Customer Reviews

Non-Violent, Politically-Correct War Card Game

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This game is fun, but not something you'd want to play for a long time. The cards are durable, but the box tore in the first day we got it. The pictures on the cards are neat. The directions easy to follow. Good game, but again, not something you want to play over and over.

You shouldn't buy this game with the intention of playing it. The traditional game of war is long and tedious without the least bit of strategy to it. Players get to make no choices at all. This "modern version" (which actually looks like it escaped from the 1960's) doesn't correct that. Instead it adds a rule that says you swap hands (but not capture piles) at the start of each "war". This adds sudden random reversals to the game, so that now, instead of one player slowly gaining ascendancy and then winning, you have victory suddenly dropping on a random player. It's impossible to say who is winning until someone wins, and everything that happens is meaningless until the moment come when someone with hardly any cards in hand swaps with someone with hardly any cards in their capture pile. On the plus side, it is typically over faster than standard war.

Maybe the idea is to demonstrate the pointlessness and stupidity of war by making the game pointless and stupid, but the original game was already adequately pointless and stupid.

Of course, you can use the card deck to play any other card game that needs a standard deck (four suites of Ace through King, two jokers). The cards are oversized and somewhat thin, edges fray easily. The sixes and nines are more than usually confusing because the corner index numbers are printed oddly. I find the face cards unattractive, but the whole package is vaguely amusing. If you want it as a novelty item, great. It could be fun for performing card tricks with. But don't give it to anyone with kids, because their kids will want to play it with them at least a few times, which could be more than most grown ups could stand.

If you keep playing this game it can get boring but its a lot of fun! Its better then ordinary war because it has fun people and things on it. Its not that educational.

A friend gave me this set of cards for Christmas. Although I've never played with them, they constantly get attention at my office. I set them next to my toy Patriot Missle. Especially considering the price, it's a great office gift.