Cross Blitz Review – A triumph of deckbuilding and RPG design, all in one game

As a known lover of card games, it wasn’t especially surprising that Cross Blitz really appealed to me back when I first tried its Early Access launch. Two whole years later, does it still feel as good now that it’s fully released? To put it simply, yes.

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Cross Blitz is an RPG deckbuilder with multiple modes and multiple stories to play through as campaigns, thanks to its cast of different characters. Each of these characters have their own starting decks, and different potential build options as you progress as well. You’re bound to find a character or two you love the most, but at the end of the day, I think they’re all very well-designed and a lot of fun. It’s incredibly cool to nip around maps getting not only upgrades, but also more story about them all as well.

Along with that though, there’s also a roguelike mode, and it’s what can give Cross Blitz a near unlimited lifespan, whether you’ve finished the stories and find yourself wanting a bit more, or just want to snack on the gameplay and aren’t in the mood for reading. Yes, reading is very good for all of us, but some of us get four hours sleep, work too much, and just wanna demolish some enemies, you know?

One thing that didn’t quite hit me in with the Early Access release is just how much Cross Blitz feels like a really polished Game Boy Advance game. I think it’s the visual style mostly, but the whole vibe could easily have been from 20 years ago, and I mean that as a truly gargantuan compliment. Cross Blitz just feels like it’s laser-focused on its core gameplay and deck-building, doing a lot without wasting excess tech on stuff it doesn’t need. It masters mechanics to allow you to min-max, and it wants you to do so to push through some of the hardest battles as well.

Cross Blitz is an even better game now as it has even more to do, which is usually how these things go. The full release brings with it a new story campaign, which is in a similar vein to what’s come before, and it remains a lot of fun. The result is a more complete experience with even more cards and mechanics to mes around with, and just so much variety. It feels like you’re getting into the weeds with a really good TCG, but you don’t need to pay for all of it.