FIRST RUNNER UP: CLASH ROYALE
The brilliance of Clash Royal is in its simplicity. The battlefield is comprised of three lanes. The two outer lanes each have a small castle in the middle of the path while the center lane is home to a large fortress. The game ends when one player’s fortress is destroyed. The two players each build a deck of cards and use these to summon units, slowly working to take down enemy troops and wear down the defenses of the castles.
Each card features adorable art and the characters slowly waddle down the lanes, throwing comically large bombs and raining down volleys of arrows. Figuring out which cards to put into your deck is a task in itself, with plenty of strategy lying in composition and how you use the cards at your disposal.
Each match only last three minutes, so you need to strategize at a blistering pace, quickly tearing down the initial defenses so you can dismantle your opponent’s fortress before the clock ticks down. You only get several cards in your hand at a time, and because your elixir currency is often depleted faster than it refills, you need to carefully choose which cards you will send into the fray.
The one thing that brings Crash Royale down is its heavy reliance on microtransactions. If a player has put more money into the game than you have, it’s likely that they’ll win. It makes for an frustrating experience, especially if you just want to hop in for a quick match but can never seem to find victory.
