Super Hero Squad Card Game

Today's review is of the 2012 collectible card game, Super Hero Squad. For two players, it takes 15 minutes.

Overview

Can you deplete your opponent's deck before they do the same to you? In this fast-moving game, you launch an attack (with a magnitude and type of energy) and your opponent tries to block. If they can't, they'll mill cards . . . and the first to deplete their opponent's deck wins!

Sample card; image from here

A turn is straightforward:

- flip a coin. If heads, the level (for both you and your opponent) goes up one

- draw a card.

- play an attack. To be eligible, the attack number (upper left) cannot exceed the current level. Attacks have a magnitude and type of energy (middle left); your opponent will try to block by discarding a card with the matching type (lower left). If they cannot, they mill that many cards from their deck until they reach the attack value *or* mill a card with a matching energy block. Come cards may also have special abilities that increase damage or have other effects.

Players keep trading attacks/blocks until one deck is depleted.

Review

This game is (by design) simplistic. While I appreciate how quickly it moved, and the "coin flip to increase the level" mechanic was interesting, I didn't care for this. It seemed incredibly luck-heavy and ultimately a pattern-matching game. If you can 'match the pattern' (by blocking with the appropriate symbol), great. If not, oh well. And how well you can match the pattern seemed largely out of your control, with six energy types available (perhaps three would have been better, for more of a 'rock-paper-scissors' feel). You could build a deck to have a low probability of countering everything, or a tuned deck to counter one or two specific things . . . hard to say how you would design a deck around any sort of defensive strategy. Offensively, I see how it could be done. As it is intended for ages 8+, I don't want to ding it too hard . . . but I understand why I could pick up a starter deck at Ollie's for $3 even though the game has long been out of print.

Rating: C