Fighting Fantasy Legends reshuffles the gamebooks
A new take
Three of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy gamebooks collide and smoosh together with a card game in Fighting Fantasy Legends [official site], released today. If you're old enough that you already know Warlock of Firetop Mountain, City of Thieves, and Citadel of Chaos back-to-front and smashed through Firetop's video game adaptation by Tin Man Games, hey, here's some of your childhood reworked in another way. Made by Talisman converters Nomad Games, Fighting Fantasy Legends is a roguelikelikey take on the books with a deck of cards throwing up surprises. Look:
All of RPS's resident dads cocked an eyebrow at today's launch of Fighting Fantasy Legends but were too busy in their sheds doing whatever it is they do, so instead you get me writing this. I'd describe myself as a lad with trace elements of dad, in that I have fallen asleep on pub toilet floors but I do also own a toolkit. I like to think this lets me act as an outside ambassador reaching across the dad/lab binary. In this context, it means that I borrowed my cousin's Deathtrap Dungeon but I only ever flicked through it because I don't like dice or numbers.
If you're more a dad than a lad like me, you may be delighted to hear that Fighting Fantasy Legends has combat dice you can level up. Levelling dice! Surely a dad favourite. What else makes this different from the books? Nomad Games explain:
"Each location has a shuffled deck of cards which includes fiendish creatures, powerful objects and dramatic events. You must build up your collection of powerful treasures and level-up your dice to have any chance of surviving the dangerous streets of Port Blacksand, the murky depths of Firetop Mountain or the looming shadows of The Citadel."
Final Fantasy Legends is out for Windows and Mac on Steam. A 10% launch discount brings it to £6.29/8,99€/$8.99 for the next week. It's on pocket telephones too, items I understand dads lust after mightily.