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Dragon Punch is a quick two-player card game inspired by video games such as the Street Fighter series, in which the players try to outwit each other with the timing and positioning of their attacks and defenses.
In each round the goal is to reduce the opponent's health to zero. During each turn, both players choose a "move" card from their hands. Moves might attack, block or evade at a particular location (high or low) and speed. The chosen moves are then simultaneously revealed and compared, usually dealing damage or shifting the initiative.
The guessing game is never exactly the same; chosen cards may not be used again for a time, taking damage gives players the opportunity to secretly upgrade their moves, and each player also has a unique character card with special moves.
Dragon Punch was designed to be very portable: It consists of only a few cards, and it also doesn't require a table or other surface to play. This means you can have a quick brawl against a friend almost anywhere!
Dragon Punch Preview
- compact design; can be played without a table
- short playtime (~15 minutes)
- fun and visceral combat feel
- special character cards add variety
- easy to learn yet offers tactical depth
- Yomi
- Devastation of Indians
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- attack speed and initiative — Attacks have speed values; initiative affects which attacks resolve first and can reset in certain ways.
- damage tracking via red sides — Taking damage rotates cards to their red side, reducing available options and increasing power on red.
- evade and block — Symbols for evade and block determine how attacks are resisted.
- Hand Management — Damage flips cards from the white side to the red side, increasing power.
- hand management and card rotation — Damage flips cards from the white side to the red side, increasing power.
- knockout and rounds — A round ends when a player has all cards flipped to red; best two out of three to win.
- refresh and visibility of opponent's hand — Played cards are flipped and moved to the back of your hand, becoming visible to both players.
- Simultaneous card play — Both players select and reveal a card simultaneously and resolve effects.
- Special Character Cards — Each player has a special character card that can be oriented to activate a special attack.
- Taunt — Taunt can return flipped cards to hand at end of turn, affecting future options.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Dragon punch this is a fast-paced simultaneous fighting micro game where the more you get beat up the stronger you become and the whole game is over in about 15 minutes
- the game is played entirely in hand so you will never need any kind of surface table or anything like that to play the game
- it's really fun and visceral as you're playing the game