Image Courtesy of AEGTodd
This review is the first in a new series of reviews. My Comparative Reviews will be very short affairs and are called for when a game follows a well-known format with little change. Thus they will be used when a game series looks to create a new game based on an original design, with a thematic change and a twist or two.
If you liked the review please thumb the top of the article so others have a better chance of seeing it and I know you stopped by. Thanks for reading.
Summary
Game Type - Micro Card Game
Play Time: 10-15 minutes
Number of Players: 2-4
Mechanics - Hand Management
Difficulty - Pick-Up & Play (Can be learned in 10 minutes)
Components - Very Good
Release - 2015
Designer <PERSON> -(All things Love Letter, Cheaty Mages, Chronicle, All Things Lost Legacy, Mai-Star, Say Bye to the Villains, Street Fighter Rivals)
Overview and Theme
Welcome to the Asylum! That institution of bars and stone that has kept the peoples of Gotham safe for so long. But now the crims are out and it's up to the <PERSON> to put the villains back where they belong. As the title suggests, this is a thematic alteration to the classic play of the world's premium micro-game, Love Letter.
I must confess to rolling my eyes when I started to see this and other iterations released. By the end of this review I will be unrolling my eyes as the change-up here is simple but clever.
The Production
Not surprisingly, Love Letter: Batman (LLB) uses the exact same card structure as the original. The colours though and the graphic design are quite different.
On the colours, my first impression was that I was playing with Zoopa Doopers (those colourful icy poles) and I indeed craved one having played this in the summer.
The artwork and overall graphic design is a little 'busy' with lines here and somewhat manic art on some of the villains. But it is in keeping with the comic style of the subject matter and it has grown on me over time.
Still no matte/linen finish on the cards but then again a game of this nature needs to be sleeved anyway, so if it keeps the cost down so be it.
The other inclusion are the wooden bat-signal tokens. These are excellent and make much more sense than the square roses of the original.
The rules are well put together, although I did find it odd that they left it until the final internal page to highlight the twist. 299
Surely that should have been at the front of the book for those that were familiar with the original.
Overall the production is a very good package. I prefer the felt baggy holder over the box version too.
Image Courtesy of bkunes
Batman vs Original Love Letter
In keeping with this new review approach, I will not be covering the basic game-play here. If you are unfamiliar with Love Letter as a game I suggest checking out my review of the original -
Love Letter - A Detailed Review
Let's start by looking at the characters and how they compare -
Love Letter Batman
8 - Princess 8 - <PERSON>
7 - The Countess 7 - <PERSON>
6 - The King 6 - Two Face
5 - The Prince 5 - <PERSON>
4 - The Handmaiden 4 - <PERSON>
3 - The Baron 3 - <PERSON>
2 - Priest 2 - <PERSON>
1 - Guard 1 - <PERSON>
So there is no change in the deck of cards in relation to values and I can add that the exact same numbers of each card are present and the powers are exactly the same. I do like <PERSON> being in the <PERSON> role and thematically I think it makes great sense to have <PERSON> trying to take out the trash with each guess. It's kind of like he is actively finding them when the players guess with a <PERSON> card, which is neat.
The only thing that doesn't work thematically is when the game goes to the highest card for the win as that means a villain has won the round. What's wrong with that you ask? Well nothing I guess except it seems odd to award a <PERSON> token to a villain. Yeah I know...stop overthinking it right?
Back to theme for a moment, I really do like some of the characters and the powers they were given. <PERSON> offering protection replicates the role of a sidekick, <PERSON> always had good information. The <PERSON> playing top fiddle makes perfect sense, as does <PERSON> as his 2nd in charge. It's a little thing but kinda neat. 755