Crunchyroll: Kardboard Kings review - "Cool concept, clunky controls"

• Run your own card shop
• Chill vibes and lovely art style
• Controls not optimised for mobile

While cooking sims and business tycoons are a dime a dozen these days, how often do you chance upon a card shop simulator with a kooky masked-thief-based twist? 

Kardboard Kings - as you can probably tell from the purposely misspelt "K" alone - aims to stand out from the crowd with its chill vibes and distinct art style, offering plenty of nostalgia for anyone who's ever been obsessed with these little wallet-sized cardboards that cost more than our actual wallets. It's made the jump to mobile thanks to Crunchyroll Game Vault, but is it worth signing up for the premium subscription service just for this one alone, or are you better off browsing through the library for something else?

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Table of contents:

• Kardboard Kings visuals
• Kardboard Kings gameplay
• Kardboard Kings verdict

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Kardboard Kings Visuals

The hand-drawn visual style definitely adds to the chill vibes here, especially given how artsy the characters look. The way they're designed complements their very distinct personalities, which is a lovely touch to what's otherwise your average business management sim. 

The cards themselves are appealing enough to want to collect, and the pixelated avatars remind me so much of Simon the Sorcerer from way back when for some reason, which is always a good thing.

With the sim's Lofi beats in the background and the sleepy seaside vibe, it's easy to ease into a playthrough at the end of a tiresome day - something that's pretty much the opposite with stressful management tycoons where time is of the essence and quick reflexes are key to success.

Here, you can lounge around behind the counter while your customers peruse your wares - even the coveted "Rush Hour" doesn't exactly feel so rushed, allowing you to indulge in some low-key feels while colourful characters pop up in the shop.

As Harry Hsu, you're tasked with picking up the pieces after your father - legendary champion of the card game Warlock - passes away. Apart from trying to run the card shop he left behind, you'll also have to juggle customers' requests with a mysterious theft that's been going around - thank goodness there's a cocky cockatoo named Giuseppe guiding you every step of the way.

Kardboard Kings Gameplay

The gameplay loop is split into days, each one featuring different scenarios for you to adapt to. Based on the "news", cards can either go up or down in value, so keeping an eye on your calendar is crucial. It'll jot down days when black cards go up because of some misguided Satanic rumours, or when a certain someone suddenly declares her love for a particular set that'll spike its prices for the general public. 

You'll replenish your stocks by buying cards from sellers online, and there's a lovely postman who will deliver the goods to you via old-school envelopes that you rip open (oh, what a feeling). Apart from the basics of buying low and selling high, you can also plan parties, host tournaments, and open booster packs with your friends to manipulate the market a little bit - you can even rip off jerky customers and risk ruining your Reputation to make an extra buck.

All these are still pretty chill as there's never really too much going on to the point of frustration, but my biggest gripe with it all is the wonky controls, which means the mobile port fails to do the sim justice.

What's the appeal?

Kardboard Kings would've been enjoyable as it is if it weren't for the lack of mobile optimisations. For one thing, it's incredibly difficult to tap and drag a card from your collection to the shop's display case - my taps just wouldn't register, which is extremely frustrating since this is the main way for your shop to actually make any money. It takes several tries for a card to lock into place on the display shelves - doubly annoying when customers are pouring in and you can't replenish your stock fast enough for them.

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For another, plenty of descriptions are positioned below your finger when you tap or hold onto a certain item, which means your finger actually gets in the way of reading any of the text. I'm assuming this is because a mouse cursor wouldn't block anything at all, while a human finger is an entirely different thing.

It's these seemingly small elements that took away a huge chunk of my enjoyment because with the lack of intuitive controls, it's hard to stay chill in what's supposedly a chill environment. And because a shop sim is, by nature, a repetitive daily loop, and the frustration is compounded within the daily loop too.

Overall, Kardboard Kings offers an appealing premise of running your own card shop with the added flavour of a masked card thief and a lovely art style. It's a shame the controls aren't well-suited to mobile, because regardless of how great the concept is, it's all a moot point if it's not easy to play at all.