Budget games are often cruelly overlooked by websites such as ours. Mostly because they’re usually steaming piles of crud. However, when a game comes along with branding as powerful and reputable as Top Trumps, it’s usually worth sitting up and taking notice. After 31 years of being a hugely successful collectable card game, Winning Moves’ hot property has finally made the digital leap. Well, I say ‘leap’, it’s more of an explosion – various Top Trump titles have suddenly appeared for the Wii, DS, PlayStation 2 and PC. For this review, I thought I would take a look at one of PC titles, as we don’t get much happening for the PC on Digital Lard. Out of the two available, I picked Horror and Predators over Dogs and Dinosaurs – mostly because dogs are kinda lame.
What we’re looking at here is a kid’s game. Course it is. Can’t get mad at it for having two cliché kid characters as the protagonists, can we? It’s not Top Trumps: Vice City. So our protagonists here, in all their wearing caps backwards glory, are Bex (the girl) and Matt (not the girl). They’re siblings and complete opposites, except for their love for the Trumps. Aaah. Choose whichever one you feel represents your personality the most, then pick the deck you wish to play with (the vampires ‘n’ werewolves of Horror, or the snakes ‘n’ spiders of Predators) and you’re ready to go.
Most of your time on Horror and Predators will be spent playing as one of the kids against the other kid. The mechanics of the game duplicate the original card game – you have one set of cards, your opponent has another, and you must try to select your card’s strongest asset to beat theirs. The only difference between this electronic version and the original is that you are allowed to select three special abilities before the game begins, and these can be used strategically to gain the upper hand during the battle. These are fairly game-breaking to be honest, and some wise decisions when picking them can lead to many guaranteed victories.
Games can take place as simple one-on-ones or ‘tournaments’. These tourneys are a series of games where you begin with a massive card advantage over your opponent. With every victory, you lose a couple of cards until you are fighting against overwhelming odds. Gameplay is interrupted by “hilarious” cut-scenes based on the theme of the deck which you will do anything in your power to click through. Victory in the matches will grant you collectable trophies, medals and cards, which can be stored on a pretend noticeboard.
As a bonus, there is a Quiz mode, which poses a timed series of questions based on your deck of choice. This is where those unlockable cards come in handy – reading them provides you with the information you need to crack this challenge. Unfortunately, the learning curve here is bizarre – the Easy quizzes are simple, regardless of the player’s age, while the Medium and Hard quizzes are over-challenging and too quick. Never mind the fact that you have to sit through each level of quiz multiple times to move up the ranks.
There are two main flaws to Top Trumps, both of which spoil it. The first is the limited nature of the game – with only two decks and two player characters, the thrill is over super quick. By the time you’re done with your first evening of play, the animations would have started to repeat themselves and your interest would be running dry. Why are there only two decks, when a dozen could have been possible? Let’s face it, the Dogs and Dinosaurs decks could have easily been included if Ubisoft and Eidos weren’t just out for a quick buck by selling two titles. As you’ve only got one opponent for the WHOLE game, that gets boring quick too. Why isn’t there a Quest mode, where you go up against increasingly difficult opponents, having conversations with them and following some sort of plot? Nope, the developers didn’t see the value of drawing and animating more than two characters, so the lifespan of the game is drastically affected.
Secondly, the video game version has the same weakness as the cardboard version. Whenever I used to buy a Top Trump deck, they would be great fun to play but one game would wear me out for days and pretty swiftly you would learn the strengths and weaknesses of the entire deck and the fun would be over. The appeal of each deck is brief, and the hobby relies on new cards being introduced as quickly as possible. At least it does for an adult who isn’t obsessive over Harry Potter characters. In short, it won’t take you long to learn what cards can do what, and from then on it’s a small step towards game dominance. And that isn’t fun.
For adults, it’s too easy to master. For kids, it’s too boring to stick with. It’s a shame because the game system works well (it would be hard to get that wrong) but it seems so brief, so half-hearted, so shallow, that there’s not much more appeal to it than a regular Top Trumps pack. In fact, forget that – just buy a regular pack of cards for 50p and quadruple your entertainment.