s living proof that collectable card games will explore every
facet of human existence, Decipher has published the Austin Powers CCG, portraying
Austin's quest to regain his mojo and Dr. Evil's machinations to take over
the world in the least efficient manner possible. The spirit of this conflict is inherent in the game from top to
bottom. Players are either Good, trying to regain their mojo by earning
100 Mojo Points, or Evil, seeking to ransom the world for $100 billion.
The most important cards in the game are agents, representing
characters from Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, who are designated either assassins or shaggers
(the game is quite PG-13). Shaggers shag agents of the opposite sex (usually);
assassins kill enemy agents. Agents give off "vibes" in four areas:
Groovy, Shagadelic, Randy, and Creepy. Some major characters are several
different agents, i.e., Austin the Fashion Photographer, Astro-Naughty
Austin, and Austin From 10 Minutes From Now.
Agents assassinate or shag by using vibes to throw Frickin' Bone cards, which list how many vibes are needed to succeed.
An agent might need one Groovy and one Creepy vibe for an assassination attempt, or two Randy
and one Shagadelic for a shag attempt. The defending player then throws
Bones back at the attacker, and they alternate throwing until one can
throw no more and calls on other players to "Throw me a Frickin' Bone,
here!" at which point everybody can join in.
The side to throw the last Bone triumphs and puts the victorious
(and doubtless all shagged out) agent and all his or her Frickin' Bones into a
score pile, contributing toward the 100 points needed to win. The losing
agent and all losing Frickin' Bones are discarded.
Groovy but not quite shagadelic
The whole game is lighthearted and more to be laughed at than
anything else. It flows quickly and doesn't require much thought.
Conversely, there is no long-term strategy. Players shag opponents, protect
their agents, score points and win. That's it.
Since Austin Powers can be played by two players from one starter deck, these decks provide a convenient if somewhat
repetitive (there are several copies of many cards in each deck)
introduction to the game. To really get the full Austin experience,
though, players need to buy booster packs and make their own decks.
Building decks is easy: each player's deck contains only 30 cards,
and these must consist of five cards from each of six card colors. Once it's clear which cards work well together (such as Doctor Evil and Mini-Me
or Felicity Shagwell and her Shagettes) decks come together effortlessly.
Once again, however, this simplicity limits strategy.
Austin Powers is therefore a fun game and useful to have
handy when friends come over. The images and quotes from
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me are fortunately funnier on the cards than they were on
the screen, and players can look forward to the upcoming "International Man of Mystery" expansion, which will bring in characters and scenes from the first movie. But the game doesn't have the depth that makes some people fanatical about other collectable card games, even though at $3 per 11-card booster pack it is one of the most expensive.
