14 DAY TRIAL // 
I manage to use exactly one block card to take two big attacks while losing only 2 health on each. This is a good result for a round where I was unable to throw a punch. Fortunately, I was able to regain some health, presumably because someone in my corner threw a little water on my boxer to clean some of the blood.
The bell rings, and the two boxers are back at it, with four new cards revealed. I’m lucky to get a sucker punch, which lets me eliminate the most powerful card my opponent is throwing at me. The problem is the block I get is really low and I take a big punch from the unrelenting champion.
My luck fully runs out on the eighth round of this fight. I get a little health but the other fighter has two big attack cards at the ready and I only have a weak strike to somewhat lessen one’s impact. So my brave boxer gets knocked out and it’s time to think whether I’m ready to go double or nothing in the next fight.
Deck 'Em! is developed and published by Frosty Pop. I played it using Steam on the PC. The title is a card game centered around the world of boxing, inspired by solitaire, and with an added betting mechanic.
There’s a very short setup for the action: a new challenger, backed by an experienced promoter, is getting into the ring with the grizzled champion. There’s no way he can win but the fight will be a success if he manages to stay in the ring for the whole 12 rounds. There’s more money on the line if he manages to last longer against the onslaught of the more experienced fighter. And now it’s time to actually box.
Gameplay in Deck 'Em! is built around a deck with 52 cards. Players will select an avatar that sits at the bottom of the screen, while the champ himself is unseen. He does show up on the cards drawn for every round. Four show up once the gong sings and their reveal is tense.
The opposing fighter throws punches, which are very varied in terms of striking power. The player’s character has a limited amount of health. But he also gets his own punches, much weaker than those of the reigning champion, and, more importantly, health drops and blocks.
The first is self-explanatory, giving the character more hitpoints to endure the many attacks coming at him. The second is the hinge around which the core mechanic of Deck 'Em! pivots. The only way to get to the 12th round with the champ is to make extremely careful use of blocking while accepting that it’s impossible to avoid hits entirely.
Each block card has a clear value and any champ attack card that’s lower will have its damage nullified. So far, the idea is simple and familiar. The additional wrinkle is that once a block is used, the card gains the value of the attack it stopped at the bottom right and can only mitigate or stop a strike that’s lower. Everything higher directly affects the already limited health of the player’s character.
It’s a small twist that takes effort to manage. Only four cards are revealed during a round. Players have the option to store one for future use and can also hold their punches to cancel out or lower the value of future champ assaults. There are never enough high-level blocks to deal with all incoming damage.
Deck 'Em! offers limited tools to control the random luck of the draw, which can create some frustration. But matches are fairly short, especially when things go really wrong and there’s always the option to throw in the towel and try again. The betting element of the game is limited and doesn’t add much other than flavor.
But the title’s biggest issue is that there’s no depth to explore. Matches are fast and engaging but the limited card variety really hurts long-term engagement. Once one gets the hang of using block efficiently there’s no other big concept to interact with.
Deck 'Em! has a lot of potential and it’s easy to see how it could have become a bigger, more complex card game. Keeping it small and fast helps with accessibility. But a few more mechanics and some extra interactions between the cards would have made it more appealing to the more grizzled fans of the card-based genre.
Deck 'Em! has a decent but sparse presentation. All the action takes place on one screen, with bright and colorful cards and one very excitable promoter watching with horror as the protagonist takes hits and gets closer to zero health. It’s a good look that uses optimistic blue and yellow as the challengers’ colors, in contrast to how serious and loaded with violence the real-world sport can be. The game’s sound is also decent, with punching effects that have weight but also feel cartoon-like and a jaunty soundtrack that remains mainly in the background. I just wish that there was more of the game to experience
The Good
- Decent card mechanics
- Quick matches
- Plenty of potential
The Bad
- Too random
- Short experience
- Limited mechanics
Conclusion
The big problem is that there’s not enough of it to keep anyone engaged in the long term. All the mechanics are clear after a few matches and after beating the champion a few times there’s no incentive to keep playing, other than maybe accumulating more money than a friend. Deck 'Em! needs to have more of everything and I think the developers at Frosty Pop should take its solid core and see how it can be expanded into a bigger experience because it has the potential to be a leader in the very popular deck builder genre.
A review key was provided by the publisher.
