Urban-Rivals

With a long weekend here, I feel like I should review a game so you all can have something to do if there is  rain.  Clearly your choices are do something outside or be locked in a room with only a computer to entertain you.  Also you have no ability to use search engines and no games on the computer.  Also you like whatever I like.  Also you read my blog.  Well that narrowed things down a bit.  Moving on...

Urban-Rivals is another online trading card game although it is nothing like Elements.  You get a deck with at least 8 cards, and in every game you draw 4 at random.  These 4 cards go up against your opponent's 4 cards.  Each card represents one of the 600+ characters in the game, divided into 21 clans.  All matches are against other people, so some of the matches get quite intense.  As you play the cards gain experience, and level up, somewhat similar to that popular Nintendo series... (Warning, the linked song may become lodged in your head.  I'm sorry.)

Each card has a power(the blue number) and a damage(the red number).  You and your opponent take turns playing cards, and which ever card has the higher power wins and does its damage to the other player.  The catch is that every battle both players get 12 pills that they can use whenever they want.  Each pill multiplies the characters power.  Playing one pill would make this guy have a power of 12, 9 would give him a power of 60.  This means that you can really win against anyone, not matter what kind of cards they have if you can out-bluff them.  It really is a lot of fun.

Roger and you!

The cards also level up as I mentioned before, although each card has a maximum level.  Cards usually unlock their ability when try reach maximum level, indicated by all of their stars being filled in and the experience bar turning purple.  In the case of the card above, he gets an extra 8 attack added after the pill multiplication phase.  Finally he has a clan bonus on the bottom, this only activates if you have at least two characters of the same clan in your hand at the same time.

Urban-Rivals has a variety of different modes you can play in, twelve system run tournaments every day, a daily lotto, and a week long tournament are all free to enter.  Players are free to create their own events at any time with any rules they want.  Another nice thing is that in the week long tournament, players get to vote on which cards should be banned for each week.  So if you feel a card is overpowered, strike it down!

As you play you earn clintz, which can be used to buy currency on the player market, credits which are used to buy new characters or clintz, and experience which allows you to play in new game modes.  The game has a large achievement system, with each achievement unlocking new cards, credits, or clintz.

Pros:

• Its Free!  It has an iPhone App, which is also free.
• There is a ton of things going on in the game, and as you level up by playing, you gain access to a large amount of new game modes.
• There are millions of players around the world.  There are usually 5-10 thousand games going on at any  given time, so its not hard to find someone to play with no matter what game type you are interested in playing.
• There are frequent updates.  In the month I have played this game, they have introduced 4 new cards, and retired 2 to collector status.
• It gives you practice with those multiplication tables.  If you need that sort of thing.

Cons:

• The beginner instructions leave a bit to be desired, especially in the browser version.
• There is no starting player guide.
• Math could be useful here.  Some people don't like that.

Final Thoughts:
This is probably my favorite game right now.  I found it a month ago through a banner ad, and it is very entertaining.  It also costs you nothing to try it.  The massive amount of game modes, characters, and other players make it always interesting to play.  A lot of the cards are pop culture references and are fairly funny if you get them.  Oh if you do decide to play, send me a friend request or list me as your sponsor, I'm playing as 38thdoe there too.