Minecraft has been around for over a decade now with the first public version released in 2009. If you bought into the Alpha build for a mere $5 you received updates for the life of the now dubbed ‘Classic’ version. Skip ahead to numerous version, a brand/software company, and one huge sell to Microsoft later and Minecraft is a household fixture like Sesame Street for those with wee ones running about.
Now what can you do when you want to interest your kids in a game away from a screen? Look for a tie-in of course! Enter ‘Minecraft Card Game?‘ I don’t know why it has a question mark, does it question itself as truly being a game? Is it a question of whether this is Minecraft enough? We may never know. Regardless this game is slated for the ages 8 and up which is good as much younger and the point driven game play would most bore them to death. Basically you lay out the resource decks and the crafting decks. From there you take an action either Mine or Craft, mine allows you to select a resource card, while craft lets you use resource cards to ‘make’ a craft card. Each craft card gives you points, the amount of points to win is determined by the number of players. There are a few cards in the decks that come up to create ‘gotcha’ or randomness within a given game along with a few PvP-esque cards to use against your opponents, nothing outlandish merely annoyances.
The game is not heavy on strategy yet is complex enough to give younger and beginning gamer some basic concepts of planning and resource handling. While not being so boring for an adult player to want a nap. For this reason we would highly recommend this for family play as an entry level game for 8 and up.
If you have older gamers in the house or need to step up from this game there is a similar and more complex game that works in the general way called Splendor. This game has a few more moving parts and is more complex but makes a great stepping stone from beginner to intermediate level of analog gaming.
So we’d like to know . . .
What other property licensed games have you found worthwhile?
What is the worst property licensed game you have ever played?
What analog turned digital licensed property game have you enjoyed?
