Crime, corruption, and worst of all … DEBT! The evil Debtzilla is running rampant in the Banana Republic and the citizens need a few good heroes to save the day! Are you ready to take up the superhero mantle and face the monster head on? Choose your character wisely and get ready for heroism! Let’s check it out.

What Is It?

A cooperative, economic themed 2-4 player deckbuilding and dice rolling game where you take on the role of a superhero and work to manage your debt enough (just like real life!) in order to buy gadgets to help you out in battles. You’ll then use battle dice and gadgets to defeat villains before they scam the citizens and, ultimately, take down the debt boss itself, Debtzilla!

Who Is It For?

I’d really recommend this to gamers who tend to gravitate toward co-op games because I think they’d find a lot of fun in this as well. I’d also say ages 10+ and families would be a good audience for this, as the gameplay is pretty simple once you get the hang of it, and the theme is super cute and fun, while also working really well with the mechanics. Though I called it a deckbuilder above, I wouldn’t recommend this to diehard fans of that style of game, because you build very little, so it may fall a little flat if you’re looking for a more in-depth deckbuilding experience.

Quality

The deck cards are a bit thin and would probably benefit from being sleeved, especially if you plan to play frequently. The cardboard money chits are fine quality; pretty sturdy overall. The boards warped a little for me when I first opened the game up (humidity thing), but once they settled and flattened again, I liked them a lot – pretty nice quality, but beyond that they were nicely designed with everything having a proper place which made set up and play really streamlined, and I loved that. Finally, the rulebook is nice quality, and fairly detailed, but does have a handful of typos and misspellings which were a little distracting while reading through and learning the game.

PROS

  • Cute art and theme
  • There’s an alternate boss to play with which is very cool
  • Variable player powers (always a big draw-in for me)
  • Plays fairly quickly
  • Gameplay overall worked well – good system of having the balance gaining debt with buying gadgets and then paying debt off to gain better rewards

CONS

  • The typos in the rulebook were a con because they were distracting and made learning certain elements confusing
  • There are deckbuilding elements (gaining cards, drawing, playing them etc.) but it doesn’t feel like enough. You only gain 1 card per turn and it’s always very basic, and you spend money on gadgets which don’t go into your deck. As I said, the game works well as a whole, but the deckbuilding is a little odd for me

Difficulty

I’d probably give this game a 3.5 out of 5 for difficulty. It actually ramps up really fast as you acquire more debt, making the boss stronger, so you have to adapt pretty quickly. The game gets a little easier as you play and learn the system and how to better manage everything, but since there a dice rolls, there’s not sure-fire way to do well, of course.

Final Thoughts

I think it’s a pretty neat game for the most part. I think a full player-count might make it a lot better because you gain more abilities and have more dice to utilize; with two it doesn’t seem to hit all the marks that it could.

As I mentioned, dice rolls are a huge part of the game, so modifiers from gadgets are essential if you want to be successful … which, you do, I hope. Acquiring debt early on and paying it off quickly to gain certain abilities like more dice and more money definitely seems like the best plan of attack.

I’m not usually very big on co-op games, and I can’t say that this is much different for me because it doesn’t do anything crazy unique, but I appreciate the cute theme and art  a lot, and do think that families and fans of co-op will find it enjoyable.

Happy Gaming~

Additional Information:
Designer – Xeo Lye
Artists – Alan Baye, Andy Choo
Publisher – Capital Gains Studio
BGG

I was provided a copy of this game and compensated for my time to do this review.

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