Redakai starter set unboxing and quick review

I've been aware of the Redakai TCG for a while now and today I thought i'd give it a whirl and see what its like. I picked up two starter sets, each comes with a 'promo' card, two boosters and an 'X-drive' (think of it as a deck box and a card holder) each one costing .99p (apparently RRP £9.99) from a Home Bargains.

In each booster is eleven cards, giving each pack a total of 23 cards. These cards can be either a creature  character or an attack. The characters in the game represent you, in the full game you have three on the board, however in this starter pack you only need one (it uses a basic edition of the rule book), your creatures are essentially upgrades to your character, bolstering defenses and potentially healing wounds. Attacks are your win conditions, providing ways to try to wear down your opponent.

The game works on 'Kairu', this games mana/energy/etc... again in the starter edition this is discarded as you can just play cards as you draw them.

Sample Character

Sample Attack

Sample Creature

Ok, so gameplay wise the basic edition is pretty but also pretty dull, you start with your character out, deck shuffled and dice for first turn against your opponent. You then take turns drawing and playing cards until somebody is defeated.

Each character has three life points, an attack can take away one of these points however each character also has a defense value, meaning an attack has to be over this in order to get through. Attacks and defenses come in various colours, red/blue/green etc... a high red defense will see off all but the strongest red offense but is useless against a weak attack from a different colour. When a character loses all health points he is out of the game, if at the beginning of your turn if you cannot draw a card then you lose also.

All of the cards are printed on transparent plastic, leading to an interesting 'stacking' mechanic, you place your attacks over your opponent's character and it will cover the life points it takes. Certain creature cards will also 'recover' these points when you play them, covering over the attacks.

Whilst this is a nice way to play, having see through cards is a bit off a hassle when playing as its quite easy to hazard a guess as to what's coming up next. The 'X reader' solves this by covering all of the cards so you can draw blind.

Example of Cards stacking

All in all, i'm still unsure about Redakai, while I like the stacking mechanic and all the cool accessories you have, the basic control system is appalling  The fact that you just draw and play cards means that there is absolutely no thinking involved whats so ever. Later in the week I hope to pick up a championship boxset (£4.99) which comes with the full rule set so I think i'll reserve judgement till then.