Video Game Review: Cardpocalypse

Cardpocalypse

Gambrinous

Deckbuilding RPG

Playstation 4

Invoking nostalgia can be a tricky thing. Too often attempts consist of little more than just name-dropping old things that people have fond memories of and hoping their fondness will do the rest of the work for them (lookin’ at you Big Bang Theory). Now, to be clear I’m not saying gesturing at old things is bad, but if you’re going to lean on nostalgia you have to do more than just that, and I am pleased to report that Gambrinous’ newest title Cardpocalypse does more.

Cardpocalypse took me in before I even started playing just because I think it looks cute, – and it does, in that weird, slightly weird-looking-90s-cartoon-way – but I still have to admit I didn’t have the highest hopes. When I started playing though, not only was I instantly impressed by the quality of the production values – especially the surprising solid voice acting in the opening cutscene – the game got its hooks into me pretty quick with the actual gameplay. The in-universe collectible card game that Cardpocalypse revolves around, “Mega Mutant Power Pets” is very well designed and satisfying to play, to the point where I kind of wish it was a thing in the real world too. That said, the game takes a bit to really get going; the first couple hours have a slow start on actually collecting cards, but once you do start getting a lot of them deckbuilding becomes a legitimate joy thanks to the surprising level of depth present.

Depth is an adjective which can be applied to the game’s more social aspects, for lack of a better term, which was an even bigger pleasant surprise for me. The main character, Jess, is by default very relatable and likable, but the player is also given dialogue choices on occasion, which can range from supportive and enthusiastic to snarky and sometimes even kind of mean. Given that most of the other characters (in addition to Jess herself) are children I didn’t choose many of these options, because I would’ve felt even worse than I normally do about being mean in video games. I found myself appreciating the capacity for empathy and kindness the game allows the player, especially in one side-quest where the player is able to fulfill the objective without a fight by appealing to someone else’s own sense of empathy. The game’s generally wry sense of humor doesn’t reduce its ability to be genuine and heart-warming at times.

I don’t want to give the impression that I didn’t enjoy the game’s humor, because I enjoyed it very much. The way the characters talk and the atmosphere of the school really feels like the 90s, right down to the cheesy posters that say things like “READ” or “This Is Your Brain on Cards” while having characters kids love on them. The jokes land very consistently, and each of the characters of “Power Pets” has their own little cheesy theme song, the first of which had heavy Homestar Runner energies. Specifically, it was reminiscent of the theme song of the one and only Trogdor the Burninator, but in a way that evoked it without feeling like a straight rip-off.

In case it wasn’t clear, I have a high opinion of this game, which is why I wish I didn’t have anything bad to say about it. Unfortunately, I did run into some technical issues during my time with it. I played the game on Playstation 4, so maybe these aren’t all present on other platforms, but from the get-go I had some slight interfacing issues where my cursor/selection would get stuck until I just mashed buttons a bit both in battles and out of them. As I got further into the game I had more and more issues with just basic performance, especially freezing and a frequent, obnoxious message from my system that the game had failed to save settings properly despite that I had made no modifications to my settings. There was also on mutation card, “Decontamination”, which was unusable because it froze the game whenever it tried to activate. Fortunately I never saw an enemy use it, but the couple times I tried to were annoying.

Despite these small issues I wouldn’t say the game lacks polish, because overall it is a very clean and cohesive little title; instead, I’d say that the devs just missed a couple spots. Plus, you never know, it’s entirely conceivable that they could fix these small issues later down the line. They may have caused me a degree of frustration at points, but I really do have trouble thinking of any other complaints with the game. I know it can be easy to miss games this time of year between the veritable deluge of new releases and the gifting traditions of the holiday season, but if you can look past the issues I definitely recommend giving this one a shot.

It’s a real card.