Tap, Destroy Target Atifact

Hey digital warriors, it's been a short while since my last post.  Lots of things going on that's been keeping me from my usual gaming rituals (including travel, a con, money, new job, new apartment, and lots of other life changes).  Along with that, more changes to the blog as you might notice (such as text update, a mascot drawing that's very near completion, and even a mobile version of the blog.  Open the page via smart phone, TAKE A LOOK, it's spiffy!) , everything is and still will be changing. But enough small talk, ON TO BUSINESS!

I'm usually not the type of person who gets wrapped into anything with the word "collectible" in the name.  Granted, I played a couple card games in highschool and earlier, but mostly only socially.  One of those "all the cool nerds are doing it" moments that flared up and quickly ended.  It hasn't been until recently when a good friend of mine has moved into my local vicinity, all afire with one of these games in toe.  So I chiseled my old deck block out of the granite tomb where I buried my highschool, and brought it and it's out-datedness to the light.  That is, only till I found out that there was a new Xbox 360 Arcade Game Magic 2012.

Game:  Magic 2012

Platform: Xbox 360 Arcade

Developer: Wizard of the Coast
Rating: 7 Stacked

This is one of those games that dole out exactly what it promises.  That promise is simply this: There will be cards, there will be a game, it follows the rules of the physical game, you can play by yourself or others.  It's you or yous vs another or anothers.  The game is spiced up with little animations here and there, a semi-interactive hud.  There was a previous game, that had a lot of the same, however this is that game + a little more.  Nerd Alert:  Here's where we get to the grit and sticky.  Decks as strategy themselves.  Now, I'm not going to list any deck specifically, as that would take out a lot of what that game is all about.  On a personal note, speaking more about Magic The Gathering the physical activity, the people are what draw me away from it.  Much like Halo, much like Call of Duty, much like old World of Warcraft, much like Risk, people, as a group entity, have a bad habit of becoming too immersed in these things and start to "know too much".  I just don't like to play with people that know every card, that manipulate every bullet pixel, that have walked everywhere on every map, know every stat, every combination, blah blah blah blah blah blah.  For me, most of these kinds of games (not as much the FPS's) is discovery.  Especially World of Warcraft, most of that game, I don't care if I win the PVP relm, I don't care if the party wipes, I just want to "see" everything.  In Magic The Gathering, I enjoy the creativity of decks and the little tricks of the trade people come up with.  But when it just gets to the point of unbalanced stompyness, I frown.  And by "unbalanced stompyness, I mean the "oops, your dead on turn 2".  If I play a game, I want to PLAY the game.  That is, I have enough turns to let you experience my stuff, and I have enough turns to experience your stuff.  Simple as that.

This game suffers from a little bit of a lack of muchness, a problem that plagues quite a large number of games in recent times, but really, it's not by far.  This game needs a few more decks, one or a couple more randomly changing "map/level" lay outs (since it's just a table, some table-graphic changes would be nice), maybe some BGM options other than just 1 (I'm not sure if you can turn it off or not, as the one song isn't "bad" per say, just gets tiresome after a couple hours of it).  And a few more graphics and particle effects would be great.  A suggestion I shared with a friend when playing Co-op, which I highly recommend, is that since there are a few "Legendary" cards, some animations pertaining special to each one, like waving tentacles, or avatar like effigies climbing out of the card or something.  However, these are all trivial matters as the game can more than stand on it's own legs, and everything else would just be nice.

I think what really surprised me, was that they brought strategy back to the card games, albeit through a virtual platform.  My general experience was that I hold cards in my hand, then loose in confusingly strange and poorly explained manners.  I have found myself a little ruthless with a few games (some vs computers, and one astounding victory over a person....my bad, holms).  I have crashed my xbox by doing 1025 damage ending the game putting the opponent at -1015 in one turn).  The funny thing, is that the game crashed, AFTER the damage was done, not during.  As soon as the "you won!" page faded, it just couldn't load the next zone, oops.  I'll give you a hint on how I did it, the Deck was multi-colored.  Co-op is delightful with another human being.  Leaning over the couch to discuss how to royally screw over who your going against reminds me of conspiracy theorists who are excited about their next plan of attack on the veil that covers the people's eyes on the sinister purpose those little plastic tips on the end of shoe laces are actually for.  Co-op with AI....is mostly good.  Every once and a while there are little hiccups where it will target the wrong card with an ability, or it will not realize that you want to double up on blocking one creature and instead pull back or switch targets (computer A.I. likes to "chump", which is just throwing canon fodder to block and not kill).

For an 800 point Arcade game that can provide hours of strategery and conspiracy theorist like fun, I'm very delighted with this game.

Rating: 7 Stacked