Ahead of the Game - Sonic Blitz is a speedy card battler with familiar faces and equally familiar mechanics
Speedy dashes, shiny foil packs, and lots of golden rings
- Collect Sonic-themed cards and deploy them onto the battlefield
- Open foil packs to add to your collection
- Dash through enemy force fields to win
Hello and welcome to Ahead of the Game, a series where we tell you all about an upcoming game that, despite not being out yet, is available for you to play at the time of publishing. Through this series, you can grab a chance to play games well ahead of their release date, be that through Soft Launch, Open Beta, Demos, or more.
I've always had a soft spot for card battlers, which is why when the idea of one that's all about Sonic popped up in the aether, I was all too eager to take part. But when you throw quick three-minute matches ala-Marvel Snap and shiny foil packs ala-Pokemon TCG Pocket into the mix, I would gladly volunteer as tribute.
Sonic Blitz is everything I expected and more, mainly because it has this cool Dash mechanic where the cards you deploy onto the track come alive after every turn (which, as my lovely podcast buddy Will rightly pointed out, is very similar to Adventure Time's Card Wars).
They'll dash towards your opponent's base and whittle down their force field until their HP hits zero, with each card - as you might expect - bringing its own attack, HP, and special skill to the table.
The locations will have a very familiar feel for fans of the Sonic franchise, with everything from Green Hill to Chemical Plant making cameo appearances.
As for the cards themselves, you'll collect them from random foil packs that you earn as you progress, and each one will feature familiar faces from the world of Sonic and his pals.
Now, just like Marvel Snap, you can also earn cosmetics for your cards, because who doesn't want a shiny new frame to gawk at in their collection?
So, how do you play Sonic Blitz?
While it's still only in soft launch in the Philippines for now, I don't doubt that Rovio will roll this out across more regions soon ahead of its official launch.Given the very limited regional access, it also felt like all I was battling against were AI bots and the trainer Sonic at the moment, which also meant that they were kind of going easy on me throughout my whole time playing this. I'm sure things will spice up once more regions are unlocked, though. But in the meantime, let me enjoy my seemingly flawless wins as I delude myself at just how awesome I am at dashing into my foes' bases without a care in the world - a very Sonic trait, if you ask me!
