Pyramid Review
NFL Showdown 2002 CCG
Published by Wizards of the Coast
Designed by Tom Wylie
Starter Set: $19.99; Boosters: $3.29
Sports games inhabit the fringes of the adventure gaming industry, adored by a dedicated few and pretty much reviled by the rest. I like sports a lot, and don't see any big difference between a game that simulates a sporting event and one that simulates, say, a Civil War battle, or interstellar trade, or a knightly quest. But that's just me.
And while Wizards of the Coast's Showdown series of card games is not likely to challenge the likes of Magic, Legend of the Five Rings, or even Pokemon for supremacy in the world of CCGs, sales are steady and there are a lot of fans playing.
The newest entry is NFL Showdown 2002, and since I am a huge fan of their baseball CCG (MLB Showdown), I really wanted to like this game. But I'm going to have to overcome a rather unpleasant first impression if I'm going to get there.
The player cards -- 462 in all, 62 of them foil cards featuring the best NFL players -- have all the great stars of the pro game (Marshall Faulk, Ray Lewis, Peyton Manning), as well as scores of obscure offensive linemen and cornerbacks that only the die-hard football fans know. The cards are very nice (like the baseball game, some sports card collectors who have no interest in actually playing will still buy the cards), but are a little busy, because of the game stat information on them and the bar code that runs down one side. (More on the bar code . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: November 2, 2001
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