The Star Wars franchise is worth over $50 billion and encompasses feature films, television series, merchandise, and video games, among others. Now, a new expandable card game is about to join the pack and further broaden the IP.
Ahead of the Star Wars Celebration, scheduled to take place this coming weekend April 7th – 10th, Funko Games has announced a new Star Wars-inspired card game titled Star Wars Rivals. The "expandable game system" will be playable by two persons with each player representing either the light or dark side of the Force.
The game’s description reads, "The fate of the Galaxy is in your hands! Star Wars Rivals is an all-new expandable head-to-head dueling game that puts you in command of the battle between Dark Side and Light Side. Assemble your forces and outmaneuver your enemies as you duel for strategic control of iconic locations. With 30 characters to collect and battle with, your destiny awaits!"
The Star Wars Rival card game will have a base Premier Set as well as character booster packs for expanding the number of available characters. The Premier Set will go for $19.99 while each of the light and dark side booster cards will cost $4.99.
The Premier Set will have four character cards – Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Asajj Ventress, and Clone Commander Cody – a custom prism die, 14 action cards, 18 tokens and markers, and 12 location cards four of which will be exclusive to the Premier Set - it's important to note that character cards also come with stylized collectible figurines, hence the Funko connection.
On the other hand, the booster packs will have an extra character card, five action cards, two location cards, and 16 tokens and markers. While the booster cards are better combined with the Premier Set cards, they can be played on their own. Apart from the average booster pack, Funko will also offer four hologram character booster cards each with a special power.
To play the game, both participants will build a team of either three unique light side or dark side characters. Thereafter, they will deploy their characters to the different locations they are interested in. Next, the participants will roll the custom die to determine locations to score after which they will deploy an action card in a battle against their opponent.
To end a round, the winner will collect the location cards scored during that round. The participants will then reset their play areas and add new location cards for new rounds. For the game to end, all location cards must have been won. Once this is done, the player with more points is declared the winner.
In a release accompanying the announcement, Deirdre Cross, the Head of Funko Games, stated "The latest collaboration with Lucasfilm for the Star Wars Rivals game has continued to elevate Funko Games' collectible offerings through its all-new art style, including awesome hologram variants."
"We're excited to introduce fans to new immersive gameplay, allowing them to experience unforgettable Star Wars locations as they join the light or dark side of the Force and battle it out with their favorite characters from every era." - she added.
Star Wars Rivals will arrive on May 4, 2023. However, there will be a limited pre-release during the Star Wars Celebration.
