I have a long history with card games. I started with Magic: the Gathering in alpha – nearly 25 years ago. Since then, a lot has changed in the collectible card gaming arena. While Magic set the precedent for how to successfully make money on a card game, it quickly started to drain players wallets as the introduction of new rarities and tournament play that required many of the top cards became the norm. Along came the Living Card Game, made popular by Fantasy Flight games with Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones.
Living Card Games, or LCGs, made it so that players could buy one box and play the game indefinitely. Want to add some more cards? Buy an expansion. The difference is you know what you are getting with the expansion. No gambling is taking place.
That leads us to Way of the Fighter. A successfully Kickstarted card game created by Benjamin Yamada and published by Ninja Division. Have you heard of a game called Street Fighter? Then you already have an idea of what this game is all about.
Way of the Fighter isn’t the first card game inspired by video games of the fighting genre, but it does something unique from my initial look. By creating a board that lets you move your characters around (which are cardboard cutouts) it is a bit more clear what is going on than in other systems like VS.
The game is currently up for pre-order and will launch on the day of love, Feb 14th. We have reached out to the developer and update you as we have more news about the game. With luck, we will also give you a taste through some video coverage where we can get on Twitch and play with viewers. Stay tuned for more!