Latest news with #cardgame
CNET
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CNET
Google's Latest Doodle Lets You Duel the Moon. Here's How to Play and Win
Google's home page logo is moonlighting as a strategy card game on Friday. If you click on Friday's Google Doodle, celebrating the lunar cycle, you'll go into a click-to-play card battler that turns the moon's eight phases into your own personal combo deck. In the game, called Rise of the Half Moon: May, you play against the moon to link matching moon phases, chasing specific card combinations to get more points. If you outscore the moon, you move on and can snag wildcard power-ups for the following rounds, where the game progressively gets larger and more difficult. This interactive doodle, which marks the Flower Moon's final half-lit quarter, is just the latest entry in Google's recurring Half Moon series. Google Doodles began in 1998 and over the years have ranged from simple sketches to interactive games and puzzles, but this is certainly one of the more intricate ones in recent months. See 53 of our favorite Google Doodles here. Not sure how to start? Here's what you need to know. What exactly is the May's half moon? May's half moon is the month's third-quarter phase, which is the moment when the moon has orbited three-quarters of the way around Earth and sunlight illuminates exactly half its disk. It's the final quarter, or "half moon" phase of this month's lunar cycle. This year, the half moon occurs on May 20 at 4:56 AM PT. From the northern hemisphere, you'll see the left side glowing, and in the southern hemisphere, the right side shines. This month's lunar cycle is dubbed the Flower Moon, because it coincides with the colorful wildflowers that bloom across North America and Europe this time of year. Check out these knockout shots of the Flower Moon as taken by NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers on the International Space Station. How the Flower Moon game works The Rise of the Half Moon starts out on a 3x3 grid. Each turn you choose one of three random moon-phase cards and place it on the board. Here's how you score points: Pairing phases : Drop two identical cards side-by-side (1 point). : Drop two identical cards side-by-side (1 point). Making a full moon : Combine complementary phases (ex. waning crescent + waxing gibbous) (2 points). : Combine complementary phases (ex. waning crescent + waxing gibbous) (2 points). Completing a cycle: Lay cards in the exact lunar order, new moon through waning crescent. (3 cards or more, 1 point per card). If you beat the moon three times in a row, you'll unlock a monthly wildcard with a special power in the game. This month, you have four wildcards up for grabs, as long as you clear all nine boards. As you move on, the layout begins to grow beyond the 3x3 grid, and the game exponentially gets more difficult to win. How to play (and actually win) This is May's Flower Moon doodle on the Google homepage. Google To play the game, go to the Google homepage and click on the doodle. The game will load in a pop-up. Next, scan the board. Lines connect the squares, showing how you can link them for combinations. You should plan your placements on those pathways. Then finally, play a card from your hand. You'll always have three cards, but you should always think ahead. The moon, who is your opponent, will use your cards against you, so you should think not only about offense, but also defense, when you place your card. A few tips from playing:
CBC
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
St. Thomas board game designer hopes players will 'Finesse' their bridge skills with new game
A St. Thomas woman with a passion for the card game bridge is seeing years of work come to life with a newly designed version of her favourite game. Carole Coplea says she's spent years perfecting FINESSE, which she describes as a visual board game that's easier to learn than the classic trick-taking card game. While the concept is similar to bridge, Coplea believes she's got something unique. "After I had spent a few years developing this thing and once people started playing the game itself, I realized it's not a bridge game," Coplea explained. "It's a serious game on its own." According to her rule-booklet, the game revolves around four players each putting down a card, with the highest one winning. The objective of the game is to predict how many times your team will win. The board features five ramps which help to visualize the gameplay, as well as game tokens placed on coloured squares. She's even created a new deck of cards. "The only thing we have to translate are the rules, because there's nothing to translate with the game itself. Anybody can play it," Copela said. With approximately 300 game sets in production, Copela said her plan is to set up a stall at the Horton Farmers' Market in St. Thomas. Feedback mattered Creating the game was not an easy task, Coplea said. After working out the rules of the game, the next step was to sketch out the board and take it to a local print shop. She then tested the game on family members before recruiting a larger group of testers through social media. She said she implemented a lot of the feedback she received, including additional symbols to make it accessible to people with colour-blindness, which she said she now considers a very important aspect of the game. "The tests helped me with some of the refinements," she said. "That is what the game is now." A growing market for board games Kayla Gibbens is the owner of Uber Cool Stuff in downtown London, which specializes in board games. She said many card games have been successfully transformed into board games, like FINESSE. "A lot of games are kind of based off of other ones," she explained, using the game Cribbage as an example. "There's Crib Wars, where there's more of a battling element to it. One game feeds off another one in a gameplay aspect— it's really interesting to see those growths." Creating a new board game and trying to get it distributed has gotten a little easier with social media, Gibbens said, but she pointed out that having a strong community of game enthusiasts is important. She note that it blew up during the pandemic when people were looking for activities during the lockdowns. "It always helps to have those communities around so you can get the feedback about how a game plays. You can get the word out and get a feel for the audience as well." "I think there's still a growing market," Gibbens said. Younger players Coplea enjoys the strategy and tactics of any board game, but says bridge is her favourite due to its challenging gameplay. She hopes FINESSE will offer players that same type of challenge, and potentially lead them to want to learn to play the original card game. "It's a lot easier to learn when you're young," she said. "I'm hoping that my game will help people learn the fundamentals of bridge before they actually need to learn how to play bridge.
