by DJColossus
My family loves the DC Comics game. The mechanics are simple, the game is fast paced, and the art and theme explode four-color awesomeness. This is our go-to game these days and we’ve played it every day since I purchased it in December. The cards are starting to wear already we’ve got so much time in on this one!About us: First off, I’m a huge comic nerd and my kids (4 and 7) are right there with me. They grew up on old Batman and Justice League cartoons, and we’ve been enjoying Batman Brave and the Bold and Young Justice. They sift through Super hero encyclopedias and learn all the different heroes and villains. The kids know their superhero lore. DC Comics Deck Building game lets them play with their favorite super heroes – it’s a fast and quick game that helps them learn to read and do simple math.
Mechanics: The DC Comics Deckbuilding game is simple and straightforward. It’s easy to teach and fun to play. The game is based on “power” and each card has some kind of power number or other effect. You start with a simple deck of Punches and Vulnerabilities. Draw five cards from your deck, and add up that power. Punches are simple + 1 power cards, and Vulnerabilities are zero power cards that get in the way. Using the Power points in your hand, you buy cards that come off the main deck in the Line-up. Over time you add more and more powerful cards to your deck. At some point you’re able to start adding more and more power in your card draws. Eventually players will start taking down the super villains. I’m a big fan of the mechanics because of their simplicity. My kids can easily add up the power points in their hand and go shopping. They get all giddy when buying a Power Ring, Robin, or *gasp* the Fortress of Solitude! They jump out of their chairs when their favorite card comes off the deck.
Even the cards that have a lot of text effects are often pretty easy to understand. Different characters allow for different game effects and they often tie in incredibly well with the character theme. Flash gets to draw extra cards, Batman gets additional power for playing equipment cards, and the Riddler causes you to take a gamble on the top card of the Main Deck.
Components: The art in this game is terrific and the cards themselves are fairly durable. The art is pulled from the “new 52” comics and covers a wide range of characters, villains, equipment, and locations. Heck, even Captain Cold looks cool. The graphic design on the cards is also quite nice with red-bordered villain cards, blue-bordered villain cards, grey-boarded equipment, and purple locations. The numbers and text are easy to read.
My only gripe is in the box. It’s too big. There are not that many cards in there and it takes up a bit more shelf space than it needs to. (Though I have to say that DC Comics isn’t the worst offender here—Marvel Legendary card game is twice the size and the cards barely takes up half the empty space in the box!) Also the DC Comics insert is pretty bad. The oversized hero cards are hard to pull out of the box and the cards line up in horizontal slots in the insert. They flop around in there a lot and I would have preferred them to be a little more snug.
Replay: We’ve played this game. A lot. We’ve tried going up against all the villains in a single game. We’ve tried on patrol variants. We switch around our heroes. The game is still fun. The different strategies that each hero provides keeps us thinking about what cards we really want from the line-up. I can see this game getting a lot of replay in our house this year.
Final thoughts: I play a lot of games that are overly wrought with fiddly bits and complex rules. It’s great to have a simple game, in a theme I love, that I can play with my family. Everyone in my family has a great time playing DC Comics, and there’s nothing that can beat that!