Top 50 Video Games: Number 13

#13: Culdcept
System: Playstation 2
Publisher: NEC Interchannel
Released: 2003
Players: 1-4


Monopoly meets Magic the Gathering. Simply wonderful.


Once upon a time The Alright Guys had weekly Magic: The Gathering games. There was happiness in the kingdom. Every Tuesday night was a celebration during which Mr Bungle would play on the stereo, Oatmeal Cream Pies would be eaten and thrown into the ceiling fans and, of course, Magic was played. Over the years as life's responsibilities made getting together more difficult we kept the dream alive. Then something happened that the Alright Guys did not expect. Magic became hugely popular. The laid-back feel was gone from the game. It was all "Adambob Jones is using a dual-straight boffo red strike willy deck in the PRO TOUR and this next expansion will impact the PRO TOUR and we're all hardasses and hyper-competitive for the PRO TOUR now." The new cards simply blew away the old ones in terms of power. We clung to the game and kept on for a year or two then it happened. No one announced it, but we all knew. Magic was dead. One of the ties that bound us was broken.

My Magic gene remained dormant for a couple of years until awakened by an unlikely game: a funny, little-known japanese video game called Culdcept. While it lacks the social element of Magic, it does feature collectible cards and deck-building elements of a CCG. The best way to describe Culdcept is as a combination of Monopoly and Magic the Gathering. It is set up like a board game where you roll dice and move around, claiming lands and charging rent to those who stop on your property. The catch is that you claim lands by summoning a creature to guard it - those who stop must defeat the guardian creature with one of their own or pay the toll. Each player brings to the game their own custom built deck consisting of creatures, spells, weapons and armor. Seeing how the different cards interact with each other and building fun, creative decks is a blast.


Knight VS Fire Giant in the CAGE OF DEATH!


The other big difference is that you can see the cards in your opponent's hand and vice versa - a necessary side effect of playing on a TV screen. Still, it doesn't take away from the game like it sounds like it would. Indeed, it adds another layer of strategy to the game. Battles between players often end up playing out like a game of chicken because each player knows what the other can do, the question is will they? The AI in the game is also generally very good. There are several NPC characters (some of which have to be unlocked) to do battle with, each with their own unique decks and strategies. Speaking of unlockable NPCs, this game has quite a few unlockable cards and maps not to mention 50 different medals to collect. Medals are achieved by meeting certain requirements (ie rolling a 1 on 3 or more consecutive turns or slaying a mighty Dragon with a lowly Powder Eater for example.)

The art on the cards is quite good. The rest of the graphics are not so good. When I first showed the game to Jimbob he said "This is a Playstation TWO game, right?" As always, gameplay wins out over graphics. This game is a joy for single player, co-op or head to head play. This game's replayabiliy is nearly infinite. I unlocked everything there was in the game long ago, yet my fiance' and I still play this game together about once a week. Sadly, though the series is quite popular in Japan, we'll probably never see a sequel on American shores. Culdcept is the best board game ever created for any video game platform, period.