Gizmodo
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
Magic: The Gathering's Final Fantasy Set Looks Like a Match Made in Seventh Heaven
io9 recently got a look at what to expect from Wizards of the Coast's biggest crossover yet—and found plenty to appeal to fans of Magic and Final Fantasy alike. Magic: The Gathering's crossover era has been a divisive one for longtime players. Although there's still plenty of original expansions to the venerable card game, the rise of 'Universes Beyond,' Wizards' umbrella for what has become a swath of licensed crossovers with everything from SpongeBob SquarePants to Lord of the Rings, has become increasingly prominent—and for as many intrigued fans of those other franchises it's brought in, there's pushback that Wizards has traded its original worldbuilding for the card game equivalent of a Fortnite match. That dividing push and pull among Magic fans and curious onlookers is on the precipice of facing its biggest test next month with the release of Magic's 105th expansion: Final Fantasy. It's arguably Wizards' most ambitious crossover yet, a collaboration with a fantasy world as vast, as long-running, and as equally equipped with a voracious, opinionated fanbase as Magic's. The first Universes Beyond set to be made legal in the game's standard constructed format, the barriers between what is a licensed crossover and what is 'normal' Magic aren't just thin, they've been sliced open with a buster sword. And it's already proving to be popular: pre-orders for the set are now difficult to come by, as parent company Hasbro anticipates that Final Fantasy could be one of the game's most lucrative sets ever. But the pressure isn't just coming from Magic fans. Final Fantasy is one of the most famous video game series of all time, 16 mainline games (and yet further myriad spinoffs, sequels, remakes, and re-imaginings beyond them) that have shaped the story of the roleplaying game genre for nearly 40 years. That legacy, of course, includes its own card game, but a Magic crossover is like meeting tabletop royalty: what's included and what isn't, how and why this should all happen, and how much Final Fantasy should be in it has been a hot topic of debate ever since the set was first tentatively teased back in 2023. But the story of the set has been in the works for much longer than that: Wizards of the Coast and Square Enix have been pondering a Magic/Final Fantasy crossover for five years, basically almost as long as knowledge of the Universes Beyond crossover format has been public. 'There were a couple of factors,' Zakeel Gordon, Magic Tabletop Product Architect at Wizards of the Coast, told press at a recent briefing ahead of the Final Fantasy set's first major public preview at PAX East this weekend. 'One is that we built this set simultaneously in English and Japanese for our partners at Square Enix—that included multiple trips over to them for play tests, worldbuilding workshops, Final Fantasy mini-schools to figure out what was important to them. We would come up with design iterations, fly over, and they would say 'we really like these things, we would prefer if you tweak this like this.'' 'But this is also the second ever Universes Beyond tentpole release [after Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth]. We wanted to make sure we were doing everything correctly. We wanted to make sure that the final product met our expectation, and was done in a way that we really think would excite players… in order to do all of that right, it just takes some time.' Just as the pressure on the Final Fantasy set to live up to expectations is coming from Magic and Final Fantasy fans alike, passion for the project is echoed across Wizards and Square Enix. 'It's so fun, any time we get to work with another game studio, many of them are also really passionate about Magic,' Gordon continued. 'Our main producers [at Square] are also lifelong Magic players. We would finish up our meetings, and then we'd go play Commander, or they'd talk to us about Legacy and show us their collections.' The passion on both Square Enix and Wizards' behalf doesn't erase the fact that the new set faces a daunting prospect: encapsulating 16 mainline games (sorry, Tactics, X-2, or Dirge of Cerberus fans, there's no spinoff representation here) across hundreds of cards, each one filled with famous story beats, locations, characters, spells, and creatures to draw inspiration from. 'One of the challenges of balancing the slots in the set—what do we need to fill, what is the mechanical need for a card, what is the flavor reason that we need a card—was that we wanted to get a certain amount of cards per game in the set,' Dillon Deveney, Magic principle narrative designer, explained. 