Goodnight, Card City

After Ittle Dew, I really wanted to delve deeper into Ludosity's catalog, and Card City Nights was dirt cheap relatively highly-recommended. But, for an allegedly "simple" game, its mechanics are varied and nuanced enough that its rewards don't really seem worth the effort. There are so many different effects to wield -- beyond straight-up offense and defense, there's disabling cards, removing cards, rotating cards, and more. The variety of hypothetical situations would theoretically benefit a balanced deck, with a little bit of everything; but the way the game's numbers work, if you aren't stacking your deck with the right attribute, there's just no way to keep up with the variously min-maxed AI opponents. It's rock-paper-scissors against a computer that always throws "X," but you won't know what "X" is until you've lost to it. And don't even get me started on the awkward rarities attached to certain link directions.

Don't misinterpret my complaints: the basic mechanics of the game are interesting, and I think they could actually support some fun sudden-death matchups against humans and balanced AIs. But the campaign's characters are dedicated to playing in ways that just aren't fun to play against. And the campaign itself is such a thin facade over the core conceit of collecting more cards that it just doesn't feel worthwhile.

Progress: Won 3/8 legendary cards.