"The Game of Bizarre Battles"

First off let me say that I luckily did not waste my money buying this card game/board game because I and others tried it at one of the larger conventions. I and others laughed and giggled and to others looking in it would seem that we enjoyed this game, but read on.

The game is basically running around a map trying to build up a combo of powers that you acquire through cards on the game map. You start w/ one character w/ three powers of your choice and run around the too small map trying to get that special combo of cards cards and attack your opponent. The only thought behind this combo is creating a "superhero" that can destroy your fellow player(s). There seems to be no strategy other than trying pray to the game Gods that you get the right cards that will defeat your opponent. It's all in the cards folks and other than that a good die roll can help, but usually not save you.

Now the look of the game is slightly amusing the first time you play (especially w/ a huge audience of people who laugh at the drop of a hat), but most will find that funny names of the powers and the "heroes" silly over time (if not at first). I think a good mix of silly and exaggerated names would have been better. The cards, stand-ups, and map all look ok, but it is still overshadowed by the sillyness. Also, the cards and counters and especially the map (the map for playability) should have been larger and more detailed. The powers cards are pretty boring for a game that is trying to push humor so far. All that is listed on the cards is the basic premise of the power, no cute quote of the hero using the power, no amusing picture of the hero using the power on another, just the basic power which I think could have a little more than just a sentence or two about the powers use.

Playabilty as I said before is the main problem and actual point of the game since this is a card/board game. When I and others played it was slaughter or get slaughtered. No games were close, you either lost by a mile or won by a mile. This is because of the luck of the draw on certain cards in the beginning and the limited space of the map. One time I was being pounded by someone who had a power that let him reach me but I couldn,t reach him. The reach advantage started at the beginning and my opponent went on easily to creating a combo of powers that could destroy me from far away. Tis is just one example of the game starting out bad for a player and just getting worse until the player finally is defeated (or most of the time just gives up because of the futility of it all). This is surprising being that this was put out by Steve Jackson Games. For the record, Mr. Jackson did not design it, he is only listed as the editor. Although this is not strange for Mr. Jackson to not have designed it, it may be a clue to some of its faults.

Last bit. The price is 29.95! That is what RPGs go for not card/board games (unless they have a load of components). The Zombies!!! card/board/tile game is 24.95 and even the Marvel Starter Set for Heroclix is only 19.95 and that is just two examples. Another thing. About the sillyness. I enjoy silly alot, but bad gameplay and silly done in a poor way are a bad combo. That last part was added to let you all know that my opinion and that of the people who I talked to at the convention who tried the game (they like silly too, they mostly were people who played Toon)were not tainted by a lack of sense of humour.