spiderslash- Expect nothing, and even less.

I’m what we in the business call a “Capcom fan”. For years I’ve followed the company and enjoyed nearly all of their major franchises. From Mega Man to Street Fighter, these games and by extension, the company, have left a massive impact on my life and after a rocky few years (Decade) they’ve finally started to become the company I grew up loving. So when I learned that a Capcom vs Capcom styled card game was in the works my reaction was……..

…..mixed, to say the least.

Yeah, I’m not the biggest fan of mobile/card games in case you couldn’t tell. Something that has always frustrated me about Capcom is that they really like shoving fan-favorite franchises into games that…aren’t their own games. Hell at this point I’ve nearly given up on a new Darkstalkers. But once I started to see demos of the game pop of I started to become much more intrigued. The art on the cards was striking and somewhat appealing and seeing the redesigns for Ryu and X made my ears perk up a little bit. Fast forward a few weeks later and Gung-Ho, the developer of the game, just decided to DROP IT on the iOS and Android stores under the tentative name Teppen and I, admittedly begrudgingly decided to start it up.

And I haven’t been able to put it down.

The best way to describe Teppen is that it’s not a traditional card game but, rather a card based tower defense. Instead of taking turns and plotting out your next move, the game requires you to be quick on your toes and utilize your ever-changing MP gauge. Each card has a specific amount you can use and once you’ve used enough MP you can use your hero characters special attack. If that sounds a bit daunting don’t worry it isn’t. Teppen is an extremely easy game to learn due to its simplified ruleset and card types. I haven’t been into card games since I was in middle school and I was able to grasp the idea of this game after a couple games. I ended up really enjoying the fast and frantic gameplay Teppen brought to the table and having games only lasting 5 minutes helps keep things well paced and perfect for mobile play.

You don’t have all the available decks and heroes at the start of the game as you have to unlock them by playing the games story mode. The story mode serves and a tutorial for how to use each hero correctly and how to effectively use the various card types and strategies the game offers. Now even when you get the decks you still only have a portion of the cards because you have to get the rest of them from packs or by crafting them. Now…I know how a lot of people feel about microtransactions and it CAN seem like this can be considered a “pay to win” aspect of the game but to that I say

Fucking….shut up. The default decks are crazy.

There are so many options with what you can do with these cards, it’s insane. I haven’t personally tried my hand and crafting my own original deck since I’m kind of…stupid, but that option is totally there for those that want to craft the best (Or grimiest) deck possible. The most ideal way to build a deck is by making a themed one. There are 4 elements; Fire, Green, S-Spider, and…Shadow? I think? They only kind of tell you the names. I just go by color. Each color focuses on a different deck type for various types of players.

Fire=Buffs/Damage

Green=Healing/Shields

Spider=Status Effects/Health Draining

Shadow=Self Damaging/Destruction

Even if you don’t pull any cards from packs the default decks pack a solid punch if you know how to properly use them, and I think that’s awesome. It makes the game much more approachable to new players and it makes them feel like they have a fighting chance. The art on these cards as well are just…amazing. Almost every card is drawn by a different artist and every franchise that’s in this game is properly represented. Although suspiciously there are certain staple/fan favorite characters that don’t have any cards associated with them…..future expansions maybe? Who knows! All I know is that for some reason Necali has a card and that’s something really special.

Now in terms of game modes you have quite a few options to play with people. You, of course, have ranked and free match mode that lets you play with other people and they both work surprisingly well. I never had any disconnects or frame drops and I was having a blast having an 18-1 win/loss record. Much like other mobile games as well you can complete daily challenges and also earn more reward from  “Chronicle” mode. Chronicle mode is just a series of easy-difficult challenges that are designed to teach you more about the game and they reward you with various rewards and XP for your hero characters so you can unlock more special moves to spice up the gameplay.

All in all? I was pleasantly surprised by Teppen. What I thought was going to be a bland card game turned out to be a stressful, tense, chaotic nightmare that I can’t stop playing and enjoying. I really can’t recommend this game enough ESPECIALLY if you’re a novice at card games like myself. They’re planning on adding more content as well with “The Gauntlet” so there’s even more to look forward to in the future. I just have…one question though.

What does “Teppen” even mean?