Natural Selection - Dominant Species: The Card Game Review

If a game is successful enough, it will probably catch a bad case of DKS (Das Kartenspiel). That means the there will be some card game version of the game, usually simpler and in a smaller box. It’s happened with lots of big Eurogame hits. The Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, and Puerto Rico all came down with DKS to varying degrees of success. My big problem here is not so much the cash-in. If I had a problem with that, I would also have a problem with piles of expansion, and I don’t really. My real issue with releasing a card-game version of a game is that the attempt to draw on a more successful game’s status is always a devil’s bargain. While it might prop up mediocre games (as it did with Ticket to Ride: The Card Game), it’s more likely to make the new game look like a watered-down version of its big brother. The perception that you are playing the weaker version can make a game feel like it’s more slight than it really is. It may seem silly, but when we have piles of games fighting for our attention, why would we not play Game X to play Game X Jr.?