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  <body>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Game: The Fullmetal Alchemist Trading Card Game&lt;br /&gt;Genre: Collectible Card Game&lt;br /&gt;Platform: Nintendo DS&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Before even considering picking up the &lt;em&gt;Fullmetal Alchemist Trading Card Game &lt;/em&gt;there are a few things that you must decide. The reason that I believe this game has requirements is because it was made for a specific group of people &amp;ndash; if you are not one of them it isn&amp;rsquo;t for you.&amp;nbsp; Firstly: are you a fan of the anime? Second: are you a fan of card games? The game caters best to fans of not only Fullmetal Alchemist, but fans of collectible card games (CCGs).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t think that this is a typical card game, expecting to jump into a game of solitaire where matching Ed&amp;rsquo;s will make the cards bounce off the screen gaily &amp;ndash; it is a collectible card game like Magic, Yu Gi Oh, and well, the Fullmetal Alchemist Trading Card game.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The introduction to the card game itself presented by the game isn&amp;rsquo;t done too well and the interface looks messy and confusing. This are issues that are most prevalent to someone who has never picked up a CCG, but for everyone who has dumped a few bills into colorful cards it isn&amp;rsquo;t too complicated.&lt;span class=&quot;readMoreMarker&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now I have never watched the Fullmetal Alchemist anime but I hear it is very popular. I just have a general rule of thumbs when it comes to anime on the whole that states that if it comes on the television I am to dive across the room and turn off the TV as fast as possible by hand. I don&amp;rsquo;t want to risk using the remote in the off chance that it malfunctions and turns the volume louder and I am forced to hear mediocre j-pop as I cry because of the horrible, horrible animation. Not to start a flame war, or anything.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Because of this I was kind of set back from many of the aspects of the game. The cards are not as descriptive as they are in other CCGs so I was forced to stare stupidly at pictures with little text blurbs such as &amp;ldquo;actor&amp;rdquo; under them to figure out what in gods name the card does.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When I did figure it out the task became what to do with the card now that I had decided I wanted to act, or something. I guess the criticism I have is more for the game it is based off of then the game itself. After a few minutes I was having more problems finding out the point of the trading card game then I was having problems with the video game interpretation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Once I taught myself that I didn&amp;rsquo;t have a bad time. Granted that is because I met one of the predetermined requirements: I enjoy card games. As I write this I am getting nostalgic of my Magic the Gathering days and staring at the boxes of cards I have. From a little research I was able to find out that the CCG is a fairly popular one that has yearly tournaments.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This game has every card available in the CCG with only play via Nintendo Wifi Connect. For fans of the game or the anime, the Fullmetal Alchemist game is a must buy. For the rest of us I say give it a chance &amp;ndash; if it doesn&amp;rsquo;t click right away it might not be for you.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;/contributed/1179941578DGVahDLFCu.jpg&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</body>
  <category>review</category>
  <comment-counter type="integer">1</comment-counter>
  <created-at type="datetime">2007-10-30T14:52:02-04:00</created-at>
  <deleted-at type="datetime" nil="true"></deleted-at>
  <excerpt>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Game: The Fullmetal Alchemist Trading Card Game&lt;br /&gt;
Genre: Collectible Card Game&lt;br /&gt;
Platform: Nintendo DS&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Before even considering picking up the &lt;em&gt;Fullmetal Alchemist Trading Card Game&lt;/em&gt; there are a few things that you must decide. The reason that I believe this game has requirements is because it was made for a specific group of people &amp;ndash; if you are not one of them it isn&amp;rsquo;t for you.&amp;nbsp; Firstly: are you a fan of the anime? Second: are you a fan of card games? The game caters best to fans of not only Fullmetal Alchemist, but fans of collectible card games (CCGs).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t think that this is a typical card game, expecting to jump into a game of solitaire where matching Ed&amp;rsquo;s will make the cards bounce off the screen gaily &amp;ndash; it is a collectible card game like Magic, Yu Gi Oh, and well, the Fullmetal Alchemist Trading Card game.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The introduction to the card game itself presented by the game isn&amp;rsquo;t done too well and the interface looks messy and confusing. This are issues that are most prevalent to someone who has never picked up a CCG, but for everyone who has dumped a few bills into colorful cards it isn&amp;rsquo;t too complicated.&lt;span class=&quot;readMoreMarker&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Now I have never watched the Fullmetal Alchemist anime but I hear it is very popular. I just have a general rule of thumbs when it comes to anime on the whole that states that if it comes on the television I am to dive across the room and turn off the TV as fast as possible by hand. I don&amp;rsquo;t want to risk using the remote in the off chance that it malfunctions and turns the volume louder and I am forced to hear mediocre j-pop as I cry because of the horrible, horrible animation. Not to start a flame war, or anything.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Because of this I was kind of set back from many of the aspects of the game. The cards are not as descriptive as they are in other CCGs so I was forced to stare stupidly at pictures with little text blurbs such as &amp;ldquo;actor&amp;rdquo; under them to figure out what in gods name the card does.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When I did figure it out the task became what to do with the card now that I had decided I wanted to act, or something. I guess the criticism I have is more for the game it is based off of then the game itself. After a few minutes I was having more problems finding out the point of the trading card game then I was having problems with the video game interpretation.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Once I taught myself that I didn&amp;rsquo;t have a bad time. Granted that is because I met one of the predetermined requirements: I enjoy card games. As I write this I am getting nostalgic of my Magic the Gathering days and staring at the boxes of cards I have. From a little research I was able to find out that the CCG is a fairly popular one that has yearly tournaments.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This game has every card available in the CCG with only play via Nintendo Wifi Connect. For fans of the game or the anime, the Fullmetal Alchemist game is a must buy. For the rest of us I say give it a chance &amp;ndash; if it doesn&amp;rsquo;t click right away it might not be for you.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;/contributed/1179941578DGVahDLFCu.jpg&quot; /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

</excerpt>
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  <last-comment type="datetime">2009-10-09T23:04:52-04:00</last-comment>
  <platform-id type="integer">5</platform-id>
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  <published-at type="datetime">2007-10-30T14:52:02-04:00</published-at>
  <release-id type="integer">2118</release-id>
  <review-rating type="float">5.0</review-rating>
  <series-id type="integer" nil="true"></series-id>
  <slug>the_fullmetal_alchemist_trading_card_game_ds</slug>
  <state>published</state>
  <teaser>Fun, if You Are Into That Kind of Thing...</teaser>
  <title>FullMetal Alchemist: Trading Card Game - Nintendo DS</title>
  <updated-at type="datetime">2009-10-09T23:04:52-04:00</updated-at>
  <user-id type="integer">328</user-id>
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</article>
