WAGON Webcomic Battle CCG

A Collectible Card Game For Webcomics. A Review.

'WAGON Webcomic Battle' is a Collectible Card Game created by Michael Dellheim. The concept is pretty sweet, and was something I myself have wanted to see for quite some time. Basically, webcomic creators contribute their characters and art to the game, allowing Michael to design cards with unique abilities based on those characters, items or events. Players are able to use these cards to build a deck from which they draw and play cards to defeat their opponent. The idea of beating your opponents with cards like Ardra and Jenny Everywhere is very appealing to me. And I'm sure I'm not alone in the excitement I felt when I first heard of the game.

Before I begin, however, let me say that this was a very difficult article to write. When I review webcomics I try to look at what the creator is attempting to produce and let readers know if it is a product I enjoy. I analyze what I feel the positive and negative aspects were and how they affected my enjoyment of the webcomic. I understand people put a part of themselves into their creations. Sometimes it can be hard for me to criticize something that was obviously a labor of love with a lot of work put into it. With webcomics, I'm more forgiving if the quality is poor; all I've wasted is a few minutes or hours of my time. When something is created with the intent of being sold, something the creator is asking people to spend their money on, I feel it important that it meet a certain standard of quality. Negative reviews are not my way of saying something sucks and its creator is a moron; they're my way of letting readers know what I think is or isn't worth my time and money. And by extension, that will hopeful give readers an idea of what is or isn't worth their time and money as well. All that being said, let me proceed.

Like I said, a webcomic card game is a fun concept. Sadly, the chasm between concept and execution is a massive one. 'WAGON Webcomic Battle' is a flawed attempt at a card game and I was disappointed by it on a number of levels. While some flaws with the initial releases could be excused for budgetary reasons, or because it is new, there are also plenty of gameplay mechanics that made my attempts to play the game not fun at best and at worst impossible to play.

Now, I've played lots of games. CCGs, Tabletop RPGs, Tabletop Miniatures, and of course Video games. I'm a huge fan of 'Magic: the Gathering' and have been playing it since Revised edition came out. I've played a number of other CCGs, including: 'Pokemon', 'Star Wars' (both versions), 'Star Trek', 'X-files', 'Spellfire', and 'Marvel: Overpower' to name a few. I feel I have a pretty good grasp of what makes a CCG enjoyable or at the very least playable. I wish I could say 'WAGON Webcomic Battle' was either. After purchasing all three decks (Zero, Alpha, and Beta) and playing a number of games with each I was left unsatisfied.