Yes, you read that
correctly! Thanks to the wonderful people at Decipher.Inc,
I have receieved an advanced copy of the upcoming Animorphs Customizable
Card Game, which I have been asked to review.
The premise of the
game is quite simple, move the Animorphs (Jake, Rachel, Tobias, Cassie
and Marco in one version, Jake, Rachel, Ax, Cassie and Marco in the other)
to various locations in the town (All pictures taken straight from the
TV show...wait! Don't click that back button yet! It gets better!), spying
in different locations and occasionally battling the Yeerks.
The game works alot
like a board game. You set up the 25 location cards in a 5 cards by 5 cards
square. Each depicts a different place in the town, including the Animorphs'
homes and the Yeerk Pool, where Yeerk cards are placed. The two leader
Animorphs (Jake and Cassie in my game's case) each have their own deck
of cards, consisting of Spy cards (place them on various locations and
you can 'spy' there), < Thought-Speak > cards (Allow you to 'communicate'
[call meetings] or give you special things to do [morph out]) Morph cards
(acquire new animal morphs for yourself and others) and I'm In! cards (move
your Animorph, plus any helper Animorphs [Anyone who isn't a leader], to
different locations on the board, trying to get to locations to spy).
Basically, everything
is revolving around 'spying'. It's how you get points, it's how you move
around, and it's fun to shout that you have an 'I'm in!' card, since nearly
everything in the instructions has an exclamation point after it. In order
to spy, you need to add up the number of 'spy' points characters on your
spy location have. The points range from 0 (for morphs like Rachel's elephant)
to 7 (for Cassie's cockroach). You also add the number of points you roll
on your dice to the number of spy points. If you get over the number on
your location card (between 12 and 18) you succeed and score along with
flipping a card over from the Yeerk Pool deck and getting a challenge there.
If you fail, all characters involved in the spy attempt are sent home.
The Yeerk Pool challenges
work the same as Spying, except this time you use your strength points
(from 0 to 7 again), or smarts points, plus the number on the dice. If
you win the challenge (Against controllers [Visser Three, Hork-Bajir],
alien technology [the Kandrona, Bio-Filters] or Morph Distractions [overpowering
instincts]) you score more points, if you loose, the card tells you what
happens (from going home to giving up a point).
Oh, and if you fail
against a controllers, you get 'captured'. You can't move while captured,
but can still take your turn and move other characters to rescue you by
fighting the controller, or using the game's version of a 'Get Out of Jail
Free' card, the "Escape" < Thought-Speak > card.
Okay, I think I've
covered everything you really need to know about the game. It's pretty
nifty, and has some nifty features. You can combine the Jake and Cassie
set and the Rachel and Marco set for a game for 3-4 players, set up the
town so you can move the Animorphs' houses to better places, different
scoring with the 'I'm in!' cards, or even customizing your own deck. And
while all the pictures are taken straight from the TV show, it doesn't
affect the game play, or the various morphs (no Rachel in lion morph!!!).
The games designed
for people 8 and up, so younger fans may enjoy the game more than us older
fans, especially the ones who don't like seeing Scholastic commercialize
our beloved series, I'll still probably play it occasionally. I already
have a few real life Animorph friends who wanna play it, so it's got potential.
Although I think the games more fun the sillier you get. For example, shout
out 'I'm in!' every time you get one of those cards, and while your friends
may think you're a bit odd...they already do, right? So no loss there.
On a scale of one to
five, five being the best, I'd give the game a 3.5-4. Not a game I'd say
run out and get as soon as it hits the shelves, but maybe put it on that
Christmas list for a nifty game to play with a friend.