Compete or collect. Fans of trading card games like Pokemon, Magic Where Yu Gi Oh are often interested in one of these two aspects. But there is another: finance. Because yes, these pieces of cardboard have a value on the secondary market which fluctuates like on the Stock Exchange. It is this market that is interested Kardboard Kingsa charming game with an intriguing proposition, but uneven execution.
We play the role of a young man who, after the death of his father, takes over his collectible card store from the fictional game. Warlock. Does he even know the rules of the game? No need. And we won’t learn them either. The important thing is to make the piastre. With the help of a talkative cockatiel, we buy single cards and sealed packs of cards online and then resell them in our shop. The key: buy low and resell at a profit.
But beware, the game of supply and demand is easily influenced. The slightest rumor can cause the price of cardboard gold to fluctuate. An expansion, these collections of cards published in series, may be reprinted soon? The stock market of playing cards will be sealed. A player has won a tournament with a certain deck ? The value of the cards that compose it will reach new heights.
It is therefore necessary to follow the news carefully at the beginning of each day and, according to it, to choose what to buy and sell. Or we can pick up everything that is affordable by crossing our fingers that luck smiles on us. This second strategy was the most profitable for us, because here, everything that goes up comes down… and the reverse is also true. We are far from the “ugly” Rudy of Alpha Investments or the Reddit forum r/mtgfinance, where lovers of the dollar discuss the cards with great seriousness. Magicwhich could soon rise in value. But not so much.
The proposal is intriguing. Competitive trading card video games and those that incorporate the idea of building a deck cards abound, but this is the first time that we have encountered one built on the model of management games. Too bad the execution of the Akupara Games studio is so uneven.
Because it is a game in early access, without it being presented as such, that we are dealing with. The story, not uninteresting, ends in a fishtail early in the game. As the credits rolled, we were convinced that more was to come. But no. We had the impression that the developers, at the end of their budget, cut short the development to finally publish a game that was not finished. Fortunately, we can continue to manage our shop after this point.
As it is, the loop works. We enjoyed the approximately six hours we spent with Kardboard Kings. But we won’t go back there, unless there’s a massive update.