Ben 10 Collectible Card Game
by: Average Joe 1 year, 8 months, 2 weeks, 3 days, 17 hours, 43 minutes ago
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Bandai
Everyone’s favorite 10-year-old superhero and his alien friends make their debut in a collectible card game.
Having never really played games like Magic The Gathering, Naruto, or Pokemon I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I heard a card game based on one of my favorite TV shows, Ben 10 was being released. However, after playing with my cousin for about 15min I can safely say that fans of the genre are in for a treat.
I’ll be honest with you, I’ve never been much into card games that don’t deal with money or articles of clothing. When I received a press release from Bandai stating that they were releasing a new card game based on the hit show Ben 10 I sort of rolled my eyes and thought "anything for a buck." After I was contacted by the people hyping the release of the game my interest started to build. I mean, I’ve always associated those kinds of games with the people that even I look at and call “geek” (and that’s saying something). You go to things like the Comic Con and you see those people dressed in costume having full out tournaments complete with arguing, bickering, and accusations of cheating....it’s priceless, really.
However when I was offered a set of the new Ben 10 collectible cards to review I couldn’t pass it up. If anything I wanted to see the packaging and the artwork, since I love how it looks on the toys. The other day FED EX rang my door and delivered a small package. Once I opened it, I was already impressed with how unique the packaging for the card game is....ok so now my interest was piqued a bit more.
I called my cousin (who’s 11) and asked him if he’d heard about the new game. After listening to him tell me how he’s been waiting to get a “starter set” (I’m learning here) I thought I’d play Mr. Cool and hit him with the "oh yeah? I just got starter set A and B, as well as 3 extra packs of cards." Just as I expect he replied with "NO WAY! ah man I want some!" so I invited him to come over and play (a.k.a teach me how to play). After about 15min of getting to know how the game is played, and learning about the different cards I can easily see why some people get so caught up in these games.
What I liked about the game (aside from the packaging and artwork) was the different characters, and abilities each card posesses. While I’m still getting used to how it’s played exactly, and the strategy behind it (I lost about 4x in a row) I can easily say that fans of the show, and of the genre in general will find something new and refreshing with the Ben 10 collectible card game. While Magic The Gathering takes you into the world of wizards and magicians, Ben 10 takes you into the world of Ben Tennyson and his alien hero counterparts. During the game I actually watched as my cousin got excited that he found a Heatblast card, and completely wiped out any chance I had of victory....it was sad.
Overall I would say that while I doubt I’ll become a hardcore Magic fan, I did find the Ben 10 game to be fun. Maybe it’s because I’m a big fan of the show, or maybe it’s because it really does offer something different to a game that’s been done so many different ways. Either way fans of the show will definitely pick up on this one as they get to play as their favorite characters and flex some of that alien muscle.
Now if you’ll excuse me I’d like to go silence my cousin’s bragging by showing him how to play a little game I call poker....no alien heroes to save him this time.
For someone who’s never played any of these games, I actually thought this was pretty fun. I would definitely recommend this for kids and fans of the show.