Neopets TCG(Wizards of the Coast)

SETTING:The characters, locations, items, etc. from the popular Neopets virtual pet site.

GAMEPLAY:Fun and tactical, with a small does of luck. Both players are trying to be the first to 'bank' 21 points worth of Items and Equipment. Shuffle your deck and Neopets stack, and draw 4 cards for a hand.

On your turn(after untapping and drawing a card), you flip over the top card of your Neopets stack, and place it tapped in any of the 4 arenas(Strength, Agility, Magic, and Intelligence).

Now you can play Equipment, Experienced Neopets, Heroes, Villians, Something has Happened, Locations, Fates, and Constellations(yes, there are a lot of card types). Almost everything in the game requires tapping as a cost, playing Equipment, moving to another arena, etc.. Since you only have 3 Neopets in play at a time, you have to plan carefully how you are going to play cards.

To play an Equipment, tap a pet and attach the Equipment to a pet. ShH are basic effect cards that may or may not require tapping. Experienced Neopets work like the evolution mechanic in Pokemon. You stick them on top of your Basic Neopets to get a more powerful version(i.e.-I turn by Green JubJub into a JubJub Engineer). Heroes are really powerful characters that are stay in play for one turn(some require two Neopets tapping to play). Villians sit in an arena, and stop normal contests(more on that in a bit) from happening until someone beats them in a Villian contest.

Introduced in later sets were Locations, which modify an arena; Fates, which do good or bad things for you or your opponent after you meet the requirements(i.e.-When you play an Experienced Neopet, draw 2 cards.); and Constellations, which require you to discard X worth of points from your bank.

Contests are the way to win the game. To start one, tap your Neopet(s) in an arena, roll a die, and add the roll to your Neopet's stat in the arena's type. Your opponent then rolls and adds her roll to her Neopet(s) at that arena. Highest total wins. Both players can slap down an Item before the rolls to boost their pets. If you started it, and won, you can put an Item or Equipment from your hand into your Bank, or draw a card. First one to 21 bank points(indicated on the little coin in the corner of the card) wins!

ART:Cartoonish anime style art. Its not bad, but its not fantastic like Magi-Nation. The layout is very nice too, with everything labled very well. The holofoiling isn't that bad either.

PACKAGING:Oversized 60-card Starters(with necessary playmats and die) and Theme decks. The only Theme decks made were for the Battle for Meridell Expansion, and no new ones have been made yet. The Boosters are very expensive, at $3.75, but only 8 cards!

BEST TRAIT:It's a fun game of tactics that even younger children can play. The playmat is colorful, and has basic starter rules printed on it. And, oh, and if your like giving your unicorn a Goo blaster so it can challenge the bat with a Wand at the Spacestation, and bank the Cheese, this is the game for you.

WORST TRAIT:The game takes up a lot of space, and requires a playmat. Also, they keep releasing new card types without new rules specifying exactly how to play them.

-EonTai