Review: EXCEED Really Does Feel Like a Fighting Game in Card Form
Exceed is an interesting card game. It’s designed by David B. Talton Jr. and published by Level 99 Games. The idea was to simulate the thrill and joy of fighting games in a card game format. Level 99 Games was kind enough to send me the base set of characters from the Shovel Knight series and a beautiful woven-edge playmat with fun Shovel Knight art.
In the base set for Shovel Knight, fans can play as Shovel Knight and Shield Knight, Propeller Knight, Mole Knight, or Tinker Knight. Each character has some special abilities such as Tinker Knight starting with less health, but comes back with more health and as a bigger version of itself the first time its health drops to 0. These abilities combined with the Special and Ultimate attacks really help set each character’s deck apart. Also, this game is designed to be played by 2 players which is perfect right now during these times of social distancing when it can be hard to get a game group together.
Exceed takes some getting used to as it’s designed to be really fast and interactive. Players take turns, but when a Strike occurs and starts a fight, the rules change slightly and it’ll probably take a couple times to get it down pat. However, if you’re familiar with your character’s ability and the rules, the game can definitely go by pretty fast. One of the biggest problems I have with the game though is that some of the cards can be pretty vague on certain things and there are no rules specific for the sets. The rules you get are just the generic rules of the game. If you have a question about a specific card, you’re out of luck. You can hope it’s addressed in the FAQ on BoardGameGeek, but it might not. I wish that the game came with a rulebook that included FAQ and clarifications specific to the set that you get.
One of the great strengths of Exceed is how simple it can be to learn. On your turn, you can take one action (from a list of about 8) and then you’re done. If your action is to Strike (perform combat), then some other rules come into play that take a bit more getting used to, but shouldn’t be too bad. It really is a matter of learning what to use when.
There are two things I want to note about combat. First, I hate the stun mechanic. Yes, I know this is supposed to simulate fighting games, but I hate the stun mechanic in those too. I felt like it’s too easy to become stunned in Exceed which then means that you get to do nothing for your retaliation. I really hate this because I big part of Exceed is the Gauge system, but you can’t fill up your Gauge without pulling off attacks. However, if your opponent is able to get and use faster attacks, there’s a decent chance you won’t be able to do anything leading to a bad experience. It’s easy for things to snowball. The other note for combat is that Ignore Armor is useless. I looked through each deck I have and there are so few cards that actually have Armor that Ignore Armor never became useful.
Now, I didn’t really enjoy a lot of my time playing Exceed. Maybe it’s because I’ve never played Shovel Knight and so I’m not attached to any of the characters. I’d be willing to try this again with some of the Street Fighter decks (Cammy’s my girl!), but something tells me I still won’t love it. That being said, I can definitely see why some people do enjoy it. It can be quick once you get the rules down. It also really does feel like a fighting game in a weird way. For me, it just brought over some of the aspects I find frustrating in those games and made them more prominent. Plus, Exceed is a new way to enjoy some of these awesome characters.
If you really like fighting games and card games, I’d recommend checking out Exceed.
