Mastering the cards in Kousoku Card Battle: Card Hero

Now that I’ve played Kousoku Card Battle: Card Hero, I feel bad for it. Not because it’s awful, quite the contrary, but because it’s not going to get the attention that it deserves. When I heard about the title I imagined Yu-Gi-Oh 2.1 at the worse, SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters at the best. I wasn’t really crazy about either possibility since I’m not partial to card games. I tend to find the convoluted rules interfering with me jumping in to play the game. Kousoku Card Battle: Card Hero doesn’t have this problem because it is entirely different from the card game genre

There are only four positions to worry about in Kousoku Card Battle: Card Hero, two for you and two for your opponent. On the first phase you can drag two creature cards into position. Notice how there is a small gap between the red squares and blue ones? The most basic beasts can only attack a single square forward. The intersection between the two colors is the main combat area. You can place a second creature in the other spot, but this monster needs a ranged attack to do any damage.

When you’re ready to attack you tap a creature card and drag it to the enemy card you want to fight. A menu pops up with a few skills. You pick one and watch an animation play out on the top screen. Don’t expect anything fancy though. A simple, 2HP kick to the shins is all you’re going to get with the most basic creature in Kousoku Card Battle: Card Hero. If the kick is fatal (and one time it will be) your green robot card may level up. When you level up your card deals extra damage and it completely recovers HP. Leveled up cards revert to their base stats at the end of battle and if they run out of HP they are discarded. The system tends to favor aggressive players, but this makes battles flow quickly.

The player who loses the creature gains a green gem. You don’t want green gems, if the green gem meter fills up it is game over. In the first battle I only had three green gem slots and one was filled by default. That means whoever loses two monsters first loses. Later battles had five gems to fill. Kousoku Card Battle: Card Hero has a clever comeback system involving the gems. You can draw upon gem power to use magic cards that shield a monster from attacks next round or damage an enemy with a blast of lightning.

Novel right? I thought it was. I imagine the final build of Kousoku Card Battle: Card Hero will be much better when you can customize a deck and face other players via Nintendo Wi-Fi.