Card City Nights is not a traditional card-trading game. It's an adventure game with zany characters to meet and weird locations to explore. In the center is our new card battle system that breaks away from the fantasy TCG mold with connecting cards to form combos.
The core gameplay revolves around a unique card battle system that sets it apart from traditional trading card games. Players must strategically place cards on a 3x3 grid to form connecting combos. Each card has a set of arrows that indicate where it can be played on the grid to form these combos. By connecting at least three cards with their arrows pointing at each other, players can activate different effects based on the card types - attack to damage the opponent, defense to increase their own hit points, or revive to bring back disabled cards. This grid-based, combo-driven gameplay adds a puzzle-like element to the traditional deck-building and card battle formula, requiring players to carefully consider card placement and synergies to create the most effective combos to win each match. Additionally, the game features a deck-building system where players can collect and customize their card decks from a pool of over 180 unique cards. This allows for a variety of strategic approaches, as players can build decks focused on offense, defense, disabling the opponent, or a mix of different card types and abilities.
As players progress, they will face a variety of AI opponents, each with their own unique card strategies and deck compositions. The difficulty gradually increases, with later opponents presenting more challenging combinations of cards and requiring more thoughtful deck-building and combo execution. However, reviewers note that the difficulty curve is not overwhelmingly steep, remaining accessible and enjoyable even for those new to card game mechanics. Players can freely experiment with different deck archetypes and card combinations to adapt to the increasing challenge, and consistently earn new card packs to build their collections by defeating opponents, without needing to spend excessive time farming resources.
In addition to the core card battle system, the game features a few unique mechanics that add depth and variety to the gameplay. The Alchemy System allows players to combine certain cards to create new, unique cards with special effects, adding an extra layer of strategic deck-building. The game also allows players to build decks between 25 and 40 cards, with drawing from an empty deck resulting in penalties, encouraging players to carefully curate their deck compositions, balancing consistency and versatility.