I’ve already talked about this game, you can find Super Fantasy Brawl Round 2 over on Kickstarter now, and my thoughts on it in todays Back or Brick. But I’ve played this game several times now, played with different heroes, and what do I think about it. I will say, I want to play this game even more. I think there are lots of hero combinations and synergies that I could use and there is depth that I wasn’t sure that I’d find in this game that is there.

The Game

Super Fantasy Brawl is a two player, though there are ways to play with more, game where players take a team of three fantasy race heroes into an arena style battle. The goal of the game is to be the first to five victory points. You get those points by knocking out your opponents heroes and completing objectives. The game play is quite interesting because of how simple it is.

Each player has the ability to activate characters up to three times per round. Once for each of three different aspects. But each aspect can only be activated once. The ideal way to activate them is by playing cards from your hand. Playing a card uses up one of these cores as they are called and will match the color of the core. So you can only play one red, blue, or yellow card per turn. And each character has cards of each color. You can also do basic abilities, but those aren’t as good. Once you’ve done all three it passes to the opponent and the process repeats.

The Bad

So, this game has a lot of good things, I want to talk about the bad things in this game first. And really, they aren’t with the game themselves. The insert to store the pieces is horrible. There is tons of wasted space in the box just because someone decided to stretch everything out. The box could have been half the size without this, or had room to store expansions. And really that’s the biggest negative in the game. It packs away well enough, but why is it impossible in a giant box to fit in the expansions, that is embarrassing. I talk about it in the Back or Brick, but I wish that Mythic Games had given an option to purchase corrected Game Trayz for the box.

The other minor quibble that I have is the towers. These pillars are cool looking and huge, but they kind of get in the way. When you reach around them, you bump into them and they can topple over. Now it’s a very minor quibble, it makes the game look epic on the table. But the bases are a little bit hollow, and had they been solid, they might have felt less like you’d topple them over.

The Good

Now, there is a ton that’s good, and really, the bad are generally cosmetic issues. I might find a way to weigh down my pillars so they stay better. And I can just toss the insert and use baggies and deck boxes and get it to the table just as fast, the only downside will be the loose minis. Mythic Games is offering a carrying case, but while it’s reasonably priced, it isn’t cheap. But enough about that, more good stuff please.

The Characters

This is the first area that the game really shines. Not only are the minis for the characters a really nice size, in fact, they could be smaller and you wouldn’t miss it, but I’m glad they are so big. The game as a whole shows off how you can make things massive in a game that plays smaller. But back to the characters, the fantasy characters that they use are unique. It isn’t a standard elf with a bow or a halfling bard. Sure, you get some archetypes in there, I played a wizard type character who could cast a fireball. But most of them are unique. And even with that one being a bit more traditional, it plays so differently from other characters.

Character Variability

That’s the other thing with the characters, each of them plays differently. I talk about the spell caster who casts a fireball, that is completely different than a tank barbarian who hits everyone directly around them. There is a bird creature who swoops in and moves other champions around, and some push or pull on most every attack. I even played a character who is better when they attack from a trap spot and one that rides another creature to move around the board. And the variability adds so much replayability to the game and depth. I need to delve more into what the characters and create teams that’ll synergize together.

Card Play

The card play works really nicely as well. Yes, it sucks ending up with several hands in a row where you don’t have every color of card, but the basic actions do work. But the cards play out so nicely, I had a turn where one champion managed to move, attack, move, attack, and move attack again, just a single character, to take out another character. That was a really epic moment in the game, and the game encourages them. Other plays like pushing an enemy so they go into a trap add in more fun. There is really a ton that can be done through the cards.

Objectives and Knock Outs

How you get points works nicely as well. I went for the objectives fairly often and ended up 2-1 last night in game play. But I never won because I only went for objectives. I always took out at least one opposing champion to get to that point. And you can’t just focus on one or the other. If you only focus on getting objectives, you’ll spend all your time moving about. If you only attack, you can’t defend against someone getting objectives as well. And it makes things like pushing and pulling more useful. A lot of the objectives are being next to a statue, and once your opponent is there, you need to kill, push, or pull to stop them from scoring. With that, though, scoring happens at the start of players turn, so the opponent always has a chance to stop it.

Game Length

Finally, the game length is great. A game like this, which plays with cards, shouldn’t be too long. And Super Fantasy Brawl is a fast game. The first game, with learning, took maybe an hour. Two more games took about the same time as that first game. The last game probably was under half an hour. But you don’t feel like you can’t play everything you want. The deck of cards is so small you see every card multiple times, even in a short game. And not really a negative, because I like the length, but the components of the game feel larger than the game itself. Everything is so fancy for a light and fast battle game.

Final Thoughts

I like Super Fantasy Brawl a lot. Mythic Games has created a really fun experience. Now, I wish they would fix the production issues that I see, but those are minor quibbles. When the Super Fantasy Brawl Round 2 stuff comes in, I will remove or modify at least some of the Game Trayz. The big box is large enough to fit everything without them in there. And that kind of sucks, because I do like Game Trayz for storage, these are just bad.

That said, I think a lot of people will like this game. There is enough going on to keep players who want strategy engaged. The card play is simple enough that non-gamers can probably pick it up. It reminds me a little bit of Magic: The Gathering at times, Dice Throne at others, both those games are in my Top 100. The fact that characters are never completely knocked out makes it better as well. Plus the game length is a huge selling point, the game doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. Overall, Super Fantasy Brawl is a really good game.

Overall Grade: A-
Gamer Grade: B
Casual Grade: A-

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