We've played Capcom's new Teppen mobile card game and it's worth checking out if you're a fan of Street Fighter, Darkstalkers or Mega Man X
The art and references alone are top tier
We only just learned about Capcom and GungHo Online Entertainment's new mobile venture in the realm of card games earlier this week under the code name Project Battle, but then the companies decided to pull back the curtain and send Teppen out into the wild.
Teppen combines the worlds of Capcom's most recognizable franchises between Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, Devil May Cry and Mega Man X. After playing it for a few hours, I feel that it's safe to say the game is worth checking out if you're a longtime fan of any of those series.
Unlike some other recent Capcom crossover attempts, it's apparent from minute one that a lot of money and attention to detail was put into Teppen with brand new artwork created for every character and card in the game recreating some iconic scenes from all of the series mentioned above.
The game also features voice acting with many of the staple actors returning to reprise their English roles including Kyle Hebert as Ryu, DC Douglas as Albert Wesker and Reuben Langdon as Dante though it doesn't appear as though they got Laura Bailey for Chun-Li.
We won't be going into a full review here since obviously Teppen is not a fighting game, but given how closely tied it is to Capcom's fighting games at heart, we felt we should take a closer look at the game.
For gameplay, Teppen feels something like a cross between Hearthstone and a tower defense game, as players constantly build meter to place unit or ability cards to try and directly attack their opponent's hero. There are no turns here, so managing your meter is very important to stay in the game — sound familiar.
There are multiple deck styles in the game from the outset — once you unlock different characters which takes about 10 minutes each — like going for raw damage in red cards, preventing opponents from attacking with purple or healing cards with green.
Each character is based around one of these subsets with starter decks to play towards their strengths. Character cards can also have special effects after they've been played which can add another layer of depth to the strategies and deck building.
It's simple enough to overwhelm the early computer opponents, but online against other people is where the game comes to life a bit more. I've only played a few online bouts, but they got the heart pumping and the mind racing much faster than playing against the bots had up to that point.
What readers of this site might be most interested in, however, is the detail put into those cards and characters seeing Baby Bonnie Hood and Felicia in wicked cool new artwork along with flavor text that adds an extra little touch to every collectable.
I got a Sodom card that read "while no one can question his ability with a pair of sais, they can question his ability to form a sentence in Japanese" poking fun at the death character on his shirt not being written correctly.
There's a lot of love given to specific titles like Mega Man X4 with characters like Iris and Colonel appearing alongside the other bosses plus Street Fighter 3 and Alpha with fighters like Remy, Elena, Rose and Nash all being featured in new cards.
The art on the cards is actually bigger than what is shown in the initial card as well meaning if you tap a card you own, you can see a fuller or expanded view of the piece though there's no way to export them externally outside of screenshots that I've seen.
Teppen is free to play meaning there are microtransactions though the game has been fairly generous at the start giving me enough currency to unlock 40 packs just for making an account and logging in for two days. Obviously, this is an attempt to get players invested early as per the standard mobile gaming efforts in 2019.
While the title may sound very close to Bandai Namco's fighting game series Tekken, Teppen is a Japanese word that means summit or apex likely pointing towards the goal of trying to reach the top — though it's still an odd name for something seemingly aimed largely at a western market currently.
Teppen is free to play on Android and iOS devices in North America and countries across Europe though players outside of those regions will need to wait a while longer. If you're a longtime fan of Capcom titles, we suggest downloading the game just to look at the nice art at the very least.
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