Neverland Card Battles Image
Metascore

Mixed or average reviews - based on 14 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 11 Ratings

  • Summary: The war between humans and demons is tearing Neverland apart, and the ensuing chaos threatens to free the evil god Hellgaia from his tomb. Now, the future rests solely in the hands of the Dominators, those who can wield the otherworldly power found within the land’s Spectral Cards. As Galahahad, a young and brash Dominator, set forth on a quest to banish Hellgaia back to his shrine forever and save Neverland from judgment day. [Yuke's] Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 14
  2. Negative: 4 out of 14
  1. Neverland incorporates enough gameplay variety to recommend it. Those that may not be interested in the card game genre are urged to get on deck.
  2. Visually the game won’t win any awards simply because of the battle graphics. Yet I found Neverland Card Battles to be an engaging game that sucked me in with its intriguing gameplay.
  3. It's hard to recommend Neverland Card Battles when it mostly feels like work, but it's difficult to not love it a little after seeing it through to the end, despite its prickly exterior.
  4. Overall, Neverland is a little too dated at is in the tough market of strategy games on the PSP which hurt its overall appeal.

See all 14 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 7
  2. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. RichardCrabb
    10
    Rated a 10 if you like collectible card games and enjoy the metagame of building decks to face different foes. Some cards are much more powerful than others, but overall it's the on CCG style game on the PSP that really worked for me. I've played hundreds of battles and find myself still coming back to this game. Expand
  2. DanTheTimid
    9
    Definitely not a game for everyone with its stiff difficulty and high level of strategy, but for those like myself tired of mindless grind games this was an exhilirating and brillant mix of Collectible Card Game and Go/Chess like elements. Closest comparison is Culdcept, but I enjoyed this game MUCH more as luck plays MUCH less of a roll. Expand
  3. WabbitofNeverland
    8
    Don't get this game if: you feel good graphics are required to have fun; you haven't played a card based battle system before; you aren't into turn-based games.

    If the above hasn't turned you off, then look past the common reviews of this game. I myself did, and was pleasantly surprised what was under the hood.

    A good tactical strategy game that merges traditional card based dueling (i.e. Magic the Gathering) with an interesting twist. The twist lies within how you collect mana. You move your 'hero' across a grid based battleboard. As you walk over a grid it turns your side's colour which gives you 1 mana next turn. The more grids you claim, the more mana you have to cast your spell arsenal. Of course, enemies can claim your grids by moving atop yours. To further this mana harvest, units you summon also can move around and take grids accordingly. So while the game sports traditional card dueling, an interesting strategic sidegame emerges for land control as well.

    To boot, units offer radius effects. Like all adjacent allies get +1 defence. You can also place 'bases' which cannot move but provide a wider aura of bonus. Troops also get lots of other abilities, like first strike, fierce strike, mutal fight, etc..

    To add another layer, the game has 5 types of land, which all grids are one of. The most common are just regular grids with no bonus. But there is also fire, earth, wind, etc.. Some units have a land affinity which gives them bonuses to attack and defence while combating on their corresponding land type. Units of land affinity can also be summoned to any related grid square, as opposed to the normal rule where all summons must be in an adjacent grid of your hero or one of your units.

    The game has some challenging moments which may turn off people who don't like a good difficult encounter (but fear not - even if you lose a round you get new cards and always get stronger eventually getting the upperhand to offset the handicap).

    There is also a technical flaw worth pointing out. The game has a lag when selecting units on the board. Maybe a 1/2 second. Something is borked with the load time perhaps. To me, as I'm a patient turn-based fan, this is nothing game breaking. But it may be of issue to some.

    Sound and music are decent. Repetitive and you can't turn it off, so if you don't like it you'll have to mute all sound.

    There are over 200 cards and you can edit your deck between battles for your 30 card deck.

    The campaign story is ok, nothing to write home about.

    Haven't tried multiplayer - so no comments there.

    The total sum of these parts has made for some excellent battles. I do wish the game was nicer to look at, but it is on my top five psp games irregardless.
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  4. ToddSmith
    5
    As a big fan of card games, I was disappointed. The worst part of the game, is that the cards do not test you on how well you can manage luck. I see this game as a role-playing game with your attack choices restricted by the luck of the draw. Expand

See all 7 User Reviews