Honestly, I’ve been trying to get a review out for the game for two weeks, but it’s been rough. The game is still too fledgling to make a final decision on, and I feel like the first expansion will be the best indicator of how good the game will be for the future.
Not to say that I don’t have some current thoughts, though.
- Troublemakers are in a bad spot mechanically… in that they’re binary TWO ways. Either the card is too good or too bad, and the usability is either early game or late game. It should be telling that the best troublemakers in the game are Yellow Parasprite and Purple Parasprite by FAR (and the Yellow one should be a playset in every deck you can possibly make, making it the first true “staple” card)
- Control in general is stupidly good, and no real anti-mechanic to match it. As the resources are limited in the early game, that’s when its easiest to gain a lead and keep it. The mechanic meant to do something (Speed) about it doesn’t even work enough of the time to be a consistant balance. Then Speed even requires the elusive Ultra
- The specific color spread behind the game will make it problematic to nerf and buff colors, as essentially every deck will be able to carry a buffed color. Meanwhile, Some colors desperately need a buff (orange) but can’t get the one they need without increasing the overall power of the game.
- It’s nothing new. The primary mechanics are lifted nearly part-and-parcel from some of the creator’s previous games. Star Trek CCG 2nd Edition makes up for many, many of MLP:CCG’s mechanics, to the point that calling the latter Star Trek CCG 3rd Edition isn’t too far off. With a bit of Star Wars CCG in there with the
faceoffDestiny mechanic for flavor. - I’m not a fan of fixed cards, and even less so for cards required to PLAY THE GAME being fixed. It’s exploitative of the game, and I feel as if it’s an unnecessary money grab (if the game was more obviously better, and better advertised, they would need to do it). Then you have the powerful promos (Blue may not function nearly as well without Rainbow Dash, To The Rescue, which is Promo-Only)
- The game is going to be particularly weak to the Three Creeps: Power Creep, Rarity Creep, and Complexity Creep. Power due to how ccgs tend to sell cards lately (and expect some Magic Bullets), rarity creep for similar reasons (and the game has a MASSIVE Rarity = Power problem, all just to sell packs), and Complexity has to happen as otherwise the win condition becomes near-solvable with just one or two cards more per color. All three creeps need to be avoided and mitigated as much as possible, and I don’t see the effort yet for MLP:CCG.
Really, it feels like the game is sacrificing things just to get some of the money back when it was entirely unnecessary with proper planning and playtesting. As a player, the game is somewhat okay, but as a creator the game just bugs me.
I will be withholding judgment, though, from an advertised review until the expansion. Maybe Enterplay can actually fix the issues and go above and beyond. And maybe my cynicism will be proven right.