Decipher has recently released a Customizable Card Game based on the Animorphs TV series. It's for two players and comes in two sets: Jake and Cassie, and Rachel and Marco. Tobias and Ax are helpers to each respective deck. The game is priced at $25 and can be found at Barnes & Noble (but apparently not mine) and specialty game stores nationwide.

My First Impression:

Delivered via UPS in the middle of the night, my dad believed it to be a bomb, but I saw it was from Decipher and promptly opened it. Very nice box (I tend to judge a book by it's cover). Images for the game are taken straight from the TV show, and the character card images are straight from the tv credits. I received the Rachel & Marco set which includes Jake, Cassie & Ax as helpers. Alas, no Tobias for me. Interesting thing though, the human Ax is not Paulo Costanzo, it's some odd looking guy. Okay... enough looking at the pretty pictures, time to drag my brother away from the TV to play!

Game Play and Why My Brother Now Hates Animorphs:

Setting up the game was pretty easy, you use the cards themselves to set up a board of sorts. It plays more like a board game than a CCG such as Pokemon. The instructions are simple enough -- you can only move in a certain direction, you can move all the Animorphs except for the other player's leader card, etc... There were a few arguments over whether all Animorphs go back home after failing a mission or just the ones on the mission, we finally agreed to just those on the mission. The aim of the game is to get 24 points by completing various spy missions, the places you spy on are taken directly from the TV show. (Altough the TV show implies she lives on a reserve, Cassie has a house that looks a lot like one of the houses that Jake or Rachel lives in and a separate barn which would not be found anywhere on a street like that. Tobias, on the other hand, lives on a Street Sign. Or so it looks like to me!) Anyway, after a couple of dry runs where we argued over the rules my brother and I finally got into a few real rounds. It's simple to play each round went by pretty quickly. I won all four rounds thus leading my brother to claim the game cheats. The game does not cheat, I think I may have though...

Overall:

Those who hate the TV show are probably not going to like looking at images from the show, but those of us who love it, and those who just like all things Animorphs will probably like the game. It's easy to set up and it's easy to play (just keep wandering pets away from the setup!) Depending on your luck with rolling the dice, the game can go by either really quickly or really slowly. The thing I like about CCGs is that the game is always slightly different each time you play. $25 seems a bit pricey compared to a Pokemon starter deck, but then again I don't collect any other CCGs, so I don't know the average price. I'm definitely going to try to find the Jake & Cassie set though!

Purchasing the Game:

Some additional info about purchasing the game. Not all Barnes & Nobles carry it. You may be able to find it in Gamekeeper and Store of Knowledge or you can order the game directly from Decipher by calling: 1-800-654-3939. Animorphs fans also have had luck finding the game. John and Joe have both informed me that Etoys.com carries the game. You'll have to search for it under 'Animorph' though and it costs about $12.00.