[Review] Cobra Kai: Card Fighter, Unique Premise That Has a Half-Finished

Adapting a film series in a mobile game is something that has become a tradition from time to time. Sometimes there are developers who have succeeded in developing quality games, while on the one hand many have failed to answer the challenge and ended up just taking advantage of the popularity of the name of the adapted series. At least this is how we feel with Cobra Kai: Card Fighter.

The latest game made by Gamaga developers and publishers Boss Team Games it offers the premise of a card game game adapting the popular TV series Cobra Kai, which originally also took inspiration from Karate Kid. The genre of card games that are quite easy to master including IP support from popular series does feel like a promising combination, but sometimes expectations can be very different from what is seen.

We happened to have had the chance to play the game first thanks to access Review Build provided by the publisher. The platform we use is iPad Pro (2019 model year) for the sake of getting the satisfaction of playing on a bigger screen. The embargo has been lifted and taking advantage of the available opportunities, we have compiled a full review of the game which you can immediately see below.

What It Is Visuals

Visuals or graphics in a game are not everything, but we also can’t deny that games still need attractiveness in terms of presentation. Especially for a game that adapts a TV series in the real world, the expectations of fans must also be on how the characters are presented in 2D and 3D models that remain accurate. For this, unfortunately Cobra Kai: Card Fighter failed to live up to our expectations.

First, the iconic character William Zabka who plays Johnny Lawrence only appears in 2D models, and the character even looks weird with a shape that even more resembles Arnold Vosloo in the movie The Mummy. The realistic design that the game is trying to offer doesn’t feel right, which is what we felt when we saw each of the odd 3D models of the characters.

Actually, this does feel like a “nitpick” complaint, only we can predict that there will be many players, especially Cobra Kai fans, who can be more brutal to judge the shortcomings in terms of visuals. We hoped that this shortcoming might be covered by the unique art style approach of the UI, which was also disappointing.

For a game that offers the card game genre, we expect a wilder or classier design from each card. But those expectations were shattered after seeing how the cards in the game looked more like a simple guidebook showing the poses of Karate moves.

Apart from the aesthetic elements, in terms of presentation, especially when it comes to gameplay, Cobra Kai: Card Fighter can’t be said to be consistent. We are often presented with character animations that feel awkward, especially when they show strange facial expressions and movements that make them look like boneless contortionists. The initial impression was quite disappointing indeed…

Half Ripe Card Game Execution

As we mentioned above, in-game graphics aren’t everything, so there are at least higher expectations for the gameplay system. For this one, in the end, we were even more disappointed. Before that, it must be admitted that the premise offered by the game is indeed unique, namely a card game with the concept of a martial arts battle that brings together the characters of Cobra Kai. This concept then ended up far from being right on target after we tasted the game firsthand.

So the course of the match in Cobra Kai: Card Fighter is determined by your steps in choosing the martial arts movement you want to launch, which actually feels like a very inconsistent rock-and-paper-paper game. It doesn’t take long until you realize that “huh, so the gameplay is just like this?” which will then take you in a boring game rotation.

Each character available in the game has a play style that is distinguished by their “wildcard”. This is usually in the form of a buff to increase the character’s damage potential when it gets a new turn. At the beginning of the game you may feel that the key to victory depends entirely on luck, which is not wrong because the rotation of the game feels more controllable once you get access to all the cards, which of course is also not an easy endeavor. In the end, it all returns to the sensation of playing rock-paper-scissors which always brings uncertain results.

The action of fighting characters in each turn is also displayed in a series of animations which, although cool, actually seem repetitive and waste a lot of time. It should be noted that the fast tempo of the game is something that is strongly attached to this genre of game, and Cobra Kai: Card Fighter instead emphasizes the focus on the cinematic part of the fight like a fighter game. Sometimes the animations can be inconsistent and make it hard to see which character is cornered by an attack or vice versa.

Each card has its own energy cost, which you can get with a special wildcard or discard the card you are holding. Each turn will give you access to a new card, so don’t worry about running out of cards even if you take out three at once in one turn. Being able to take out some of these cards also gives access to the combo system which we have to admit is pretty cool, as you can push the potential of each card and its combination in knocking out enemies with a strategy that can be executed smoothly. This is certainly a resource that can be dug deeper if you want to become a pro player in the game.

There are several elements in Cobra Kai: Card Fighter that make you quite interested, it’s just that the game is not comfortable to enjoy. This doesn’t add up to how you have to spend at least an hour to gain access to a new card, or directly use Tokens (premium currency) which can be purchased from within the game.

How about the gameplay?

Our main problem continues with the gameplay, which is arguably more troublesome than fun. This is because Cobra Kai: Card Fighter has its own story mode, but you have to do various specific tasks that are too time-consuming to continue the progress of the story. It is very different from many other mobile games, where the portion of the story and the side gameplay that feels inconvenient are two separate things, so players have more freedom between wanting to explore the game more deeply or not.

Introducing the side gameplay portion earlier doesn’t sound bad, especially for players who want a complete explanation directly. But as we mentioned earlier, this game actually makes it the main task that you have to do in order to continue the progress of the story and unlock more content that is locked in the game.

Conclusion

Maybe you can already feel from our review that Cobra Kai: Card Fighter is a disappointing game. That’s true, but we feel even more that this game doesn’t feel right on target or fails to execute its premise well. There is a potential that can make the game more exciting and interesting to play, which unfortunately we did not encounter in this game even at first glance though.

If the developer can bring a major update to improve the quality of the game, change the gameplay to a more flexible way, as well as a more strategic card game system that doesn’t feel like a random rock-scissor-paper game, then Cobra Kai: Card Fighter can certainly be transformed into a game that better. But for now, you should not set your expectations too high.

Excess	Lack
A card system that has potential	Visuals that are as they are and less flashy
Could be a fanservice game for Cobra Kai fans	Weird character designs with inconsistent awkward animations
	Boring gameplay (more trouble than fun)

Final Score:

5.5/10

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