BRAWL is a
card game published by
James Ernest/
Cheapass Games. There are six decks in the original BRAWL series, and six more in a sequel series that feature artwork from
Phil Foglio. $7.00 for a deck, which contains 35 cards.
Is it worth it? In a word, yes.
I'm a big fan of games I can play with those who lean towards the non-gamer type. Games that you can teach someone in under a minute, before they get nervous and decide it sounds too complicated. Games that people recognize enough to not be inimidated by. Anybody who has ever played the card game of War, or especially Speed, will have a level of familiarity with Brawl.
ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US! It advertises itself as a Realtime Card Game. This is true. The game is played at the speed of the participants. There is no turn structure. The gameplay consists of trying to control the bases in the center by having placed more "hits" on the base than your opponent. You can "block" your opponent to prevent him from laying down more hits, "press" past blocks your opponent has played on you, and even "clear" a whole base that is looking too difficult to reclaim. The expansion introduces the base altering cards "null", which stops the base from counting towards victory, "reverse", which makes the goal to have the least hits on that particular base, and "hold" which prevents your opponent from clearing the target base.
Once you understand how the game works, it's easy to complete a game in under a minute, which is a lot of the charm of the game. I would probably have to recommend the original six decks over the expansion decks as they seem to be slightly better balanced, but once you've gotten good at the original decks, the new cards, particularly the reverse, really introduce new strategies. Definitely a good game to keep in the gamer's arsenal due to its accessibility and speed of play.