The New Sonic Card Game

[Badnik Mechanic]

I don't remember there being a topic on this but... Behold! The first Sonic game of the 30th Anniversary!
 

So the Sonic Card Game is due for release in a few weeks time and I was given an early copy of it by the UK Sega Shop. I can't help but feel a lot of people passed this off when it was announced just because some of the cooler kids were seen dismissing it.

Well... I've got it, I've played it and... It's honestly not that bad, in fact it's quite fun.

So how does it work, well essentially it's a game of chance, you have to collect as many rings as possible whilst avoiding enemies drawn from the deck (I explain and show this A LOT better in the video). 

So you can play this solo, but obviously having an opponent adds a competitive element and therefore the possibility of taking more chances and risks in order to build a lead. And this ends up making the game strangely fun, mainly due to the fact if the scores are close you'll end up taking more risks in order to beat your opponent.

 

The game itself is also really well made, the cards are very durable and aside from the fact it's stock art images, I can't find anything amazingly wrong with it other than some of the instructions are a bit unclear.

It's currently up on the Sega shop and they have a bit of an exclusive right now, you get the game 2 weeks before general release. But there's also a worldwide listing for their sister site.

 

 

Anyone picked this up? Or planning to pick up a bit of a different Sonic game?

[Meta77]

The generic looking cards is why I probably will not pick it up. I was hoping in my mind for something deeper and different artwork. I was asking a lot i know but the basic look of the cards will probably have me waiting for a black friday sale at my local comic store.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

Good review...shame it's not going to be out until September...

[Badnik Mechanic]

14 hours ago, Ming Ming Hatsune said:

Good review...shame it's not going to be out until September...

Huh?

It's due for release in about 2 weeks!

Edit: Ok this can't be right? I was under the assumption it was due this month? Hence why our copies are out and so many are going out for prizes and promotion?

[Baldymcnosehair1999]

the sonic stadium article said its coming out september 2021

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

On 7/4/2021 at 4:27 AM, Badnik Mechanic said:

Huh?

It's due for release in about 2 weeks!

Edit: Ok this can't be right? I was under the assumption it was due this month? Hence why our copies are out and so many are going out for prizes and promotion?

Go to the Sega Shop link that you posted. The preorder date that is shown is either...

Out on June 9th 2021 (maybe it is this date? hence why you got a copy?) or September 6th 2021. I think it's the latter though. I don't know how you got your copy that early...I wish I got it that early lol

[Badnik Mechanic]

6 hours ago, Ming Ming Hatsune said:

Out on June 9th 2021 (maybe it is this date? hence why you got a copy?) or September 6th 2021. I think it's the latter though. I don't know how you got your copy that early...I wish I got it that early lol

I got mine early because it was to review for my YouTube channel.

But I was really under the impression that the game was due out in about 2 weeks.

Sega Shop are getting it 2 weeks ahead of general release, but the games must be ready since both Sega Shop and SFG have copies that they're giving out. 

[Cube]

I'll probably pick this up. I enjoy Diamant (also know as Incan Gold) and this game seems to be an unofficial copy of that with some powers added.

 

I might spruce it up by using bits from Sonic Battle Racers when playing.

[Cube]

I've just picked this up, some initial thoughts:

 

First of all, it you want general views of this game, search for reviews of Diamant or Incan Gold. Sonic The Card Game is a blatant rip off of Diamant/Incan Gold (there's no credits to the original designers). 

I've played Diamant a few times (it's also on Board Game Arena under Incan Gold) and it's a very enjoyable push your luck game where you're exploring a cavern. Before each card flips, you have to decide if you carry on or retreat (you have two cards representing this, you all decide in secret and then flip your choice over at the same time). Any players that retreat will share the gold (rings in this case) on all previous cards and are out of that round (there are five rounds in total.

If two of the same trap type (or enemy type in this, with Dr Robotnik, Metal Sonic and....er Orbot and Cubot, who have never been much of a threat on their own and there could have been so many better choices, even just a Motobug and Buzz Bomber), then any player still racing end up collecting nothing. 

At the end of five rounds, the player with the most rings is the winner.  There are also relic cards (bonus cars in this, depicting Cream, Charmy, Big, Cream and a bunch of four Chao, the same types as in Team Sonic Racing), which are worth 5 points, but can only be collected if only one player decides to retreat in a round.  

There are a couple  of differences in this to Diamant. It only does six players, instead of eight consisting of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow and Blaze.  There are enough characters to pick to do two more.

You also have three lives, if you get defeated by enemies you lose one. Lose all three and you're out of the game. Frankly, this is a terrible addition to the game and you should just ignore it (not collecting anything is enough of a punishment).  My suggestion is to just ignore this completely. The tokens for lives are handy for putting  one above the cards and removing it when you leave, so players can easily see who is in or out of the current round. 

The other change are special abilities for the relic/bonus cards. I quite like these. One lets you see the top card, one shuffles an enemy back in and one lets you change your card after players have revealed. It's difficult to know how much this will affect the game, but I like the aspect of sacrificing 5 points for a risk. There's one that counts as an extra life, so if you're not using lives it's not that useful.

My suggestion for an alternative use for this card: the ability is still "extra life". It gets played after players have picked their choice of continuing or retreating but before the reveal. If the next card is an enemy, it get shuffled back in. 

If you want a more portable version , or very specifically the Sonic theme, it's fine, and you can play with the original rules (ignore lives and you can just keep the bonus cards as being five points with no abilities), but overall it's a worse version of Diamant.

[MysticCave1084]

That game looks really cool!