Review Details

Pixel Tactics

Product Review (submitted on September 24, 2015):

Pixel Tactics is a tactical strategy game. If you like games like Final Fantasy Tactics, or Fire Emblem, you'll probably like this game. While lacking the same location aspects of either of the aforementioned games, it has the same tactical feel overall. Recruit your heroes, move them around as needed, send them out to attack or perform other actions, and use powerful actions to get an upper hand.

This is a very intense strategy game. I've been clearly on the losing team in a game and turned the tides through great play. I've also lost from making fatal tactical errors. This game will cause analysis paralysis for most players at least for some times.

The game box says 30 minutes. I rarely find that one round finishes in 30 minutes. My play time is usually an hour even with experienced players. Some expansions/versions seem to play better than others. This one is best among the first three that I've played with. The 2nd and 3rd game tend to result in drawn out stalemates. There are also some definite balancing issues. Some heroes are incredibly powerful while others are incredibly useless. But like I've said before, even with loser heroes if you make the right choices you can win. These issues are overall not too important if you're willing to take the time and have a unique strategic experience that can be very rewarding.

The cards are lower quality than the very first printing, which is a bit of a disappointment. I don't know if the newest version has fixed some FAQ issues with the cards or not. Overall, these are small issues. I would highly recommend the game.