So we’re up to three different version of Clank! that I’ve played now. I own and have played Clank! the Deckbuilding Adventure Game, Clank! In! Space! and Clank! Catacombs. But which one is going to come out on top. Because, when I rank these in my Top 100 Games (of all time) I always lump them together. But is one of the versions better than one of the other versions of the game? Join with me as they battle it out.

Clank! Overview

Clank! is a deck building game. In every iteration is going to remain the same. And it is also a press your luck game. The main core of the game is going to be around building up your deck of cards and getting a treasure and getting back out.

There are a few other things that are consistent across the games. The first is that there market isn’t fixed. That means that you flip over cards so what is available is going to change after someone has made a purchase. There are going to be monsters in this section of the cards as well. And there are a few fixed cards that always give you a chance to buy attack or movement. But they don’t have points on those cards.

The treasures are going to be consistent as well, at least in terms of you can only carry one, with a couple exceptions and you want to get the ones with the most points on them, but they are also the farthest into the dungeon or spaceship.

There is also a secondary marketplace you can buy from in all of them. These credits or coins are harder to come by. But they often give you a benefit when you get them or additional points for the game.

Finally, you need to get in and get out with the treasure. But there is an area of the board you can make it to and be safe. It’s just that if you don’t make it the whole way out, you miss out on some big bonus points.

Clank! Deckbuilding Adventure Game

This is the original one so I’m going to say that there isn’t a ton to say. Everything about the game I mainly covered in the first part as to how you play the game. But there is one main difference about the original Clank and that is how the game ends. We’ll talk about it’s way here and then what the newer versions of the game do with the other ones.

The big thing is that when you escape, or the first person escapes that starts a timer for the game. There are four rounds left at that point and if you don’t get out you don’t get out. So you need to be booking it back to the safe zone at that point and you need to make sure you have a treasure. There is a downside to this, though, because someone can pop in with a lot of movement and grab the cheapest treasure and just try and take everyone out quickly.

Clank! In! Space!

Clank! In! Space! has a few different elements to the game. The first one is around the end game. And this carries through into Clank! Catacombs as well. But on the players turn they now draw a number of cubes from the bag. So the game might go longer than four rounds if someone can manager their noise (Clank) well. But on the flip side, it can end faster for people as well if they put too much. The big benefit of this is that it keeps the player who escaped more engaged in the game.

The other thing it introduces is the idea of the locked treasure vault. So you need to get a treasure, but it’s locked. So you go around first to a couple of terminals and once you have gone to two you can access the vault. Basically, you hack your way in. This means that you just can’t find an optimal path and go as fast as you can.

Then there is the lift. This allows you to move around faster. But at some point in time the lift is going to get closed down and you need to make your way through the halls like normal. It’s just a small tweak but something that can make a pretty big difference at times.

Plus there is board that can change. Now we’ll talk about a truly open board concept in Clank! Catacombs. But in this case you can flip tiles and place them in different spots to create the space ship. The shape of the ship is always the same, but what’s in the different areas can change and change up the game.

Clank! Catacombs

Clank! Catacombs offers a few new changes to the game. There is one very large one though, and that is that there isn’t really a board to the game. There are tiles, but it’s a catacombs so as you go around you explore and create different pathways. You do this by drawing tiles and you determine how you want to orient that tile so that it works out best for you. This means that you could create a looping path to move around or branch out in one direction, it is up to the players.

There are also new shrines. These shrines do have a couple of benefits to them. One you can trade in a minor secret of the puzzle box type for a major secret. But the main thing that you can do is place a cube there and then for each one you visited you get a gold coin for the marketplace.

Finally, there are locked things. There are three different types of things that you can unlock. The first is a treasure chest which is where you get your major secrets. The next is a library which allows you to get a secret tome. And finally a prison cell where you get two helpers. These helpers are new to the game as are the lockpicks. So while in Clank! In! Space! you hack everything, here a lockpick is a one and done item.

Best Elements Of Each

For the main Clank! Game it’s tricky because I think that the other two improve upon it. So it doesn’t always have something that stands out as that much extra about it. But with that, I will say there is a bit more simplicity to the game. Each subsequent version is going to add in another challenge that you need to deal with while you play the game.

For Clank! In! Space!, I really like the addition of going around and hacking before you can get the treasure. That slows down that rush in and rush out mindset of the game. And of course the new game ending mechanism when someone escapes is something that I like better.

And for Clank! Catacombs, of course it’s going to be that modular board. But I thought about the prisoners as well. It just means that you never are going to play the same game and that makes for a fun experience. And it means that the game is going to be easier to expand.

The Battle and Winner

For me it comes down between two. Unfortunately base Clank or original Clank! is just very good, but doesn’t take that extra step. And that makes sense because it’s the one that started it all. So it’s going to come down between the other two. And yes, I might redo this when I eventually play Clank! Legacy.

But for the other two there are elements that I like a lot about both. Clank! In! Space! makes sure that you know this is a silly game. It parodies a ton of different things in the Sci-Fi realm which I enjoy. Clank! Catacombs is still light and fun, but isn’t so much of a parody of anything in the game. I think that parody element for some people might be a turn off, though for the game.

On the other hand, Clank! Catacombs offers more flexibility and that promise of the game being different every time. I really enjoy how you build out the map and as I said, it is going to make it really easy to expand. Add in more tiles that do different things will be easy to do in the game, but that’s in the future. Mainly because I don’t have the first expansion for the game yet, it’s on its way. And the expansions for Clank! In! Space! are fun as well.

That said, I do think that Clank! Catacombs is the better game. The addition of the lock picks and that extra resource and the prisoners that you can free and get a bonus are great. And they are such minor additions that they don’t add much to the complexity of the game. So Clank! Catacombs is our winner.

Final Thoughts

I love this series of games. In fact, I own all three versions that battled here plus the two legacy versions of the game as well. And the legacy ones I suspect will be my favorite as they are Acquisitions Inc themed and I love Acquisitions Inc. But right now, obviously, they can’t be on the list and a legacy game is always going to be a somewhat different animal.

Now, do I need all of the versions of the game. No, I do not. But I do own them all because it’s such a fun game. And I can see, after playing Clank! Catacombs with the expansions that I might get rid of original Clank!. But even that is a fun game still to play as well.

What is your favorite version of Clank!?

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