Review of Brawl

First off, I know that this review is a little late in coming. Quite some time ago,I filled out an RPGnet form requesting a free copy of the then-sorta-new, "real time", James Ernest-designedcard game, Brawl. The reason? If I'm going to spend this sort of money (six bucks per deck, but never mind),it had better be on something useful, like storm windows. Anyhow, approximately six months later, I recivedthree water-damaged Brawl decks in my very own mailbox. Saints be praised!

But let's have a little background, since I have come to realize that Brawl doesn't exactly have a substantial following (there's a reason, but that comes later). I didn't even know it existed until some time after its release; I even missed the official kick-off party, which was held in a comic shop about twenty miles from my house. Awww, I suck.

But I digress. Brawl is a "real time" (hardly in vogue these days, but let's give them a hand) card game designed to simulate the wild, combo-heavy fights today's kids enjoy so much. There are six decks in circulation at the moment, each representing a different character and their arsenal of "clumsy, street-grappling honky" moves. Let me take a moment to comment -- the game is touted as "non-collectible", and it isn't really complete unless you have... well, collected all of the decks, which will set you back nearly forty bucks. This from the Cheapass Games kingpin? I assume his initial plan was to rake in the cash while the world cries, but Brawl isn't selling like it used to. If I want to blow my paycheck, I'll buy that nazi-made racing board game, whatever it's called.

The six characters (as yet... Phil Foglio is making six more as you read this -- let's hope he'll go light on the nudity) are your basic hate-filled ruffians: a ham-fisted white guy in a leather jacket, a pigtailed (yet fast) girl,the classic generic dude, the classic generic girl, a huge, bald guy in a visor and a sort of goth. Interestingly enough, they all wear finger gloves and carry stopwatches. I personally recieved leather, goth and pigtails from the gracious RPGnet.

Though it is designed to simulate a fistfight, Brawl plays an awful lot like Speed or Double Solitaire, both of which are "real-time" card games which can be played with a standard deck. Your main objective is to burn through your entire deck before your opponent does, which would be easy except for the fact that the decks in this game consist of "hit"s, "hit-2"s, "block"s, "freeze"s, and "bases"s, all designed to confuse you. I've come to realize that the game-winning strategy here is to glance at your opponent, check if they're trying to move fast or slow (it's pretty damned obvious), and then do the opposite.

Brawl is quite a gun indulgence for the swift, quick-witted and reckless among us (it really panders to those with Attention Deficit Disorder), but it will baffle some of your slower pals. The many attempts I've made to teach this game to my friends and confidants have had mixed results; either they pick it up before I'm done explaining it and quickly proceed to beat me in every game, or they have bizarre problems with the game's logic. The more unperceptive of my students consistently turned down game-winning opportunities because they, "Didn't think they could hit their own character"... hey, you try and figure that one out.

But do I like it? Yeah, I'd say so. As a diversion. As a diversion played with my caffiene-based equals. But I'm not going to claim that you'll play this every day, because, really, how much does it vary? Sure, there's a multiplayer version (friendly tip: don't even attempt it) but that's as far as you go.

Now bring on those XXXenophile fighters. I wonder where they put their stopwatches.