Hero Slam

Waterstones is now championing a Children’s Game of the Season, the first one being Hero Slam from Jamie Smart, the author of the Bunny vs Monkey comics for younger readers.

The game is aimed at 8-11 year olds but is playable by all the family, playable by 1-4 players.

I’m most interested in the solo mode and that’s the part I’ll be looking at.

Contents of the box are:

• 90 game cards (including one holographic card)
  • 50 Hero Cards
  • 9 Side Quest Cards
  • 12 Imp Cards
  • 4 Fight Cards
  • 1 Underling Card
  • 4 Fate Cards
  • 6 Villain Cards
• a fold-out board
• an instruction book

Well that instruction book was annoying, trying to be too funny and cute it detracted from the learning experience of the game which is actually quite simple in the end.

The solo mode at the end of the instruction booklet was about the clearest of them all and there were still some bits that were not crystal clear as instructions of games aimed at 8-11 year olds should be, took me a couple of readings to clarify timings, etc.

Setup for the solo mode was quite straightforward as for a start you can’t choose the Fate you’re playing with it is the Forest Fate, this is a card with a special ability that you can use each time it triggers, in the case of the Forest it is “You may save one of your heroes from the Underworld when you complete a Side Quest”.

Solo setup sees you removing the Fight and Imp cards from the play deck, shuffling the deck, and instead of removing the top quarter of the deck, removing the top half of the deck, this can remove the Underling altogether unlike the main game.

Then slide a random Villain card under the deck to face at the end of the game.

Then split the deck and take the first three Hero cards into your hand as your starter hand, I forgot to do this…

Board setup for solo mode

Then the game starts and it feels like you have rounds rather than turns as you have to turn three cards onto the empty spaces at once rather than choosing to keep going on each round.

You turn the three cards and all depending on what you turn, if all three are Heroes you choose one and place the rest in the Underworld slot on the board.

If you play a mix with one Side Quest or more, you can choose a Hero for your hand and then complete the Side Quest (of your choice if there are more than one), if you complete the Side Quest hold onto it for a bonus at the end, if you don’t beat it place it in the Trash are of the board.

In the solo mode I wasn’t sure what the Underling did so I just used it as it was in the main game, though this did seem very powerful and very arbitrary, it removes your weakest Hero to the Underworld and then returns to the middle of the deck for another couple of removal spots.

I think I’d only make it a one-use the next time I play this solo, if I play it again.

Then at the end you’re left with a Villain card which you flip over, sort your Heroes into their clans (yours is Forest) and then shuffle all the other clans into a pile and place face down.

Then you have to add up scores (Magic, Strength, Intelligence) on your clan Hero cards plus bonuses from your completed Side Quests and if one of your scores total beats the Villain you win. If you don’t win outright here you can then reveal three extra Hero cards from the top of the deck of the other clans, if these add enough to beat a Villain stat you win.

If this doesn’t get you there, you lose…

Once I’d got my head around this is was a quick 10 minute game with very little thinking/choice, which is not my favourite kind of game, hopefully plays better as a multiplayer game.

End of the game, and a win for the Forest Fate