Charming pixel art, cute fantasy pirate character designs and a toe-tapping soundtrack (courtesy of prolific synth maestros Fat Bard) can’t entirely carry a game, but they sure help make new Early Access debut Cross Blitz stand out from the rest of the card-battler crowd. A good thing, as without its (deeply) likable aesthetics, it doesn’t do much to stand out conceptually, despite being a well-engineered game so far.
Mechanically, Cross Blitz is about 70% Hearthstone, 30% Inscryption. You’ve got the familiar small-deck card combat of Hearthstone with interesting character powers, a mana cap that raises by one for both players each turn and quite fast-paced, swingy combat where matches can easily end before bigger cards come into play.
