What is the one thing that kids would like more than anything else? Money? Power? Love? No. It’s trading cards. Mountains and mountains of cardboard and ink. A million allowances worth of card packs. They’ll accept nothing less. Oh, and not having parents, that would help, too. What child loves their parents unconditionally? So many rules, and they force their children to do boring things like go to school and eat vegetables. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a game that combined these two things? Oh wait, there is.
Based on the children’s graphic novel series of the same name, and from developer and publisher SMART Technologies, Last Kids on Earth: Hit the Deck is a deck-building RPG about all the things children love, fun, adventure, junk food, and slaughtering armies of the living dead in the aftermath of some vague unspecified apocalypse. A bunch of fun-loving kids gotta save the world from aliens and monsters.
What little narrative exists in the current build reminds me a lot of shows like Codename Kids Next Door, something I’m very fine with. It’s just that general sense of having children against the world, the weapons cobbled out of junk, the kids’ love of soda and junk food, and the fact that they live in a treehouse. They’re probably superficial comparisons, and ones that (I assume) are borrowed directly from the source material, but I do like the general aesthetic. They also take a selfie whenever they beat a large enemy, which I thought was a nice touch.
True story, as a child, I turned in a creative writing project that was literally a SpongeBob episode with all the names changed around to match people I knew. Children love paying homage to their favorite things, and like an enthusiastic child, I can tell what the team at SMART Technologies loves, in particular a little indie game called Slay the Spire. But as they say, if you’re going to copy someone, might as well copy the best.
Much to my surprise, there are actually a lot of neat ideas in Hit the Deck that help to differentiate it from its inspirations, ones that make it a lot more welcoming for the younger audience that the license will inevitably attract.
The one that was most immediately obvious was how the game is structured. Unlike your typical deckbuilder, where you build all your strength over the course of a single run and start from zero on your next run, you instead go on a bunch of small missions, bringing back resources and new equipment back to the base that you can use on future missions. I do think this structure serves the game well, making missions bite-sized makes them much more approachable. But I think they might be a little too short. Missions vary in terms of length, but even the longest mission in the current build is less than a dozen nodes, which I feel is overcorrecting too much. The game still awards you with cards for your current mission after winning battles, but with how short the missions are, the cards you receive in this matter see very little use.
Another smart change that I appreciated was how your starting deck is constructed. At the start of each mission, you’re allowed to bring three pieces of equipment with you, each piece of equipment adding cards to your starting deck, in addition to your character’s innate cards. I really do love this system, as it helps with the unpredictability of how a run can work. In a game like Slay the Spire, one can easily lose simply due to not being able to build a functional deck quickly enough, but in Hit the Deck, if you build smartly, you will always begin each mission with a functional deck. There’s still lots of different viable builds to make, especially because each item gives different cards for each character.
The main major difference to combat comes with you controlling not just one character, but a team of two, another neat idea that provides lots of cool options for strategy. There are three in the current build, with a fourth character listed in the menus that doesn’t seem to be in the game at this point. Jack is a big strong melee fighter who benefits from playing lots of Teamwork cards, June is a nimble warrior that can execute special effects upon evading enemy attacks, and Quint is a master when it comes to buffing allies and casting status ailments upon enemies. Playing into the team mechanics is a set of “Teamwork” cards, where one character can spend their energy during the other character’s turn to give them various buffs or additional abilities.
The moment-to-moment gameplay simple, yet very satisfying. Both of your characters get a turn during each round, and they both have their own supply of energy. Having two sets of energy does generally make the game a bit easier than most of its kind, but Hit the Deck is still not a game you can breeze through. Instead of a traditional life meter, each character only has 4-5 hearts of energy, meaning that a single mistake is costly, and the game still punishes clueless play much like it’s contemporaries.
Each of your characters has their own deck, but there’s also a third special grey deck, consisting of cards that both characters can use, with the caveat that they all have the “Exhaust” special ability, meaning they can only be used once per battle. One nice thing about the grey cards that I like is that they’re based on the battle location, giving off the idea that your player characters are crafty and using their environment to their advantage. You can hide behind environmental objects and throw objects scattered throughout the environment at your foes. There’s also the option to bring a pet along with you, which adds its own powerful grey cards to the deck, but only one pet option exists at this moment in time.
The foundation for Hit the Deck is very solid and I would love to see the game get built upon, but it has a dire need for more content. I managed to complete all of the missions in just 90 minutes of play. I would also love to see a much greater focus on the story. I understand that most of the great deckbuilder games don’t have a ton of narrative, but as a game based on a pre-existing IP, especially one aimed at children, I’d expect more opportunities to see these characters interact with one another, and some overarching goal to achieve.
For an early access title, Hit the Deck’s technical state is very solid. I’ve had no significant bugs or crashes (unless you count crashing upon quitting the game, which I personally don’t) and only some minor complaints with the UI, namely the fact that cards that have the effect of creating other cards tell but don’t show you whatever card will be created. All of the cards also have the watermark of the game, which just looks really weird. I would prefer that the devs remove that.
Last Kids on Earth: Hit the Deck, in its current state, was a surprisingly solid time. Though it was fleeting, what is here is a nice take on the classic deckbuilding roguelike formula, with some novel new ideas that I very much appreciate. It sands over a lot of the intimidating aspects of the genre for newcomers, but still has ample amounts of strategy for more seasoned veterans. With a lot more content and a more fleshed-out narrative, I think this could be a legitimately fun time that fans of the series would adore, and one that deckbuilder fanatics hungry for their next obsession might find a lot to like.
Last Kids On Earth: Hit the Deck is available for $14.99 via Steam Early Access.
For more information, visit: The Last Kids on Earth: Hit the Deck! – FUNTERRA STUDIOS
Related: Reviews by Devon Williams
"Videogames have been a massive part of my life since I was three. With a bottomless appreciation for games both modern and retro, I'm always happy to experience something new and wacky. I hope to become a writer someday, to craft wonderful worlds like the ones in my favorite videogames."
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