Pyramid Review
MLB SportsClix
Published by WizKids
Designed by Jason Little, Jim Long, and Mike Mulvihill
Starter Sets: $19.99; Booster Packs: $6.99
When it was announced a while back that WizKids, the company behind the hits Mage Knight, HeroClix, and MechWarrior, had been purchased by Topps, the sports card, entertainment card, and novelty candy company, the jokes immediately started flying. "What are they going to do -- BaseballClix? FootballClix? HockeyClix? Well, yes. The first of WizKids' SportsClix games, MLB SportsClix, hit the shelves just in time for the 2004 baseball season.
MLB SportsClix comes in the now-familiar Starter Set/Booster Pack configuration. There are two starter sets available, one with nine American League players, one with nine National Leaguers. Each starter set also comes with a rulebook, a playmat, a handful of special dice, and some counters. Each starter set has the same nine players in it, some good, some merely average -- if you want different (or better) players, or any of the uncommon or rare players, you'll have to buy Booster Packs, with three random players in each box.
How does it play? Surprisingly well. The rules are presented clearly, and are divided into three levels of difficulty. Preseason is just the basics; players with any familiarity with baseball and other "clicky-base" games can skip this version, and even complete newbies will want to move on quickly. The Regular Season has many of the features that make the game a decent baseball . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: June 4, 2004
Copyright © 2004 by Steve Jackson Games. All rights reserved. Pyramid subscribers are permitted to read this article online, or download it and print out a single hardcopy for personal use. Copying this text to any other online system or BBS, or making more than one hardcopy, is strictly prohibited. So please don't. And if you encounter copies of this article elsewhere on the web, please report it to webmaster@sjgames.com.