quite catch your attention, and so is true of Cardpocalypse from a narrative perspective. The characters are charming and the stakes are certainly there (and often spun in a somewhat humorous way), but there is the distinct feeling that this game would mostly appeal to a younger audience, rather than the audience it seems to be marketed towards. The gameplay, which we will get to in a moment, is solid enough to brush aside the juvenile plot, but there is still the cost of how much plot there is. The story never really gets much more complicated than it seems from the first half (although it does get a bit more ridiculous), but you will still find yourself going through a lot of dialogue in order to play. Cardpocalypse, for all of its appeal to the digital card game genre, is a lot closer to Night in the Woods as far as presentation goes, and that means a heck of a lot of reading. The writing here has a purpose it is going for and it is successful at achieving that, but the intention may be misguided. Cardpocalypse gains its greatest pros from its gameplay, which is a bit too complicated for most in the age range the story is intended for, and from its nostalgia and satire, which appeals to people far older than are going to enjoy its story. It can't seem to get satiric enough to make the plot worthwhile for anyone well into or beyond their teens.
That isn't to say there isn't a certain warmth in Cardpocalypse, but the game is at its best when you are actually playing the card game. The rules are pretty well a mix of Hearthstone and something like Slay the Spire or Magic: The Gathering's Commander game type. You pick a particular Power Pet that acts as your health bar, and you spend "pet food" to cast other pets or something called "mutations". Your champion pet has a general ability and starts with 30 life (which if dropped to zero loses you the match), and when that life gets to 15 or below, you activate a mega ability, usually the ability your deck is built around. This can be as simple as cast a 5/5 creature to as complicated as gain lethal (deathtouch, for M:TG fans) while all of your other "minions" get lethal for one turn. The number of synergies in this game are actually rather astounding for a single player TCG. One combo I rolled with for a long time was putting out a minion with hiding (enemy cannot attack until the minion has first attacked at some point in the game) that gained +2/0 for every enemy minion destroyed. Ramping this minion up was an easy way to push the opponent back to a point they could hardly get back from. But there were numerous other twists and combinations and I never felt like I had milked the game for all it was worth. Added to this game, due exclusively to the fact this game is single player only, is the ability to modify (and in one case create) cards. Stickers allow you to change the typing, cost, attack, defense, and nature (such as lethal, defender, etc.) of your cards. They come in a limited supply, but I hardly found the need to use them unless I was really ramping up a deck, and managed to hoard quite a few of each. The basic nature and rule set to Power Pets is a lot of fun, but as you get closer to the end of the game, things start to take a bit of an interesting turn.
Though it is mild, there are some spoilers from here on out.
Towards the end of the game, you find out that the Power Pets from the TV show have invaded the real world, and you are tasked with defeating them. Every time you do, however, one of the rules of Power Pets is changed for everyone. You get to pick one from a pool of three rule changes (although I couldn't tell for certain, I think the rule changes are related to the powers of whatever Pet you defeated). These rule changes can be exploited sometimes to make your deck better - such as allowing cards to be pinned to your first hand of a game, letting me get out that hiding minion out first turn to really ramp up his ability - but equally can screw certain deck types up, or the game entirely. One type of card I haven't described yet is the mutations, which act sort of like trap cards from Yu-Gi-Oh. You may place a mutation face down on the field, and whenever the conditions have been met, they will be activated. You can build entire decks around these, with minion cards that gain +1/0 modifiers for each you have face down, among other things. One of the potential rule changes, however, creates a face-up infinite deck of random mutations, and whichever player meets the conditions first gets to activate the top card. It is a really fun mechanic in game, but it made matches less strategic and far more chaotic. If a mutation was activated, there was no telling if a second mutation beneath it had also met its conditions until the first had been played. What this means is there are times when your opponent could activate the top card, and suddenly find themselves activating one or two more, putting you at a big disadvantage with little for you to predict since the deck is random and unpredictable. There really wasn't a great defense against this thing, but, on the flip side, you really didn't have to choose that rule change. As a criticism, I would put this in the mild to negligible pile, because it certainly made the game more fun as it went on and your deck was starting to take something close to a final shape, but it is worth noting that the game won't let you totally pull one over on it.
The digital TCG market is beyond saturated at this point, so making an effort telling you that this game is worth your time is immediately diluted by the fact that it will also not pierce through the top of the pile when it comes to this genre. It is a fun, regret-free diversion that can't quite draw you totally in, but is still worth consideration if you want something without having to also delve into a rollicking and hostile meta in order to play. As far as single player, digital TCG games go, this one sits in the middle of the "quality" file, far beneath the glorious Slay the Spire that I cannot help but bring up every chance I get. If this game looks to strike the desire for an impulse buy, I say go for it. It's 10 hours. You've got nothing to lose, and charm to gain.
7.0
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