Clash Royale, Supercell’s successor to Clash of Clans, is a tower defense deck game that blends League of Legends laning and Hearthstone card-drawing mechanics into an addicting tug-of-war battle.
Despite the checklist nature of the feature list, Clash Royale is an appealing and gratifying tower defense game that kept me queuing even after I had maxed out my rewards for the day.
The game’s logistics are basic: two lanes, three castles and three minutes to send your minions down either lane to destroy your enemy’s castles. To keep it interesting, you are limited to the minion cards that pop into your hand.
The combat revolves a lot around rock paper scissors counters to your opponent’s choices. The baby dragon will destroy the knight, but is itself vulnerable to the musketeer. Strategy revolves a lot around identifying trade situations that result in a mana advantage over the opponent.
Managing the two lanes between offense and defense is a blast, and as time ticks down, mana regenerates faster and faster to create a thrilling endgame. In the last minute, the game progresses at a breakneck speed as you try to defend your crumbling castle fom defeat or make a last-ditch assault on your opponent’s stronghold and claim your victory.
The game’s deck-building component, inspired by popular mobile game Hearthstone, gives it even more depth. Although certain meta-viable decks have emerged and a few cards are clearly dominant choices, there is a lot of room to craft your own strategy, at least at the sub-1000 crown level. I ended up forming a bond with my Prince rush deck that I’ll likely take to the grave.
Unboxing victory chests gives free-to-play players a chance to get gold and cards, but unfortunately this game is mostly pay-to-win when it comes to building decks. A ridiculous time limit on unboxing chests bars free-to-players from improving their cards quickly. Having to play the game on the developer’s terms was frankly annoying, but I guess that’s the point.
Unfortunately for AP season, it’s a terrible classtime killer, as even a few seconds of hiding the phone from a teacher’s view can result in a horde of enemy goblins at your gates.
As a game of trendy distraction and serious strategy, Clash Royale is a winner in Supercell’s portfolio.
TCHS School Newspaper