Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands: The Chaos Chamber
Publisher: Upper Deck
Designers: Max Holliday
Number of Players: 2 to 4
Age Rating: 14 and up
MSRP: $29.99
Product #: 16369
ICv2 Rating: 4 Stars out of 5
I was unfamiliar with Tiny Tina’s Wonderland before I was introduced to this quirky little card game, so I didn’t know what to expect. Nonetheless, I was amused by its off-kilter sense of humor and the odd juxtaposition of fantasy RPG and trick-taking card game elements, inspired by the first-person shooter game. But that was no obstacle in tackling The Chaos Chamber. The question is, does this little spin-off stand on its own?
Summary: Of all the sub-types of card games, few are as well-established as the honorable trick-taking game, and those skills are certainly helpful in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. Each player has a character class that grants them a limited-use ability, and a hand of cards drawn from three possible suits: melee, guns, and magic, plus perhaps some aces, which are always wild but have a value of 0 for winning tricks. They also receive a countdown-style 20-sided die to keep track of their “Health”. A villain is spawned from a deck of monster cards, and the action is ready to begin.
The first quirk here is that each trick is actually a double-trick. Like most games of this ilk, the lead player sets the suit all other must follow, but after each player plays a card, a second round of card play in the opposite direction follows before the trick is resolved. The second quirk is that every card has a special effect, which can include drawing cards, spawning monsters, inflicting damage, healing damage, or a number of other possibilities. The player with the highest sum from both half-tricks wins the trick and receives the privilege of assigning the cards from that trick as damage to whatever monsters are lurking about. As monsters are defeated, the “party” of players gets to distribute their loot cards, which grant additional abilities and most importantly victory points, while monsters who survive the attacks get to retaliate, possibly knocking out players and forcing Death Saves. The first player to collect loot worth the goal wins the game.
Originality: The Chaos Chamber adds a number of twists to the trick-taking genre, drawing inspiration from role-playing games in the form of character classes, health points and a “Death Save” when one’s Health runs out, and the gathering of loot. Using the tricks as a way of resolving “attacks” against the monsters is certainly innovative, and the double-trick nature of the rounds forces a whole new way of planning out card play if one hopes to claim the trick. Euchre this isn’t, for certain.
Presentation: I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for games packaged to look like books. The clandestine nature of a book box that hides a game in plain sight is always a little fun. And Upper Deck did a fine job with the packaging here. The cover has an imposing image of Tiny Tina looking out menacingly with a bright aura surrounding her and the title is readable despite a crooked font. However, the description on the back is lacking in details about gameplay and no components are pictured. The box has a strong magnetic closure so it doesn’t require any hooks or fasteners. The built-in tray is one of the best I’ve seen, cleverly designed to make it easy to withdraw the cards from the box and reserving plenty of space for four 20-sided dice. The artwork clearly follows the design flavor of the source material.
Quality: Beyond the lovely packaging, the components are also good. The dice are nice quality in a pinkish-purple with embedded glitter and a special icon for the 20 face. The cards have the thickness and flexibility one would expect for a traditional card game and should hold up well. The rulebook has a bit of the game’s humor snuck in, which I appreciate, but I think the writing could have been more clear in some places, and it absolutely would have benefited from some examples of play. It does offer a nice player aid on the back cover.
Marketability: There has been a noticeable drift towards card games over the last year or so, as the market cultivates a taste for lower-priced, faster-playing fare, and this title fits into that niche. From the outside, the price point feels a tad high, but when you look inside and find four dice and over 100 cards, it seems much more reasonable. I think fans of trick-taking card games are likely to find the approach here unique and interesting, if they aren’t too much of a purist.
Overall: Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands: The Chaos Chamber takes a game mechanic with very deep roots and twists it around into something very different. The juxtaposition of the familiar and the unexpected shakes up the game experience and forces players to give a lot more thought to their actions than would at first appear. It combines trick-taking, hand management, and a touch of engine building all at once. The game has a lot of features you have to balance in order to play well, without an excessively long playing time.
But the learning curve is pretty steep, which can trip up both less experienced game players and old hands who need to “unlearn” their habits. In particular, careless or inexperienced play can easily see the “heroes” flooded with too many monsters to handle, which can frustrate new players, and there is little to counterbalance a lucky hand. To be fair, that can be a problem with any trick-taking game, and the playing time is short enough that most player frustration will be short-lived.
That’s why I’m giving this game 4 out of 5.
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