Otaku Philippines | Philippine Action Figure and Game Reviews

Ani-Mayhem Collectible Card Game (1996)
by Pioneer Entertainment

  Anyone still remember this? Collectible card games or CCG  was all the rage in
the nineties, and all thanks to a little game called Magic: the Gathering. Created
by Richard Garfield, Magic became such a sensational hit that a lot of other
company follow suit. Everything was in the CCG craze, Star wars, Star Trek, Lord
of the Rings, The Simpsons, Marvel and DC superheroes, even characters from
the Bible were made into card games.

  Anyway, this is about the first anime collectible card game and also the first to
be playable solo.

The character cards, majority are girls (of course).

  The anime in general comes from four different shows: Ranma 1/2, El Hazard,
Tenchi Muyo, and Bubblegum Crisis, instead of doing just one. Theoretically,
this would've been the coolest thing to happen. Imagine all the different anime
shows share one universe, like that time Marvel and DC characters collide in
the comics. Sadly, it doesn't feel that way in the game.

A location card.
Look at that poor friendless slob.

  The problem is the game mechanics. So many erratas and confusions plague
the players that they just started to make their own play style. The rulebook
is crap, sorry to say.

I wish this could also remove hungry players.

  The basic premise is that you have to scavenge locations for these items. Lay down
seven items (face down) and each item hides two disasters (also face down), then
place the location (face up) on each of them. These are your play area.
Choose four starting characters, the rest is in the draw pile along with your power-ups,
equipments, and effects. Combat cards are a separate deck and they are use in, well,
combat. The locations list the skills necessary to scavenge the place. If your character
doesn't have that skill, he or she can't scavenge that location. I don't know much of
the rules anymore, and it's best to search them on the net cause a lot have change
since this set.

  Aside from this set, which is called set 0, there are two expansions. Set 1 has series
like Phantom Quest Corp, Armitage, Dominion Tank Police, and Project A-ko, with a
special guest by Oh! My Goddess. Set 2 is all Dragon Ball Z, which is a bad thing.

  The Dragon Ball Z set is what cause this card game to fail. The game became
imbalance because of DBZ, too many overpowering cards in that set that it renders
the old sets near useless.

  Another thing is the anime used. With set 0 has some popular shows like Ranma 1/2
or Bubblegum Crisis, etc. Set 1 seems so unknown, or maybe it's just me.

  It is a shame that this card game didn't fly. Imagine the expansions we can get,
characters from different anime butt heads together. With so many errors in the
rules, it's not so hard to see why.