Star Wars: Card Trader
releases on TBD
A digital Star Wars themed card game from The Topps Company, it is available for mobile platforms.
Reviews View More
You know, I wanted to try this game just to see what it would be like. Digital trading cards, you get some free ones every week, seemed like a good deal to pass some time...
But I dunno. I think it requires a real specific niche that I just couldn't get into when it came down to it. I played for a solid 4 weeks (consisting of logging in daily, opening a few packs, and salvaging a few cards for higher rarity ones, you DO NOT need to spend real money and SHOULD NOT, by the way). But after all that I'm just left with a sense of... "what's the point?"
If you've never liked card collecting before then I really don't think you'll be into this game. I think my slight nostalgia is about the only thing that pushed me through it.
The base cards are really really ugly. I hate that rounded portrait design for cards that got popular with Hearthstone, and I hate it here, which is a shame because it's a part of every common base card you'll get. However in contrast, there are some really pretty cards you can collect, and those are fun to obtain. Unfortunately even some of those are presented in landscape mode? And there's no easy way to look at them besides turning your phone sideways? I don't know what they were thinking with that.
The more I think about it, the more I think there's so much lost potential here for "digital cards". You have a few moving cards, but those seem like they were slapped together in five seconds. It would have been cool if some cards were phone screen length so you could throw it up as your phone background. Would have been neat for some to have a little 3D scene. But nope, just cards like real life. Even the most legendary, epic, rare cards are just... cards. Maybe with a little shimmer effect. Maybe with a poorly animated background. It's a shame.
More problems with the good looking cards... is that they're rare. More rare than you could ever hope to see. Some odds sound reasonable, like, 1/75 for a Super Rare. But you still won't ever see a super rare from that pack. The high end with rarity in this is 1/100000 for some of the really exclusive cards. In my entire time, I only obtained one epic rarity card and that still had about 500 in rotation, which I imagine is the entire active player base lol.
I felt like there's a lot of anti-ux design in this, where it almost seems like they purposefully took out the convenience of things to make it so I had to leave the app open or navigate a few extra menus, and the tutorials that show you around the app aren't great either. The whole thing isn't really optimized either, and made my phone run hot after a really short time of it being open.
Truly worst of all is that there is nothing you can do with the cards... there's no "fun" way to look at them, besides... looking at them (but there's no zoom function or anything), and you can only show a few on your profile at a time. Obtaining sets is difficult to do and while I do see a lot of people who want to trade, there's no way I want to even start to interact with an account that's appraised a whopping 10k points higher than mine. They seem like a nice community though.
Overall, maybe you like collecting cards, maybe you like Star Wars. I still think this is a really bland iteration, and is such a boring waste of time that you'll really start to feel the soullessness of it start to suck out your life force until you hit the uninstall button. You might play it for a few days, or give it a few generous weeks like me, but the end result is the same... it will leave you feeling the same as when you started, if not a little guilty for fueling the Disney Star Wars corporate machine.
But I dunno. I think it requires a real specific niche that I just couldn't get into when it came down to it. I played for a solid 4 weeks (consisting of logging in daily, opening a few packs, and salvaging a few cards for higher rarity ones, you DO NOT need to spend real money and SHOULD NOT, by the way). But after all that I'm just left with a sense of... "what's the point?"
If you've never liked card collecting before then I really don't think you'll be into this game. I think my slight nostalgia is about the only thing that pushed me through it.
The base cards are really really ugly. I hate that rounded portrait design for cards that got popular with Hearthstone, and I hate it here, which is a shame because it's a part of every common base card you'll get. However in contrast, there are some really pretty cards you can collect, and those are fun to obtain. Unfortunately even some of those are presented in landscape mode? And there's no easy way to look at them besides turning your phone sideways? I don't know what they were thinking with that.
The more I think about it, the more I think there's so much lost potential here for "digital cards". You have a few moving cards, but those seem like they were slapped together in five seconds. It would have been cool if some cards were phone screen length so you could throw it up as your phone background. Would have been neat for some to have a little 3D scene. But nope, just cards like real life. Even the most legendary, epic, rare cards are just... cards. Maybe with a little shimmer effect. Maybe with a poorly animated background. It's a shame.
More problems with the good looking cards... is that they're rare. More rare than you could ever hope to see. Some odds sound reasonable, like, 1/75 for a Super Rare. But you still won't ever see a super rare from that pack. The high end with rarity in this is 1/100000 for some of the really exclusive cards. In my entire time, I only obtained one epic rarity card and that still had about 500 in rotation, which I imagine is the entire active player base lol.
I felt like there's a lot of anti-ux design in this, where it almost seems like they purposefully took out the convenience of things to make it so I had to leave the app open or navigate a few extra menus, and the tutorials that show you around the app aren't great either. The whole thing isn't really optimized either, and made my phone run hot after a really short time of it being open.
Truly worst of all is that there is nothing you can do with the cards... there's no "fun" way to look at them, besides... looking at them (but there's no zoom function or anything), and you can only show a few on your profile at a time. Obtaining sets is difficult to do and while I do see a lot of people who want to trade, there's no way I want to even start to interact with an account that's appraised a whopping 10k points higher than mine. They seem like a nice community though.
Overall, maybe you like collecting cards, maybe you like Star Wars. I still think this is a really bland iteration, and is such a boring waste of time that you'll really start to feel the soullessness of it start to suck out your life force until you hit the uninstall button. You might play it for a few days, or give it a few generous weeks like me, but the end result is the same... it will leave you feeling the same as when you started, if not a little guilty for fueling the Disney Star Wars corporate machine.
Technically still playing, and probably will on and off until it inevitably shuts down. Started in September of 2020 and have had fun throughout the year and plan to keep going. Its a pure time waster and will not appeal to everyone. And I would encourage anyone playing DO NOT spend money.
Definitely hypes you up when you look through cards with your buddies while there’s a Star Wars movie in theaters. Aside from that, there’s not much point.