Dicejunkies game night hasn’t been back long but if there was an award at the end of the year for best game, Custom Heroes is the early leader in the clubhouse. This game is the most enjoyable game, to me, that has been reviewed so far.

Custom Heroes is a card-crafting and trick-taking game designed by John O’Clair and published by AEG, Alderac Entertainment Group, that retails for $29.99 and was released in 2017. It is a fast paced game that takes only 45 minutes to an hour to play, two to six players can play, and for ages 14+. The object is for players to try to be the first to rid themselves of all 10 cards in their hand. Play starts with the player who last wore a costume going first.

That player starts the round by playing a card or cards such as a three. The rest of the players must play a three or higher. Play continues until every other player passes and the last player to have played a card wins the round.

The interesting part of the game is a player can add advancements to the cards in their hand. These advancements can add or decrease the value of a card. Some advancements require the player to use power tokens to play the card.

Each round ends after players have played all the cards in their hand. Players are then given victory points, used to win the game, power tokens, and advancements based on how the finished the round with the player finishing first getting more victory points but the player finishing last getting more power tokens and advancements.

Once the round is over, the cards are reshuffled and each player is given 10 more cards. The catch is any advancements used during a round stays with that card for the rest of the game. Those cards go back into the deck and players can use those cards with advancements right away. Another interesting point, each card can multiple advancements and those stay with the card until the game is done.

A player wins when they achieve 10 victory tokens and wins any round after getting 10 victory points. That means several players could have 10 victory tokens and need to win a round.

The art and cards are nice for Custom Heroes. On drawback is the advancements have a plastic film on them that must be removed before play begins. The main playing cards are placed in a plastic sleeve that should allow good protection and multiple plays. 

Custom Heroes is fast paced with each round taking six to 10 minutes to play. The strategy of when to use advancements or playing advancements already in your hand adds a level of depth to the game. Being able to use advancements does encourage interactions between players. Trying to block a player with 10 victory tokens from winning a round adds more strategy to which cards a player decides use. When dealing for future rounds after advancements have been used, it is easy to tell which cards have advancements are dealt to other players.

This game is not hard to learn to play and even players that have never played a game like Custom Heroes. After just one round, players should be able to pick up the basic premise of the game. There is some time to set up the first time with taking the film off the advancements and putting the game away takes time with advancements played being needed to be removed from the cards. The rules, like game play, aren’t hard to pick up either.

Custom Heroes offers replayability in the fact it is fast to play and advancements used change the game and makes each game different. The advancements are the major reason for replayability. There aren’t any variants or expansions to Custom Heroes but it doesn’t take a way the want to play this game again.

Overall, this was a really enjoyable game and a game I would play over again. There is strategy involved and plenty of player interaction during the rounds. Custom Heroes is a game I would recommend for a fun game night at home. If you want to buy one game right now, make it Custom Heroes.

Don’t just take my review, check out the review by Tim and Taylor above from YouTube. And while you are there, subscribe to Dicejunkies and get more great videos like this one. Join us each Thursday night at 6:30 CST as we play a new game live on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/dicejunkies

See you next week with an all new game review.

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