'We started there, and then we decided 'well, how much do we expect to see from this game? How many fans of this game, that are going to want to see X, Y, Z? How big is this game, right?'' Wizards modulated its approach for each game further beyond that into what it considered a kind of tier system. After consulting internally among Final Fantasy fans at Wizards' own offices, and with Square Enix for insight from developers who worked across the series, the Magic team broke down potential inclusions across three tiers of fandom. 'Tier one was 'we have to include this, it's evergreen, it's the baseline expectation,' like Chocobos and Moogles,' Deveney said. 'Tier two is for a fan of a specific game that would go 'Oh yeah, I totally remember that'… these could be iconic minigames, sidequests and powerful weapons, or a super boss you remember struggling against. Tier three is the superfan, diehard Easter egg moment that's like 'no way, they got this in the game, that's crazy!' We wanted to use that as a system to make decisions and choices to figure out what from all the games would fit into our game.' That sorts out the Final Fantasy element of the set. But at the end of the day, this is still a Magic: The Gathering expansion—an important one too, as the first Universes Beyond set to be officially legal in the standard play format. The set doesn't just have to execute on a referential standpoint, it has to push Magic mechanically, and include a wide swath of card archetypes to make it appeal to regular players. Thankfully, it seems like Final Fantasy will deliver on that aspect too, from what was shown to press of the set so far. The set includes evolutions of certain Magic mechanics, like Job Select, a riff on For Mirrodin or Living Weapon that creates hero tokens that players will then attach equipment cards to inspired by Final Fantasy jobs from the original game (and ones added down the line, like those included in Final Fantasy XIV). There's also Tiered, an entirely new mechanic that reflects Final Fantasy's own magic system, where spells grow in power across three levels of strength, letting players pay more mana to amplify the card's damage. It includes clever uses of Magic game mechanics to retell flavorful plot beats from various games, like Kain, Traitorous Dragoon swapping player control on damage and creating treasure tokens, reflecting the moment in Final Fantasy IV where he's brainwashed by the villainous Golbez and turns on the party. Or, for fans of Final Fantasy VII and generational trauma, Aerith Gainsborough's card gaining counters whenever her player gains life… only to pass those counters around to other legendary creatures you control when she dies. The whole set is littered with details like this. A regular mechanic throughout the set is Transform—used to both show villainous transformations of iconic characters like FFVI's Kefka, IX's Kuja, or XIV's Emet-Selch as they go from their primary forms to their final boss identities, but also to reflect a character's long arc over the course of their respective games, like FFIV's Cecil being able to switch from Dark Knight to Paladin, or FFVI's Terra being able to transform to her Esper form for a limited time. There's also the use of the Saga card archetype—a card that enters the battlefield, progresses through a series of 'chapters' turn after turn, and then expires—to represent the various Summons from across the franchise, like Bahamut or Valigarmanda. Not all of the references are just for Final Fantasy fans, either. Throughout the set, fan-favorite Magic cards will be re-printed with classic artwork from across Final Fantasy to reflect the connection between the set's source material and the games, like FFIX's Zidane being used to re-flavor Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer; FFII's Firion re-flavoring Sram, Senior Edificer; or FFVII's Yuffie taking on the powerful Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow. And some are just plain goofy, like multicolored variants of the Traveling Chocobo card to reflect the rainbow of options seen in Final Fantasy VII's Chocobo racing minigame, or the fact that there are 15 variants of the Cid, Timeless Artificer card: all with the same rules (including one that lets you field as many versions of Cid in a deck as you'd want), but each with different artwork celebrating each version of the character that existed from Final Fantasy II all the way through to XVI. Suffice to say, it's clear looking at the cards Wizards have shown off so far that the Magic team's passion for the source material is shining through clearly, perhaps more than any of the Universes Beyond material we've seen from the game so far. 