Demo of the Day: Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers

In the years since this collectible card battle game ate geeks' brains and wallets in the 1990s, there have been a lot of video games based on Magic the Gathering. The problem has always been that, in an attempt to spice up the presentation, the addictive quality of the card game was mostly lost.

For the most part, the new downloadable Xbox Live Arcade game benefits from addition through subtraction. You won't find any animated monsters hacking away at each other, just the card game itself - presented with a easy-to-learn interface and some very simple but well-designed visual and sound effects during battles.


There's a single-player campaign mode that's fun to play, online duels with real players, and a co-op campaign in which you and a friend take on the computer. The inability to customize the experience by choosing each card you use for each game makes it easier for beginners but will probably disappoint veterans. Yet the gameplay itself is just as tight and addictive here as it is if you're sitting across the table from a friend with a deck of cards.

Bottom line: If you were one of the geeks that had his or her brain eaten at some point by the card game or if words like "Trained Armadon" make you nostalgic, you'll love this download. If you never played the card game, the tutorial in the free demo will show you why many people did.



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