Top Trumps: Horror & Predators

If you were being charitable, you'd argue there are two good reasons to make a computer version of the typically British stats-based card game series Top Trumps.

You need at least two people to play the real-life version so the addition of a DS-controlled artificial intelligence opponent gives the solitary player a game. Maybe if we were writing a paper for a sociology conference or a leader for a popularist newspaper we could take that argument further and question whether this is a good thing - Top Trumps DS: Is it the kids' equivalent of Bowling Alone for middle-aged American men?

This doesn't really matter though because the real reason to make a computer version of the typically British stats-based card game series Top Trump is to make money.

Let's face it, it's an incredibly cheap game to develop and even selling it at the budget price of £20 should provide you with a reasonable return, especially compared to the volume and distribution complexities of selling physical card packs for £3.

In which case, perhaps the most important question to answer is how does Top Trumps DS compare to Top Trumps cards?

Despite coming from a hardcore Top Trumps childhood (and excluding social exclusion), the surprising answer from this reviewer is remarkably well.

Of course there are plenty of things we would have done differently. Frankly you can't have the Horror pack without including the Venusian Death Cell, while the decision to mix the Horror attributes from the original four 'out of 100' scores to six with scores ranging from 'out of five', 'out of 10', 'out of 20', 'out of 25' and 'out of 100' seems perverse.

Equally, the consistency of said attributes leaves a lot to be desired: how do you really distinguish between 'Killer' and 'Guts+Gore', and since when does a goblin have a higher fear factor than the Killer Clown - 98 versus 92? (The pack of Predator animals, including sharks, snakes, lion and tiger etc, is much less contentious as most of the attributes are physical, such as weight, speed etc, but that surely makes it much less interesting too.)

The process of porting the basic card-based gameplay has been handled well however. You get to choose from a boy or girl avatar and save a profile and then you can either jump into a quick game or work your way through the 10 level One Deck or the 10 level Two Deck Tournaments. As with the card game, each pack consist of 30 cards and one player starts off by calling out what they consider to be the best attribute for the card at the top of their pack. If that attribute is higher than the equivalent on the opponent's card, you win the opponent's card. If not, you hand your card over. The winner places the cards at the bottom of their pack and the process continues until all the cards have been won or the available time per round has counted down to zero. In that case, the player with the most cards wins.

One of the clever things about the DS game is that the number of cards dealt for a hand and the time limit combine to control the difficulty level. For example, in round one, you'll start off with 27 cards and 3 minutes in which to win the three you don't have, but each round sees your number of cards decrease and the time increase. And to make matters harder, you have to win all ten rounds in sequence. You can't save in the middle. It's a good thing then that the opponent's AI is flaky. Sometimes it will pick a card's best attribute but on others it will pick a really weak one. The Witch Doctor, for example, is unbeatable when it comes to Black Magic so why would you chose to use Strength 25/100?

For this reason, apart from the obvious benefits of the hotseat two player mode (which just requires another player - there's no wi-fi involved, you swap the DS over when you lose a card), the game works best when you're playing the Two Deck Tournament. That's because the added randomness of having a hand of 30 cards selected from a possible 60 means you're much more likely to lose on weak cards such as Scarecrow or DoppleGanger.

Another addition which helps add strategy are the three special ability cards. These can be played once per game and include abilities such as swapping your card with your opponent's, peeking at their card or the Superman invincibility card. There are eight in total and as you complete more of the game, more are unlocked. Your progress is also measured by various trophies and medals you're awarded as you go, with another element of the game being various quizzes, which clearly are more educational when it comes to the subject of Predators than Horror.

So while it's nothing profound, and doesn't quite measure up to the glory days of our youth, Top Trumps: Horror & Predators is a solid version of a much loved card game that would make an ideal present for sub-teenaged boys (as well as some older kids-at-heart). But perhaps the most interesting aspect of the game will be how the forthcoming Doctor Who version plays. Now that really could be ideal for young and old, as well as being a licence to print money.