STOKED! Skateboarding Must Die Collectable Trading Card Game (TCG / CCG) Review

Skateboarding Must Die is the first edition of the STOKED! trading card game (TCG) system, geared for and featuring skateboarding as the main theme. The first two runs of cards for STOKED!: Skateboarding Must Die are called Vegalas and Socalia, and feature some real art from Birdhouse skateboards, and cartoon versions of Birdhouse riders Willy Santos and Brian Sumner. STOKED! is made by Sir Mantaplay.

The back of the little expansion pack boxes for STOKED! Skateboarding Must Die read, “Another perfectly running city-machine with just one problem … skaters – and just one solution … TOTAL ANNIHILATION!!

The story is set in the future, where the cities are huge and sprawling (like all of Southern California now being one huge city called Socalia). You and the other players play skaters trying to learn new tricks, defend your turf, shred up the city and be the first to get totally stoked. Cops are now large robots with siren lights on their heads that have a taste for donuts, and skaters use a combo of explosives, sugar and adrenaline to claim their cities and get stoked.

The gameplay is fairly simple, but hard to get at first. There are a lot of new key words, like in any game, and the instructions sort of jump right in the middle of it all. Once I read through them completely and actually gave the game a try, everything made a lot more sense. Basically, each player shows up with their own deck already made (like most CCGs and TCGs). Throughout the game you will drop down different cards that represent places to skate, money, gear and people who might help you out. You also have cards that represent skateboarding tricks, and you flip a “kicker” (remember POGs? Same thing) to see if you land it or not. Some tricks are part of huge sequences. Each of these tricks earns you “Stoke” points – representing how excited you are. First player to hit 360 Stoke wins – any players dropping to 0 Stoke give up and go home.

I liked the game play quite a bit – once I figured it out. It will take a while at first. I realized right off that I had totally the wrong amount of different cards in my deck (not enough sequence tricks, not enough money, too many turf cards…). It can feel like a lot to think of at first, but if you’ve ever played other collectable card games like this, this sort of thing should make sense. If not, well, you’ll loose a few games as you figure it out, but that’s no big deal. I’d say the game play had a creative, natural feel to it, once you got a handle on it. The system made sense, and it made a lot of sense from a skateboarding perspective. I mean, how do you make a game that features skateboarding, and learning new tricks? In STOKED!, you have to actually practice new tricks, and land them, before you can really use them, or add them to sequences and what not. I can’t think of a better way to make a game about skateboarding…

What I liked most about STOKED! was the artwork. The artist they got for these cards seriously rocks! I really their style – take a look at some of these pictures here in the review to see for yourself. They have a weird way of capturing the action with blazing wheels and arcs of light in little cartoons, without the whole thing feeling cartoonish. This artist should really crank out some decks. Of the two sets, I liked Socalia’s art better (Illustrated by Adam Gillespie), but I seriously liked them both a lot. Vegalas (illustrated by Thomas P. Reidy III) has darker, thicker lines and more emotion, while Socalia has more color and, and more fluid arcs. As a bonus, each little expansion box comes with a small folded up poster featuring card art – and there are several to collect.

These cards in the first set (Skateboarding Must Die – Socalia and Vegala) also feature real Birdhouse deck art. This can make things a little weird, like the “Pagoda Ninja” or Bruce Lee. But these cards add a cool feel, and if you are familiar at all with Birdhouse, you’ll appreciate it.