Introduction

“Hah! Duke’s still standing!” were the words of my son to me as he won the round we were playing of GI Joe Trading Card Game. It was fun to see his delight in the success of his battle and that should be the catchword of this game as it is fun. It doesn’t have anywhere close to the depth of the more popular trading card games out there, but its simplicity has a lot of appeal.

Gameplay

The most enjoyable element of the GI Joe Trading Card Game is its simplicity. Within 5 minutes of opening the box, my son and I were playing halfway through the first battle and I rate that as a very good feature. The game stars all the favorite GI Joe and Cobra characters that many boys (and grown up boys) have seen. The artwork on the cards is not too flashy, but its detailed drawings are perfect for the context of the game.

The GI Joe Trading Card Game features both basic and advanced rules. The basic rules will allow anyone to have a game going in only minutes after opening up the game. The foldout game poster has the basic rules printed right on it and also has the slots for the cards each player is using. This allows players to walk through a first turn and understand the basic rules quickly.

The key parts of the individual cards in the basic rules are the power (value) of the card and its color. Each card does double duty, since there are boost numbers on the bottom of each card. These boost cards are modifiers that influence the one-on-one combat that begins each player’s turn. The boost numbers are color keyed and they may vary in power for each color. Both players start by shuffling their decks and drawing cards out.

These first 8 cards are placed in either the front or back rank, with 4 in each rank. When placing it becomes a strategic consideration of whether to place a card in the open front rank or whether to set it behind an already played front rank card. This is a simple, yet effective way to present each player options. The turn begins with both players drawing two cards and then the first player making a one-on-one attack, with the second player getting a return attack. Under basic rules, when an attack is declared each player places one boost card (one of the two drawn) on their respective soldiers. Deciding the combat is a simple matter of adding the power to the proper color boost and the highest one wins. Draws mean both units stay on the board and there are also boost cards that automatically designate a draw. Those cards were handy in avoiding having one of my soldiers killed in a patently uneven match-up.

Following the one-on-one combat phase is the team firefight. Each player gets to draw one card for each soldier they have out on the board. These cards are placed face-up on the board. The first player then selects enough power points to either equal or go over one of the first rank soldiers on the second side. This continues until the player runs out of cards or there are enough cards played to defeat every front rank soldier. All those units are discarded and if there is a second rank soldier they move up. The second player then gets his shot at the first rank of the first player. This team firefight forces each player to make difficult decisions. Should I spend enough to defeat Duke when it would cost a couple of power points, or would it be more productive to defeat his other front rank comrades? These decisions add a nice element of strategy to the simple decisions of where to place the points. If both players still have soldiers, then the game moves back to the one-on-one combat that begins each turn. The winner is the player with soldiers still on the board when their opponent has none.