Every Pilgrim reaches the end of his journey. Some sooner than others.
Title: Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Card Game
Players: 2-5
Type: Deck-Building
Time: 45-60 minutes
Designer: Keith Baker
Artist: Bryan Lee O’Malley
Publisher: Renegade Game Studios
Release Date: 2017 (exact release date TBD)
Expansions: TBD
This past week, Renegade Game Studios and Oni Press announced Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Card Game, a deck-building card game designed by Pacific Northwest resident Keith Baker. This is Baker’s second collaboration with Renegade Game Studios after last year’s publication of his Cthulu-themed, Monopoly-esque game, The Doom that Came to Atlantic City.
Based on the popular graphic novels by Bryan Lee O’Malley, players will assume the roles of familiar characters from the Scott Pilgrim Universe, each of whom has a unique starting deck and abilities. Like most deck-building games, Scott Pilgrim will make the experience of crafting a deck the central focus of gameplay, specifically to “fight” life problems like renting an apartment or getting a job.
Players will be crafting their own Scott Pilgrim storyline, playing their cards on a Plot line. Along the way, they will upgrade their Life, collect Power-Ups, and fight “over-sized” Evil Exes. According to Renegade’s website, the game also contains DRAMA! ACTION! and FRIENDS!
Here is a snippet from Renegade’s press release:
So why grow up, anyway? Is it really worth it? Don’t you have better things to do? Why does it matter whether or not your indie-rock band gets that great gig? You started a band to have fun, and now you’re going to get your butts kicked by robots. And who wants to deal with the headache of dating?
Look, we’ve all got baggage. Some of us have drama that likes to pick fights and exes that like to throw punches. Love is a battlefield! So you’d rather sit on the couch throwing punches in your favorite video game. Hey, who’s going to stop you? Demons, fireballs, giant purple dudes?? Sounds like a bummer!
If you want to keep living your precious little life, maybe it’s time to get it together and go up against the world!
It’s certainly an exciting premise, guaranteed to generate renewed interest in the series and send copies of this game flying off shelves.
As excited as I am for this game, I am also a little skeptical. I’ve played many games of this type (resisting the urge to buy more Legendary expansions is a continuing struggle of mine!), and there are few that stand out from the crowd.
In my experience, some deck-building games become rather predictable and force players to form similar strategies in order to out-compete each other, becoming more a matter of who can get the “right” cards during turn order.
What’s interesting about Keith Baker’s iteration is using video game-style combo moves and double-sided cards. Each side represents a different choice – will you solve your problems with hard work and empathy, or engage in gratuitous video game violence?
I will be very interested in reviewing this game when it comes out, which is due to release sometime in Summer 2017.
