If you you’ve ever thought to yourself, “I sure would enjoy electronic fisticuffs more if it weren’t for all those complex button combos and d-pad gymnastics,” SNK Playmore has the game for you. Continuing the novel concept introduced by SNK vs Capcom Card Fighter’s Clash on the short lived Neo-Geo Pocket Color handheld, Card Fighters DS brings the biggest and greatest of SNK’s and Capcom’s deep catalog of fighters to the table. Literally.

Like most card battle games, Card Fighters requires strategy and cleverly played hand to triumph in battle. The game features over 300 unique cards which can be combined in battle to create custom attacks or special moves. Card battles revolve around orbs, which are required to play cards or activate special powers of the cards already in play.

High power special moves require more orbs in an attempt to balance the game, and unleashing special attacks will leave your cards defenseless for a turn. Much like Pokémon, your character will spend time running around the game’s world (which is limited to a single tower) trading cards or challenging NPCs to battle. Two players can battle over local wireless LAN, but without Wi-Fi finding a human to trade or battle with is going to be pretty unlikely given the niche market for card based games such as this.



Fans of this style of game should still look forward to Card Fighters DS, as the fore mentioned Card Fighter’s Clash was universally well received within the genre. We only wish SNK Playmore had taken advantage of the growing DS online community with a game that practically begs for an online component.

Stay tuned to AMN as we’ll have a full review of the game in the coming weeks.