Urban Rivals

Urban Rivals
Developer(s)	Boostr
Publisher(s)	Boostr
Platform(s)	Web & Mobile
Release date(s)	January 17, 2006
Genre(s)	Strategy Card Game
Mode(s)	Single player, 1v1, tournaments

Urban Rivals is a massively multi-player online virtual trading card game.

History

Initially named "Clint Fighting", Urban Rivals is a multiplayer trading cards game which has been created by Simon Leloutre, then managing director at Acute Games/Boostr. The very first versions of the game were based on iMode and Wap mobile platforms. In 2006, under the management of Sebastien Flory, the game is ported on the internet, integrating major improvements of its gameplay. Mobile versions are then forsaken until iPhone and Android versions are launched respectively in 2010 and 2011.

General information

Urban Rivals is an online multi-player card game. Each card represents a character (some of which are based on real people or well-known fictional characters). Each character has specific Power and Damage values, and belongs to a clan. Each clan has a special bonus, which is shared by all the cards in that clan. Most cards also have abilities that aid in battles, some of which counter or are triggered by other cards' abilities.

Free registration gives a player 8 character cards; more cards can be purchased later using the in-game currency, 'Clintz', or through random packs using premium currency, Credits.^[1] 4 new characters are added every two weeks, and included in the 'New Blood' pack in the shop, which contains the 35 most recent additions to the game. In addition, every year, a new clan is released, and during the introduction of the new clan, 4 (previously 6) new characters from that clan are added every week for about two weeks.^[2]

The game uses affiliate marketing to encourage existing players to recruit or sponsor new players.

An associated webcomic^[3] is posted occasionally on the Urban Rivals official website. Sometimes this comic gives out hints of a new character or clan.

Gameplay

A player battling against an AI opponent

When a battle starts, 4 cards are randomly dealt from each of the two players' decks. One player goes first each round, with the two players alternating between first and second each round. Each player, one after the other, chooses one card and plays a number of 'Pillz' (minimum 1), resulting in an Attack Value equal to the cards power value multiplied by the number of Pillz used. The two cards' abilities and bonuses may affect either card's power or attack values, or even cancel their abilities or bonuses. In a random fight, the card with the greater Attack Value has a greater chance of winning the round and dealing its Damage Value to the opponent's Life Points. In a non-random fight, the greatest attack always wins the round and deals its Damage Value to the opponent's Life Points. The battle ends after 4 rounds, with the winner being the player with greater Life Points. The battle also ends once one player loses all of their Life Points.

Each player begins a battle with 12 Pillz and 12 Life, except in ELO, where each player begins with 14 Life.

After each battle, players receive battle points. These points are used to upgrade a player's level. More points are earned from having a character defeat a higher level opponent, or one of the characters leveling up after a fight. A bonus is given if a player has Pillz remaining after the battle ends, but a penalty is incurred for causing a battle to time out.

Characters receive experience (XP) after each fight, with which they level up (the starting and maximum level is determined by the character, with 1 being the lowest, and 5 the highest possible) and become stronger. Characters earn more XP when fighting characters at higher level and when they win.^[4] Many characters also receive an ability to help them in battle when they reach a specified level.

A player's level is based on their current number of battle points. When a player reaches Level 5, they can join a Guild. Upon reaching Level 10, they can create their own Guild. Upon reaching Level 15, they can take part of ELO mode. Players also receive a "Leader" card every 5 levels until Level 50.

The current flash client for Urban Rivals is as3, which, unlike its predecessor, features ambient music, additional sound effects, and animations displaying the effects of the characters' abilities.

Tournaments, Events and Missions

Every other hour, there are one-hour tournaments where players have the opportunity to win Clintz or free credits. There are also more strategy-based ELO tournaments, with stricter deck-building rules, which last a week. In ELO, players start out with 1000 points. A player is matched randomly against an opponent within 150 points of him/her.^[5] Players gain more points from defeating higher-ranked opponents, but will also lose more points if they lose to lower-ranked opponents. Players will gradually have their scores reset to 1000 if they do not play ELO mode for a few days. At the end of the week, 12 random players of the Top 100 receive a CR (collector card). 50 random players above 1200 points receive a random Rare card. Players are also awarded free Credits and share out the Jackpot (Clintz) based on their final ranks or ELO points.

On December 8, 2008, the game added a new Event creation feature, allowing any players above level 40 to create his own customized tournaments. Rules can be set with a high degree of flexibility, in terms of scoring, matchmaking and more. The community has created more than 10,000 different Events in 3 months, some are based on story-telling, others on guild vs guild.

On December 18, 2009, the mission feature was introduced. Completing missions gives players a new way to receive cards, Clintz, and Credits. There are more than 1,000 missions with more being released with every new clan, as well as for a few characters within each clan. These missions also include Legendary Missions, a series of four or five missions related to the clan, which will award the player a Legendary card upon completion (Credits if the player already has such the card). Legendary Missions are unlocked every few weeks or so, and last about a month.

Miss Clint City

An annual competition at Urban Rivals is held every year to crown the "Most Beautiful and Talented Woman of Clint City". The rules are very simple: All female characters released in the year are eligible for the contest. The players then begin voting which one, and the contestants are later cut down to 8. The players then begin voting one out of the eight remaining contestants, and they are later cut down to the final 3, and finally the winner is announced sometime later. The winning card is re-released with a "Miss" prefix in celebration of her victory (the original card is still available, though).

In 2009, Miss Clint City was cancelled by the staff. After overwhelmingly negative responses from the fans over the cancellation, the UR Staff brought back Miss Clint City in 2010.

Below is the list of winners of Miss Clint City by year:

Noel

Noel Cards are cards that are given for free to active players every Christmas. These cards are given new Christmas-themed artwork, and usually weaker than the original card. The Noel Cards available so far are:

Clans

There are currently 24 clans in Urban Rivals. Each clan has its own theme, and offers various bonuses. They are as follows:

There are 1025 characters available in the game as of January 2014. These characters include 73 Collector cards (tagged Cr), which are discontinued characters that can no longer be purchased from the shop and must be obtained from trading with other players, winning the daily lottery (discontinued as of August 2011), or winning the weekly ELO draw.

In addition, there are a selection of Legendary cards (tagged Ld). They can only be obtained through the completion of series of clan-specific, time-limited missions, and can never be traded or sold. Each clan (except Leader) has one Legendary card.

Critical reception

Urban Rivals received 88% from Game Vortex, praising the typical five-minute game length, free access and poker-like element of the gameplay. However, the presentation was seen as functional, with inconsistent artwork quality and lack of sound.^[6]

References

External links

• Official site