Stats:
No. of players: 2
Amount of time to play: 30-45 min
Age requirements: 12+
Set-up time: 5 min

Way of the Fighter is a board game simulation of an old school arcade-fighter. You play cards and roll dice to take down your opponent’s fighter.

Way of the Fighter Rules Description:

To begin Way of the Fighter you choose your fighter and get their unique action cards and action cards based on their fighting styles. You place dice on your health track put your standee on the board and you are ready to rumble!

There are a few different dice pools in Way of the Fighter, Burnout, Energy and Active. The dice in the Burnout pool have been used and are waiting to move into the Energy pool. At the start of your turn two dice from your Burnout move to your Energy pool. Then everything in the Energy pool moves into the Active pool.

You start by rolling for initiative. Each round you first decide (in initiative order) if you will move one space, jump two spaces, or crouch. Then you simultaneously play a card face-down and secretly choose from one to four dice from your Active pool you want to use to power your action. Next players roll the dice they chose and add the result to the priority number on their action card. The player with the highest total resolves their action. Whether or hit or not these dice return to your Burnout pool.

Each action card has three grids at the bottom. One for each position, crouching, standing, or jumping. The grid shows which spaces the action can hit. If your opponent is within your hit area they will take damage or be in your grasp. When you successfully hit your opponent you can try to combo another action card. But in order to do so you will need to meet or beat your previous action’s priority total. Also when you hit you negate your opponent from taking an action.

You never discard your fighter’s block card so you can always block attacks. Generally you can block one attack for each die you roll. Dice that are used to block go back to your Burnout pool, but those left on the card go back to the Energy pool.

Your health track has a die on every space. When you are hit these dice are removed from your health track and added to your Energy pool. Some hits can knock your opponent down, leave them dazed, or possibly crippled. These conditions limit the effected fighter the next turn.

At the end of turn if the player with the initiative card used it, it is passed to their opponent. If not they keep it and begin a new round by drawing an action card or discarding three and drawing three action cards. This also moves the timer ahead one round.

Once a fighter takes their final hit they lose and their opponent is declared the winner. If you reach the end of the twelfth round the fighter with the most health left is the winner.

A Quick Review of Way of the Fighter:

Way of the Fighter does a good job simulating an old school arcade fighter. You might not feel like you are mashing buttons as you swing wildly at your opponent, but you do need to make sure you are in the right position to block and strike them.

The components for this game are great. The art, cards, and standees all look impressive on the table. The rules are pretty good but could be better organized and you might need some clarification. I read the rules, watched a how to play video, and then read the rules again and that helped a lot.

The ability to build and customize a fighter’s deck based on their fighting styles is really cool. Beginners can use the suggested decks straight out of the box but experienced players can tinker with their favorite fighter’s moves to match how they like to play.

I really enjoy the dice pool mechanic and how dice flow from one pool to another. You need to be aware and try to get enough dice into your Active pool. Especially if you want to try a combo attack. Of course getting hit can help with this but that brings you closer to losing too.

This game has a lot of replay value. Once you get the basics down you will want to explore all the different characters and fighting styles in the game. There are two base set you can get, Turbo or Super. Both are fun but you don’t need to get both to enjoy the game. Having both gives you more fighters to play with and introduces a tag team mode.

There are lot of things to like about Way of the Fighter, but it is a bit fiddly and complicated. It will take a couple plays to get the flow of the game down and you are sure to miss a couple rules the few games. There is a lot going on and many small rules that you need to remember. You will get them with some repetition, but be prepared.

Way of the Fighter is a fun and accurate board game simulation of a Street Fighter type game. This accurate representation adds some complexity but the end product is a fun board game wtith lots of replay value. Fans of other fighting simulators should enjoy this one.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 5 out of 6
Player Interaction 6 out of 6
Replay Value 6 out of 6
Complexity 5 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6