By MICHAEL ERB
Staff Writer
The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
www.newsandsentinel.comPARKERSBURG — When I first announced my intention to review “Bella Sara,” a trading card game about horses and designed for young girls, my co-workers laughed.
When I received my review kit, complete with pictures of pretty horsies, stars and rainbows, they laughed even harder.
One co-worker in particular, a real man’s man, looked mildly disgusted and shook his head as I showed him the colorful cards and explained how you could play with them as a game. Within a couple of minutes, however, the looks vanished and I had his full attention as he flipped through the deck.
“My daughter would love these,” he said.
Exactly.
As both a game and as collectible cards, “Bella Sara” is a product keenly aware of its market. Designed for girls ages 5 to 12, the cards feature different kinds of horses as well as “inspirational” phrases, such as “You create your own reality,” and “Feel the joy in what you see, hear and sense.”
There are three “games” with the main set, though really only two of them are what I would consider to be games, and the third is more of a self-esteem exercise.
Each card has a stylized symbol or series of the same symbol at the top of the card — heart, moon, flower or horseshoe. In Moonlight’s Game, you have 2-4 players each with 4-20 cards. All players lay down their top card at the same time, and the first one to see a match, either in the symbol or number of symbols, taps the table, and the first one to tap places their card into a separate pile, called the Bonus Pile.
Then everyone plays their next card, and play continues until one person manages to put all of their cards in their Bonus Pile, winning the game. Players reshuffle their decks in play whenever they’ve used up all of their cards, so the number of cards you start with in your deck decides the length of the game.
In Leonardo’s Game, you have 2-6 players each with a deck of 20 cards. Each player draws seven cards into their hand. The game begins when a player lays a card face up. The next player must lay down a card from their hand with either the same symbol or number of symbols.
So for example, I play two moons. My friend Dave can play any number of moons or two of another symbol, as long as it is a single card, like a card with two hearts. If he can’t match the symbol or number, he draws a card from his deck and play continues with the person on his left, with that player trying to match the symbol or number of symbols previously played.
The game ends when a player discards the last card from their hand. That player is the winner.
The third game, the one I called a self-esteem exercise, is a solo game. The player simply deals out some cards face down, then turns them over one at a time and reads and thinks about the phrase written on each.
The cards themselves are actually very pretty, with colorful illustrations for a variety of different horses, both real and fantasy-inspired, such as the chestnut stallion Eagle or the sea horse Cajus. They also represent different cultures, such as the Japanese warhorse Sung or the Native American Leonard or the Arabian Cantaro. Many are depicted in dramatic scenes, such as the spike-armored unicorn Lancelot who is fighting a dragon and the fire-maned Flame who runs across a volcanic landscape. Though I didn’t get this card in my sample packs, there also is an undead skeletal horse, like something out of a horror novel. You can go onto the game’s Web site,
www.bellasara.com, and see all of the cards.
Speaking of the Web site, one of the big draws of these collectible cards actually is online. On each card is a code that allows you to unlock a virtual horse at BellaSara.com. You can groom, feed and care for your horse as well as take them through a variety of online games.
There also are Energy Cards, which represent pieces of equipment like saddles or riding boots. Using those online can boost your horse’s abilities and unlock additional games.
Though the virtual side is rather simple, kids will love seeing their card collection represented online and will get a lot of enjoyment out of the games and being able to care for their horses.
The cards come in packs of five with a sixth card that contains trivia, word finds or some other small game as well as rules for one of the three main games (though you can find the rules for all thee games on the Web site).
The cost of a pack is $2.99, which is a little less than you would pay for a more traditional collectible card game, but you are getting less game for your money. Even so, the online component is free and definitely adds some value and collectability to the cards.
If you are looking for a way to get your daughter, granddaughter or niece into gaming, this could be a good start. For someone already into games, there isn’t a lot here, but the collectible nature and online play make the game very appealing for today’s ’tween girl.
For more information on the game, visit
www.bellasara.com, and for more game reviews visit my blog at
http://merb101.livejournal.com.
Contact Michael at merb101@gmail.com.
Posted Mon Nov 12,2007 09:09 pm
