Fans of Cartoon Network’s megahit Adventure Time are probably familiar with “Card Wars,” an episode in which heroes Finn and Jake square off in a ludicrously complicated collectible card game.

Card Wars: Adventure Time by Cartoon Network

Category: iOS Games

Works With: iPhone, iPad

Price: $3.99

If your first thought after seeing that installment was “I have to play that crazy-ass game,” you’re in luck: It’s now available for your iPhone or iPad. While not quite as complicated as the on-screen version, Card Wars offers the same basic card-and-board gameplay with 3D monsters battling it out for fortune and glory.

And behind its zany exterior lies a deceptively deep experience with Floops galore.

In Card Wars, your goal is to knock your opponent’s health down to zero. You do this by placing Monster Cards to fight through their own defensive beasties. You have a lot of terrain tiles and buildings and creatures that work together differently, and it gets elaborate pretty quickly, but it’s easy to keep up.

Creatures have their own special abilities known as “Floops” that you activate with your Magic Points every round, and this just keeps getting more complicated, but it all makes sense, I promise.

They have tutorials and everything; you’ll be fine.

You earn more cards by defeating enemies, and later on, you can craft more powerful ones with weaker ones from your deck. It’s a hearty customizable card game with one of the best licenses out there.

But it’s not without problems, the biggest of which is an Energy Meter that you have to draw from to play rounds. It recharges over time like in a free-to-play title. But this isn’t a free-to-play game; it’s $2.99. And it also includes in-app purchases in the form of gems that you can use to get more powerful cards and refill your energy if you lose a round. You can earn these in the game, but they’re rare.

So it has a few mis-steps, but on the whole, it’s a good time.

Game Name: : Card Wars: Adventure Time

The Good: Deep gameplay, a good license, and a lot of variety.

The Bad: It’s a paid game with an Energy meter that limits how long you can play it.

The Verdict: If you can ignore the free-to-play shenanigans in this decidedly not-free game, you’ll have a lot of fun with it.

Buy from: App Store – Card Wars: Adventure Time – Cartoon Network



[rating=game5]