Launching on Kickstarter on 1st March 2022, this is a card game with a wrestling theme. Each player starts with a hand of 3 move cards, 1 high spot card and 1 wild card. Move cards and High spot cards will be replenished as you use them but with wildcards you only have one per game unless another card allows you to draw subsequent ones. It’s fast paced and a quick one to teach and then play.
Three words to describe this game: fast, lucky and wrestling
Gameplay:
On your turn, you roll your dice. If you score 7, you play your high spot card. If you roll a double, you can choose to play two move cards, or play your high spot card, or play a pinfall. Any other combination of dice will result in just being able to play a move card. Your wild card can be played at any point during the match. Some of these cards like the high spot cards are immediate cards which are played and discarded and then others are active which are played and used throughout the game until either another high spot card is played (in the case of high spot cards) or conditions are met (in the case of wild cards). You start with 99 health and everytime a card is played you deduct that amount from your health or regain health (if you are lucky enough).
Components:
Score counters - ours are prototype and we have seen championship belt designs for these which look cool
Dice (2 for each player in different colours)
Move cards, High spot cards, Wildcards - these cards are essentially what you play in order to gain the upper hand over your opponent, easy to read and understand for wrestling fans or non wrestling fans
Instruction manual: clear and easy to access, picked up gameplay in a couple of minutes and could play instantly
Overall thoughts:
I liked this game. It was a fun, fast paced filler game which I was pleased you could play even if you aren’t a massive wrestling fan. It’s a luck game, with very little strategy but that’s ok and I still enjoyed the gameplay of it. It had me smiling as I pulled off a move or high spot card my opponent wasn’t expecting but I can see how if you get a bad hand or bad luck of the dice that it could be frustrating. This game is still prototype and I have heard lots of interesting musings about different characters and additional booster packs which might add to the gameplay experience. Personally, I would have liked a little more strategy and choice in how and what to play at different times during the game. I think that having a mat would add to the theme and I have seen pictures of this on their Instagram page so I’m excited for that. We used our Rumbleslam mat and it just added to the wrestling element of the game. I think that personally I would have preferred if the cards could have a value on them that reflects a damage score for your opponent and a stamina score for you. As thematically, you probably shouldn’t be able to pull of a plethora of wrestling moves without at some point getting tired out. However after conversations with the designers, it is clear that this has been thought through and their intention is for the game to be driven mostly by luck. There have been several iterations of this game in the planning process and it is my understanding that this one has been chosen for optimum gameplay and enjoyment!
The only other thing I would say is tricky with this game is managing your hand, in so much as rolling dice, holding cards and keeping track of score. This probably was made more difficult for us as we have the prototype scorer which also meant we couldn’t see each other’s health points as easily. However, having spoken to the game designers, this is something that they are looking into and I can see that in the pipeline depending on backing, an app for tracking health might be available making it easier to manage your hand.
Overall I enjoyed my gameplay experience, was excited to try it out (I literally wanted to play it as soon as it arrived) and I am excited to see what happens next for @MicroTitanMania
Thank you Micro Titan Mania for sending me this prototype to play test.