Flex NBA Review

What happens if you combine the NBA 2K's MyTeam with a TCG like Pokemon or Magic the Gathering? Flex NBA happens.

In Flex NBA, you are assembling a team of current players and pitting them against another team and trying to get their confidence (health) to zero. I say that it draws similarities to Pokemon because every player has a type, such as a tank or marksman. These types are strong (ballin), weak (soft), or normal to other types and will do more or less damage based on these to the other players. This is the easy mode in a nutshell.

I'm here to talk about the advanced game mode, though. The core of the whole thing is the same but it adds in new features. At the beginning of your turn, you'll roll the play action die. Depending on how this falls, you'll be able to do specific actions such as upgrading your player to a stronger type or unlocking special moves that can do more damage to your opponent. One of the key differences here though is that your opponent chooses which player will be defending. This will allow them to eliminate some of/if not all of the damage that's coming their way. Take out all of your opponents players and you win.

I haven't mentioned the coolest feature of the entire game though, the augmented reality feature. Each flexagon is programmed so when they are viewed in the companion app you will see the players model in AR. You can view multiple players at a time and if they're on the same team they'll even interact with each other. There is also an option to view the players you have registered in their actual size.

The Good: I think that a collectible card game needed something in the sports realm. I haven't played one since MLB Showdown when I was a kid. I loved that game. There are some other alternatives but Flex NBA is doing some really cool stuff. The artwork is all hand drawn and it looks incredible. The core gameplay does not do much to reinvent the wheel. If you are familiar with Pokemon or MTG then you are already on the right path. I liked that the play action die limited your actions that you were able to take on your turn but they included other modifiers in the FX Tiles to let you increase the scope of the actions.

The Not So Good: I was sent the two player starter set which gave you enough players for two players to play the advanced game, but I wish that it would have came with a second board. It seemed a bit odd that they would only allow one player to have a board while the other needed to use the table. I also wish that there was a physical rulebook in the box. The only one that I could find was on their website. I would also like to see more app integration outside of viewing your flexagons and using the AR feature. I think that they could add in more gameplay help/tracking into the app and it would be really good.

The Not So Good: The cost of entry for this game is extremely high. It's $65 for the base set and over $10 for a booster pack with one flexagon. If you're a collector, then this may not be an issue at all for you but I will say that this rubs me the wrong way. The quality of materials is very nice and the technology behind it is really cool but it's hard to justify that price point. If you got 3 with a guaranteed rare I wouldn't have any issues but just 1 does not feel like enough value for money.

Overall: 6/10

I think that this is a solid game, but I'm not sure that it's something that I would actively pursue playing to be competitive at. At the end of the day, it's going to be extremely difficult/expensive to build a strong team. If you're a card collector then this could be a really nice new thing to collect. The artwork is fantastic and the quality is extremely nice. If you're someone who wants to simply play the games, it may be better to look into one of the more traditional card games like Marvel Champions or an Arkham Horror LCG.