'If there was something awesome we wanted to do [in the set], we got to do it,' Gavin Verhey, Magic's principle game designer, said. 'You'll see all kinds of fun surprises as you go through the set, it's really special.' 'We recently got the first booster boxes in the offices, and we got to get the team together to do a draft, and after years of working on it, just sitting around a table the way all our players are going to do… every single card in this set is like a carefully handcrafted gift,' Verhey concluded. 'We've put so much time, and energy, and research into it, and I just really hope that as you see the cards you see some of that come through.' 'When it comes to Universes Beyond, there's a lot of different sentiments among the player base about how they feel about certain cards, and certain sets,' Deveney added. 'This one was made for you: if you're a fan, you want to get into the franchise, if you just really like Magic sets… this was made for you, by people who really just want you to have a great Friday night with your friends… that's kind of the ultimate goal, just to reconnect and have a great time.' Magic: The Gathering – Final Fantasy releases June 13.
CNET
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CNET
Exclusive: Legendary Bambi Card Joins Disney Lorcana in Set 8
Disney Lorcana from Ravensburger has been gaining traction in the trading card space for a couple of years now, and it's one of my favorite card games to play at my local game store. We especially like new set day where we can try out new cards and new game types like Pack Rush. Today, May 6, Ravensburger has shown off cards from set eight, Reign of Jafar, that comes out on May 30, 2025. I was lucky enough to get three of the cards to show you, and I think they just might be the cutest of the lot. The Reign of Jafar leads off from the events in Lorcana's last set, Archazia's island, and previous sets involving the Hexwell Crown. Jafar has reforged the crown and used it to transform the island into his new domain. That means the entire island is far less cute than it used to be, full of scary illusions, and a lot of the fairer denizens are in hiding. That being said, there are still a few cute animals to be had in set eight, including the introduction of Lorcana's first Legendary card from the classic franchise, Bambi. Twitterpated Ravensburger Twitterpated is a low-cost card that gives any of your characters the tag Evasive. In Lorcana, Evasive keeps your characters from being challenged by anyone unless they also have the Evasive tag. This is especially helpful if you have a big, three-lore hitter that you want to keep around. Anything that can keep your cards alive for an extra round is worth having in your deck. It can also be used as ink if you need it. It could also pair nicely with a new legendary card called Bambi: Little Prince. Bambi: Little Prince Ravensburger This new legendary card looks incredibly cute, and also looks like it could be a card to watch. It only costs three ink -- though it's not inkable itself -- and it gives you a lore as soon as you play using the action Say hello. The second action, Kind of bashful, works well with that, as it returns Bambi to your hand when your opponent plays a character, giving you a chance to trigger Say hello again. Even if you don't trigger those actions, you can give Bambi Evasive using the Twitterpated card -- if you're running Ruby/Amethyst that is --and use the three lore he has as standard. Faline: Playful Fawn Ravensburger Faline: Playful Fawn is a rare card for the Ruby set, and has some interesting parts to her card. It's a four-cost, non-inakble card with a decent willpower and comes with Evasive as standard. Its secondary power is interesting, though, as it can gain an extra two lore if you have a character that has more strength than each of your opponent's characters. To make that work, you'll need some hard hitters from the Ruby or Amethyst sets to keep Faline useful. Something like Lyle Tiberius Rourke: Crystalized Mercenary, or Goofy: Extreme Athlete from Archazia's Island would work well. The Reign of Jafar set has a lot of darker-themed cards from what we normally see from Lorcana, which makes sense as the storyline is a darker one than set seven. Introducing Bambi into that kind of dark scenario is a good call, as it brings an element of cuteness and fun to these troubling times. Set seven, Reign of Jafar, will be released in your local game stores on May 30, 2025, and will be released wider on June 7. For more information, check out the full release details at Ravensburger.
