Ever wanted to cast spells and become a wizard? That’s exactly what you aim to do in Ka-Zing, a card game where you must cast complete spells to gain positions or points. Using a variety of spell cards, you can cast spells like the most powerful wizard, ending them in a shouted spell-casting word. With a bunch of different ways to play, Ka-Zing is a very versatile game.
Overview
As mentioned above, there are a bunch of different ways to play Ka-Zing — from team games to singleplayer, with an extra deck of sorcerer cards and varying difficulties, you can test out the modes and find the one that best fits you! I ended playing the Precision game most.
You work on a three-by-three grid of a giant wizard. There is a display of five cards, and everyone gets dealt a hand of three cards. Your goal is to cast a complete spell, giving you two slots on the grid — of which you slowly need to claim each and every slot. The first player to claim all the slots on their grid is the winner of the game; he rest simply lose.
In the singleplayer mode, you need to gain points through various spells within a set amount of time. Your goal is to beat your previous high score. There is a multiplayer version of this where you gain more points for longer spells and a duel version of the game relies on mana — giving everyone a set amount of mana to make spells with. Some cards replenish mana, so taking your time and thinking your turns through are very much needed.
Components
Ka-Zing contains seventy-two standard cards and fifty-three Sorcerer cards. Sorcerer cards are used for more advanced versions of play. The card game comes with a rules booklet as well, and you can get a board for the game to take place on. As we had a preview version of the game, we did not have access to this board until after our gameplay session. Without the board, Ka-Zing is still easy to play and understand — the giant wizard just makes everything more interesting to look at and better organised.
Turn structure
At the start of the game, regardless of the mode, each player is dealt a hand of cards and a display of face-up cards go in the middle. From there, players must take their turns drawing a card from the face-down deck or the middle, deciding if they want to cast a spell, then discarding if they have a full hand or need to.
Casting a spell is pretty easy once you get into the game. You start off by sacrificing a card, placing it upside down. The blue number on this card tells you the starting position of your spell on the grid. After that, you place different cards on the grid, following the arrow from them to the end position on the grid before placing another card. You must end your spell with a card that contains a spell word. In the game mode I played, the first and last card you place are the parts of the grid you have now claimed.
Once you’ve cast your spell, you get to pick up an additional card from the face-down deck, discard your used cards and let the next person go. Once the game gets going, the time between turns lessens, making everything much faster.
Game experience
Ka-Zing is a really clever concept — making the various spells and following the different arrows across the cards all felt good and made sense. The ending spell word cards are funny — though I feel there needed to be more of them in the deck. A lot of turns were just players picking up and discarding a card, waiting for a spell card so they could use the grid. Having more of these types of cards would allow more spells to take place.
The amount of different ways to make the game more challenging or play with smaller and larger groups are really nice — especially as some give you a completely new way to play. Wizards dueling with limited mana and playing as a team to get a high score is just as fun as playing as individuals looking to claim all the spots on a grid.
Conclusion
If you want to become a wizard, making intricate spells and trying to beat your friends, Ka-Zing is a nice take on this. The different modes sure make it fun to explore and try out. The pack of cards is bigger than your standard deck, but it can still travel with you to play with your friends. Ka-Zing is currently looking for funding through Kickstarter; consider backing their campaign!
A copy of Ka-Zing was provided for preview purposes. You can find out more about Ka-Zing on the website of publisher Redwell Games, or on their Kickstarter.
