Teppen comes as somewhat of a surprise to mobile gamers: a card battler that actually explores something new. After so many uninspired clones of Clash Royale and Hearthstone, we were starting to feel like the genre is going down the same road as gacha RPGs. Now, with the appearance of Teppen, we’ve got ourselves a decent card-alike game, which is a mixture of the above titles and much more.

Teppen, a fast-paced action card game by Capcom.

Quick gameplay overview

First off, you have three different lanes to play cards, which belong to 2 categories: unit cards and ability cards. Once you play a hero unit, that unit will continue to attack enemies until it falls. At the same time, your opponent also has 3 lanes and 2 types of cards to play. Two unit cards facing each other will attack each other until someone dies. If the opponent’ lane is empty, your unit will start attacking the enemy hero. Mana is required to play cards, which slowly recharges as the battle progresses. Therefore, managing this resource is crucial in this game.

As you can tell, Teppen looks different and feels different compared to other card games.

You can totally use a card to counter incoming attacks. Each card has an attack and defense rating, so keep that in mind. Balancing your cards in lanes to successfully defend against enemy attacks while also giving you more MP will be the key to victory.

For now, let's take a closer look at the gameplay of Teppen as below:

A Rare Sight On Mobile: A Card Game That Tries To Be Innovative

Outside of unit cards, there are also ability cards, just like Clash Royale’s spells. Every time either side plays an ability card, the other will be able to try to counter it. For example, if the enemy uses a healing spell, you can unleash a powerful damaging attack in return, effectively negating the heal.

Meanwhile, as you play you’ll earn yourself AP, which is the energy to use a hero’s signature move. These moves allow you to destroy another card on the enemy side, heal or buff up your own cards, and many more, depending on the hero. And yes, we haven't mentioned another cool part about this game: You’ll get to play heroes from Capcom's classic series like Monster Hunter, Street Fighter, Devil May Cry, Mega Man X, Resident Evil and much more. Just keep playing in solo mode to unlock multiplayer heroes.

AP will start building up the moment you start playing cards. Keep track of it to unleash a hero's special power.

One thing that concerns us is that the game has a premium shop that allows you to purchase cards with real money, which means there is potential pay-to-win here. So far, though, that hasn't been a problem for us, as Teppen seems to regularly reward players just for playing it. We'll have to wait and see how Capcom supports this title in the future to say for sure.

A Pretty Impressive Experience Overall

Once you’ve got your deck ready, try out online battles with other players. There’s the Grand Prix, a mode with elimination that you can try out for more challenges. At the same time, the practice mode is always available for you to hone your skills.

Obviously, deck building is extremely crucial for any card game, and Teppen isn't an exception.

Overall, it’s quite impressive to see what Teppen has to offer. The game feels like a breath of fresh air and is actually exciting enough for people to try. For now, we can only expect regular updates and balance patches from Teppen to see how far it can go.