[This game was featured as the mini-review for the Friday News Wrap-Up for the 21st of September, 2012]

If you’ve played Hothead’s ‘Kard Combat’ then you’ll know what you’re in for with Three Donkeys’ iPhone and iPad title ‘Spectromancer’.

Players are handed a ‘deck’ comprised of an infinite amount of various cards, each requiring a certain amount of ‘mana’ to cast. Each turn you’ll earn a base amount of mana for each type (fire, water, air, earth, and a fifth ‘special’ category) and can cast spells or creatures in to one of the six slots available in the middle of the screen. Opposing creatures will attack each other directly, while empty slots can be attacked to deal direct damage to the player.

So far so similar - indeed many of the cards find direct comparisons to those in Hothead’s title, which is no surprise as Kard Combat is a licensed port of Spectromancer... which is itself based on Astral Tournament... and the rabbit hole goes even deeper.

The salient point here is that those who enjoy playing against real opponents, rather than AI ones, will be delighted to know that Spectromancer’s servers are cross-platform, meaning you can play against the PC players as well as iOS gamers.

Sure the visuals aren’t as gritty as Kard Combat’s and the cluttered interface is unsuited to a touch-screen device, but if you love this style of card gameplay, then this is most definitely worth picking up.