Mr B's review

Collect your heroes. Defeat evil. Try not to die. ‘Hero Slam’ is a hilarious, story-driven card game from ‘Bunny VS Monkey’ author Jamie Smart.

The Enchanted Forest has been invaded by a great evil; each player must recruit a band of heroes to save the forest. On each player’s turn, they reveal a hero card from the deck. Heroes range from the hardcore (Battle-Hardened Tortoise, Unicorn in a Tank) to the almost useless (90s Pig, Weird Slug), and have scores across three attributes. Players have the chance to push their luck and try to recruit more than one hero on their turn, but if the next hero revealed has a lower score, then the first hero has a strop and wanders off. Also included in the deck are side-quest cards that challenge your heroes and give you extra points at the game’s end, imps that give the players extra powers, and fight cards that start a hero brawl and give players the opportunity to steal one of their opponents’ heroes. At the end of the game, your heroes face off against a mighty baddie, and combine their powers to save the forest.

All of the rules are beautifully illustrated in comic form, and are really easy to learn; ‘Hero Quest’ combines a push-your-luck game with a Top-Trumps style game. It will appeal to kids (and adults) who like card collection games like Pokemon, and anybody who has enjoyed Jamie Smart’s graphic novels. My seven year old has asked to play it every evening since we got it, and we’ve laughed constantly at the brilliant characters and madcap action. It’s really replayable, and works just as well with two players as with four; there’s even a one-player variation if you just want a fun screen-free challenge. – Sam