App Review: Kard Combat by Hothead

Disclaimer: Yes this is a combative card game for iPad.  Yes it’s like Magic: the Gathering.  Yes I used to play back in revised edition and whatever that ice expansion was that came out where they reprinted the Icy Manipulator, which upset me greatly as I had a beta Icy.  Yes I’m one of the people that crack on CCG players but lest you forget I also crack on just about any geeky past time given the chance because one can’t take their selves too seriously.  Ok now that all the pleasantries are out of the way, shall we move on?

So, before I so rudely interrupted myself, Kard Combat is a CCG style game for iPad created by Hothead.  The game offers single, multi, and tower (think campaign level based style) play modes.  There are four unique mages that allow the player access to a special category of cards available only that specific mage, more on that later.  There are three levels of purchasing options for the game: Free which allows you single player duel, multiplayer, and up to level 10 I think in the tower mode, $2.99 which basically unlocks the tower levels for play through, and $9.99 which they are kind enough to suggest if you are a fan of primarily multiplayer because it unlocks all the available cards for you.  What available cards you ask?  Each mage has access to the four basic elemental groups, if you don’t remember what they are go watch Captain Planet and get back to me.  It’s okay, we’ll all wait.  Go ahead…Back?  Great.  So the fifth group of cards you get is specific to your mage type, Holy gets nice things, Death gets dark things, Machine gets clockwork things, and Dominator gets manipulative things.

In the Tower mode, you are ascending through 33 levels of duels with various incarnations of the four mage types.  This is where you unlock special cards, power ups, and a familiar through winning the battles.  I felt like this is an area the game designers could have capitalized more on game fluff, but didn’t.  For instance, in general, the game’s   “story” or fluff is non-essential and only weakly existent.  They give you a maybe one hundred word long intro story to explain the Tower mode but that’s it.  The game levels are interesting however in how they challenge you through added special cards in play that effect both sides, bonus\limited mana, forced turn skips, increased health, and so on.  It’s worth mentioning that if you buy the $2.99 options (as I did), then this mode is where you will be able to gain the unlocks.  If you play multiplayer with out having gone through the tower in at least Novice mode, then you’ll be playing at a disadvantage in most cases.  The $9.99 option unlocks all this for you if you don’t want to put the time into it, but personally I feel like this is where two-thirds of the fun is.

Next up is Duel mode.  This allows you a straight up single player vs. computer combat.  You are able to use the cards you unlock from Tower play as is the computer AI.  Not surprisingly this looks, much like a standard game of MtG.  It is fun but personally I find the Tower scenarios a bit more enjoyable and with three levels of difficulty it can be challenging for awhile.

Finally there is the multiplayer mode.  Here Kard Combat integrates with Apple Game Center as well as Open Feint, both of which you’ll need an account to use.  Multiplayer requires web access so you can interface with other players online, shocking I know.  But if you’re a public transit aficionado, like myself, then this option is most often blocked out.  While I’ve never really been a huge multiplayer fan myself, this may actually be a game format that it matches well with.  Instead of just score comparison, like in 40K: Kill Team, there is actually a head-to-head function of the multiplayer.

Before I go, I have to give special mention to the graphics.  Really good work here Hothead.  While the sound is so-so, and frankly gets old after awhile, the graphic rendering of actions, card animation, and power uses is really nice.  The artwork for the cards is excellent as well, so kudos there too.

While I’m usually not a mobile gamer type, this game has had me addicted from the start.  I would question spending $10 on this just to be lazy and not unlock the skills and such, $3 was most certainly worth it.  And bonus points for allowing a moderate free play as well.  So if you’ve ever been into CCG’s\LCG’s or what not, check our Kard Combat.  Really fun and dangerously addictive.

What other card style apps have you seen and tried?