Publisher: Slugfest Games

Number of Players: 2-6
Playing Time: 30-45 Minutes
Ages: 8+


This was the first Slugfest game I got to play, and it opened my eyes to what the company had to offer. The premise is simple: all of the players (the more the merrier) are masters of kung fu, and are engaged in a martial arts free-for-all. Health totals are represented by Chi, and everything else is on the cards.

The heart of this game lies in the attacks and attack enhancements. Basically, on your turn, your man goal is to pummel somebody with a devastating kung fu technique. Now, the core of this attack is an attack card; for example, a punch or a kick. However, when you play an attack card, you can tack on any number of attack enhancements, turning your vanilla kick into the devastating Jumping, Running up the Wall, Spinning, Flipping Kick. The more adjectives, the more damage.

Just seeing what bizarre attack chains you can come up with is pretty amusing.(Running up the Wall Spinning Throws or Jumping Flipping Table attacks, for example) However, that would get old after a while, so the game provides Stance cards, which can give bonuses to certain kinds of attacks and provide some measure of defense against others; Blocking cards, whose purpose should be obvious; Weapon cards, which are, in essence, reusable attack cards.(Think swords, fans, and yes, tables.); and a few special cards which liven things up.(Most notably, the "Your Kung Fu is Weak" card.)

Mix all this together with an emphasis on having fun and tongue-firmly-in-cheek humor rather than on overbearing rules-lawyering, and you get a solid, light-hearted, and enjoyable game.