Every now and then, vidya games decide they have to be…please imagine me dropping my voice an octave…serious. Whether it was the Real is Brown era, the era of Sad Dads, the Dark Souls era of fallen and depressing worlds, or now, every now and then, games have to be serious, with muted color palettes and Serious Messages, and the idea that fun and laughter is bad and not part of A Real Game. Into this moment charges Cross Blitz, which has color and life and energy and is all about a crew of goofballs laughing and having fun and my god, thank you.
Cross Blitz
Developer: Tako Boy Studios
Price: $20 USD
Platform: PC
MonsterVine was supplied with Steam code for preview
Cross Blitz is an RPG deckbuilding game in the vein of Slay the Spire but with the colorful look, feel, writing, and…dare I say the word…vibe? Oh, I dare…VIBE…of a Super Nintendo-era game, when games could be fun and make you chuckle instead of benign Gritty and Important and Meaningful. Characters tell jokes and laugh and seem to be having a good time, even when they’re battling their worst enemies who have, for example, stolen their pirate ship or press-ganged them into a quest that no one has ever survived and combat can only be resolved on the field of honor, which is to say, via turn-based card combat.
But do not let the pleasant characters, writing, and art deceive you. Sure, the combat and mechanics are easy to grasp. Okay, there are ample tutorials and things are well introduced, the more complicated things are gracefully ramped, and fine, it’s easy to go back and grind out some new cards and items if you need them. However, Cross Blitz also mirrors SNES era games in that it will absolutely clobber you if you don’t build your deck around a strategy or pay attention to the tutorials or actually figure out the mechanics.
Let’s talk about those: There’s a 4 by 4 grid in front of you and a similar grid in front of your opponent. Like basically any of these games, you summon creatures, cast spells, play items, and otherwise pull from a deck of cards. You start with a small starter deck and unlock more cards through exploring, winning battles, crafting, finding treasure, and random encounters…which is the other thing I want to cover. There is a lot of game in this game. If you’re one of those people that wants a lot of game to play when you buy a game, there’s a ton of stuff to do.
To begin with, there are two major game modes: Fables is the story mode, a hero’s journey of a pirate trying to get his ship back and find treasure and go on adventures but people keep being jerks about it (and that’s just the first one!). And then there’s Tusk Tales, which is a roguelite mode where you go on a semi-random adventure, slowly unlock cards and loot, fight bosses, unlock more areas, unlock more characters to go on adventures with, and so on.
As I hinted at, there’s a card crafting system, there’s exploration, there’s areas to unlock, there’s characters to unlock with different mechanics and different builds, and they can be leveled up. The developers say Fables takes about 20-30 hours to complete (there are 3 different stories!) and Tusk Tales take about 15-45 minutes per run (there’s tons of stuff to unlock and level up). So if you are one of those dudes on Steam that worry about the “amount of game hours played per dollar”, you’re a huge dork and I want to beat you up and lock you in a locker, but there’s a ton of stuff to do for a reasonable price.
And maybe I’m just a sicko that lives for these kinds of games, but it’s all pretty intuitive and easy to grasp. It’s maybe the friendliest deckbuilding RPG I’ve played. I felt like I was seeing the Matrix with the way I was picking up the mechanics, understanding builds, and suddenly understanding kung fu. And you need to because it will absolutely kick your ass if you don’t pick them up. The systems are easy to master but you need to master them.
This has been a year of great games with lots of hype so this is one that totally blind-sided me but it is genuinely fantastic. Oh, also? In a world of live service games and mobile games full of lootboxes and monetization you…actually play the game to progress and unlock things. That’s it. Truly. That’s it. That’s maybe the most innovative part of all. It’s a great game with tons of stuff to do and it’s not constantly showing up to ask you for more money. Now that’s the real pleasant surprise, aside from all the other pleasant surprises.
My pick for “Best out of nowhere game of 2023”.
