The most interactive trading card video game ever!
Trading card games have come and gone lately. They still exist, but they don’t get the credit they use to and no longer carry a good reputation. It seems that virtual games are all the rage now, and almost every trading card game is using video games to sell at least one form of their product. Sony, however, is literally using video games to sell their only product. Sony’s new trading card game is called The Eye of Judgment and uses EyeToy technology to display trading cards on screen as virtual monsters.
You don’t just display monsters, however, as you can literally play with them via the EyeToy camera. Besides playing with them, you can battle with them, so if you see some Eye of Judgment cards in the future, remember this: You must own a PS3 and EyeToy camera to use them. The game probably comes with a Starter Deck, so you won’t have to buy packs right away.
To battle, your monsters must face off on a 3×3 grid. Your objective is to capture 5 of the 9 grids. The monsters will automatically attack whatever monster you make them face. Each monster has its own stats featuring health points, attack points, and special ability information. There are also five different elements in the game and each creature is especially connected to one. An element connection will determine the strengths and weaknesses of the monster. Fire, for example, gives monsters strong attacks, while water-based monsters evade attacks easier. A fire-based monster would probably lose to a water-based monster.
There will also be spell cards in the game. Each spell will be based upon an element. This gives a fire monster a fighting chance against a water monster. There isn’t a status of spell cards in the game, but there will be over 100 different monsters in the final version of the game.
It is not known how many cards in a deck someone can use against the CPU, but SCEJ is attempting to set rules for online play like a tournament. They desire 30 card decks for online play only, but do not know how to limit someone’s deck yet. Perhaps, you’ll have to scan your entire deck pre-match.
As far as the graphics are concerned, it certainly doesn’t live up to Sony’s hype. Only a few PS3 games truly look next-gen and this title doesn’t come close. The monster graphics look like Xbox graphics, the spell graphics don’t look any better than PS2 graphics, and the backgrounds barely look PS3 quality. Still, the draw of the game is its interactivity.
The sound quality of the attacks is quite nice for a standard trading card game, but unfortunately, none of these monsters speak English like Digimon. Then again, you may not want to hear your monster screaming, “Easy, now!” or “My, your hands are cold!” or “I hope you washed your hands!”
The monster designs remind you of Yu-Gi-Oh! without the weird Japanese-esque monsters. From what I’ve seen, the game mostly features dragons, knights, etc. Actually, the game reminds me a lot of Dungeon Dice, only without the dice rolling, so if you liked that game, you’ll probably like The Eye of Judgment.
I admit that this type of game is quite attractive to E10+, but it’s doubtful that age group has a PS3 in the household. If so, I congratulate you, you lucky stiffs! If you’re older and nerdy and can afford a PS3 or have one, then I highly recommend this game. It’s the first time that you can buy physical playing cards and play by yourself on those lonely nights. Darn… I really need a PS3 now… Look for The Eye of Judgment late this year.
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