I let this one sit in my library for entirely too long before wiping my save file and starting over. It's definitely not the best game in library, but I had a lot of fun. The $5 or so I paid for the game was well worth it.
I'll start with the strongest point of the title: the music is awesome! If you're into the "lo-fi" scene, you might dig the soundtrack. I like "chillimusic" over on YouTube for studying, and the music in the game is very reminiscent of those playlists. There's not much tension in the game overall, but during certain battles, the game ratchets up the tension with background music. There's also some light sound effects, particularly when certain card chains are completed or played. It's light and easy. Sound's not required, but it's a nice touch.
Controls are the easiest part of the game, but I struggled with the touch pad on my laptop while playing. Point, click. The thing is, I would have to click several times to enter a building, or occasionally, I'd drop the card on the wrong spot because the touch pad didn't register where I let go properly. I'm not sure if this is an issue with my hardware or the game's programming, but it's worth noting.
The story is pretty basic, but anything more complex would hamper the game. Simplicity is a strength for the game overall, from the sound effects, to controls, to story and beyond. You are a new card battler on the island. Your goal is to collect the 8 legendary cards and battle the Card King. That's most of the story. I popped all of the achievements except for "Card Gods," and that's when I realized there's a post game! The post game adds a new, exciting challenge to undertake, and I didn't anticipate the game having "illegal" decks when I first started my new save file. Beating the "illegal" decks with my legal deck was an interesting challenge for sure.
Finally, I'll talk about graphics. It's kind of old school here. There's no cut scenes. There's no voice acting with moving facial features. It's an image of a person and text to indicate what's being said. That's not terrible here. The low intensity of resources made the game more appealing, and where the resources are allocated is where it matters--card battles! Each card, literally more than a hundred of them, has its own unique art and description, and some of the art is actually really cool. Most of it is cartoonish, but that's to be expected from the overall style of the game.
Overall, it's more substance than style. There's not much to the game, but that's to be expected of something I paid about $5 (if that) for about 8 years ago. It seems to be just a generic card battler based on the other games by the developer. I haven't played any of them, but I had fun regardless. That's what matters.
4.0