There’s a new game out for iOS and it’s called Brawl. The game made it to my radar for two reasons — first because it was a free release and secondly, it was a card-based boxing game. I’m a huge fan of deck building games like Ascension, Dominion and 7 Wonders so albeit this one makes use of much simpler rules (yep it’s really simple), I find the genre of fast-paced card action rather interesting.
The game itself isn’t very deep. Two boxers fight their way to victory and punches are thrown through cards. The winner is determined by whoever landed the most punches. A game consists of two player cards (boxers) and each player draws from a shuffled deck of punches and blocks. You can throw punches to the head and torso, represented by locations on the top and bottom part of the player cards. You can stack blows until a player draws and places a block card which means you won’t be able to land any more punches in that area.
Punches and blocks come in different colors. You can only stack punches of the same color and block with the corresponding color of punches.
Depth is achieved when you can add a third stack (red cards) which lets you throw additional punches and blocks. The game ends when you can no longer land any more punches and the total number of points (i.e. punches landed) determine the winner.
Variety takes place with the choice of boxers. There are three boxers initially available with three more unlocked via in-app purchases (surprise!). The boxers are characterized by the number of certain cards in the decks. For instance, Hale comes with more hit cards in all colors but very few blocks. Chris on the other hand comes with a balance of hits and blocks.
The game may take a while to master but after the tutorial and first few play through, a game can last no more than 1 minute. You can challenge the AI or play online.
Brawl is free on iOS and can be downloaded for both the iPad and iPhone. [DOWNLOAD NOW]