The premise of Pit Fighter is not all that new. Each player is accused of a crime, and must enter the pit to fight for his freedom. Earn 1000 gold because the fans love you, and you win the game.
To earn this gold, players move their characters around a hex grid representing the pit, and wallop each other with weapons. Every time a character hits another, he earns money. The crowds pay to see big hits, so more damage means more money. This part of the game represents a miniatures game, though instead of minis, Pit Fighter uses cardboard counters.
As players maneuver around the pit and swing their weapons, they play cards from their individual decks that modify attacks, defenses, and other special maneuvers. In fact, since every attack is, for most purposes, an automatic success, these cards can add so much damage to an attack that the damage-reducing cards are key to avoiding a painful beating.
Since every attack is a hit, the only real variable is damage. A weapon might add three dice to a damage roll, with a handful of cards adding several more dice. It is not unusual, after an attack sequence is resolved, to roll eight or more dice. The key to causing massive damage is to play the right cards at the right times, making Pit Fighter sometimes resemble a trading card game.
The details of Pit Fighter tend to be where it falls apart. For one thing, the base set comes with two decks of cards, each with 20 cards – only the decks are identical, and with the incredible rate at which players are drawing new cards, players can count on getting the cards they need. The end result is that players tend to have the same sets of cards in their hands, which removes a lot of the interesting CCG aspect of the game.
Another problem with Pit Fighter is that the pit just is not all that interesting. It is simply a hex grid. Players maneuver around, trying to get close to throw down the meanest beating they can accomplish, but once two melee characters close, they don't tend to move at all. They just stand there swapping hits. There is no maneuvering to take advantage of terrain, no dodging behind obstacles, no quest for higher ground. Not that there should be, in a pit, but it would have been more interesting.
A third downside to the game is the considerable amount of bookkeeping. Each card costs money to play, and each hit earns money. If a player deals 28 points of damage in one blow, he earns 560 gold – unless he already had 400, in which case he earns 420, or, if he had over 700, he earns 280. Of course, that player may have already spent a considerable sum to get that money – 30 for his weapon, 40 to get a second swing, 20 for a card to enhance damage, another 15 for another damage card, and possibly even more. The system is not too difficult, as long as you can add, subtract and multiply, but it is definitely not elegant. Add in bookkeeping for adding and subtracting damage, and it gets downright cumbersome.
In all fairness, there are expansions to the game that may mitigate the first two problems. The first expansion is included in the base game, and since you could not play without it, that's handy. The second and third expansions are available from the Cheese Weasel Logistics website. These cards may very well alter the makeup of the game and make it much more interesting. As a point in their favor, the expansions are not randomized, and are quite affordable. Since the base game is also very affordable, it might not be a bad idea to pick up the game with all the expansions, just to see how it's supposed to work.
There are things about Pit Fighter that redeem it. The concept is sound, and the art is gritty and expressive. With the ability to customize a deck, both the maneuvering issue and the card play problems could be overcome, as a character who can shoot a lot, summon monsters, or cast spells might really make this game a great deal more interesting. While the basic game does not include them, Pit Fighter includes rules for summoning creatures to fight in the pit, and that, too, could improve the game, as players gain no money for hitting each other, or just call out support troops to buy them time. The ability to swap in a sidebar of cards would make tournament play possible, and the outer limits of the game's possibilities might be tested with a wider range of options.
Pit Fighter: Fantasy Arena tries to mesh a miniatures game with a CCG. Unfortunately, a lack of terrain or maneuvering options renders the miniatures portion a little stale, and very limited card selection takes all the clever card play out of the trading card angle. While Pit Fighter certainly has potential, and may even reach it with the expansions, it simply fails to deliver a satisfying gaming experience right out of the box.
Style: 3 – Decent art, but the cardboard counters and dull map do not scream to be played.
Substance: 3 – The idea has lots of potential, but the game falls short.
