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Nine Lives and Eight Legs of Vs.
by Sith Dragon
July 25, 2005

There have been many games that have come and gone over the years. There are games like Magic that I am pretty sure will never die so long as the creators want to keep it going. There have been games that have failed so miserably that they are here today and gone in less than a year. There are games like Yu-Yu Hakusho that may indeed be very good games, but never manage to get off the ground for long. And then there are the fads - games like Yugioh and Pokemon that have a blazing hot beginning and then decline to a pace that almost in need of life support, yet never quite die off. So where will Vs. fall in the annals of card history?

The longevity of a game often depends on how many legs it has to stand on. A game can have several good strong legs, but when one of those legs break, then the game falls. Magic has the distinction of being the first. Games, movies or whatever it is in life that is the first of something or revolutionizes its field tends to become immortal. Magic, Star Wars, The Beetles – no one of these things will never die. Vs.
is not the first, nor will it be the last so no help there.

Tie-ins can be both a blessing and a bane. Games such as Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh blaze to life with the success of their respective anime, but as the TV shows cool off the game loses the ability to pull people in. Vs.
has perhaps the strongest tie-in support of any game ever created. Right now the only movies that Hollywood seems to be able to make are comic movies. Some are well done and others are….well….done. Either way from here on out Vs. will have the ability to release new starter decks and sets around them. Next year alone we have Superman and X3 with movies like Ghostrider and Wonder Woman in the wings. Big plus here.

Game engines can be ignored in the short term when a game first starts, but a game with a poor or unexciting engine will not last long. Shaman King had a nice anime tie in but its engine lacks depth. It is already being clearanced from my local hobby stores.
Vs. has perhaps one of the most versatile and dynamic engines of current games out there. The ability to move characters around, team attack and reinforce each other adds a very nice twist to the game. In fact I imagine games like yugioh or a Star Wars card game in this format and I get goose bumps even though I know it will never happen. Another big plus for Vs. here.

Card balance is essential to any game. Those that read my last article know exactly what game I am referring too. Yugioh is dying due to very poor balance and planning on behalf of the creators. As of now, Vs. is very well balanced and from what I have heard, the creators are being very mindful of overbalanced cards. Great effects get weak stats and vise-versa. A plus here too.

The final leg I am going to address is tourney support. National tournaments are great, but if people are not playing locally, then the game will not last, as that is where the true money lies for the makers. Yu-Yu Hakusho received praise from many of the big gamers in my tourneys, but it never received tourney support from the hobby stores, and now is almost completely gone. Games like Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon started so hot how could they not run tourneys. Now the tourney atmosphere is about all that keeps them going. I was worried at first Vs.
would not get the support of our local hobby stores as the tourneys were a long time coming here, but came they did and now the game has accelerated. Gaining tournament support is essential, but once a game has it, its continued success depends on the other legs. A final plus here.

Vs. in my opinion is one of the most stable games in modern history. The engine is good, the support is good, and the game is well balanced. On top of this there is tons of room to go back and re-release old cards with the updated effects – Xavier with 8 willpower? Batman with leadership? There are many ways they can repackage the older cards if new comic book teams get thin. So at the end of my ramblings, Vs. is going to be around for a very long time.

Next up ill stick to a series of shorter articles on deck building for those that are new or want a fresh look at things. Battle on! (Sithdragon13@yahoo.com)