Bandai America announced a Resident Evil Deckbuilding Game at Gen Con, for release on Halloween weekend.  The game, which offers TCG-style play in a single box format, is based on the popular series of five major videogames, which have sold over 40 million copies.  The Bandai deckbuilding game uses computer-rendered art from the first four games, and is designed to appeal to teens, an older audience than most Bandai games.

Players start off with an imperfect deck that they try to make into a better deck in order to kill the creatures in the mansion.  The object is to kill the head zombie, and that will end the game.  Each creature is worth a certain number of points, but killing the main monster ends the game. 

Ammo cards are worth ammo and gold.  Gold is used to acquire cards to improve the playeer’s deck, and ammo is used to fire weapons.

As play progresses, players can improve their decks by buying better ammo, better weapons, and action cards that will do things like draw more cards, play more actions, do more damage, etc.

In addition to the story mode of play, described above, there are also two other plalyl modes:  a versus mode, in which players fight each other, and a third mode, which uses a timer and players compete to see who can kill the most creatures in a limited period of time. 

The game is planned for release in the hobby channel, and Bandai is also exploring release in venues that sell Resident Evil videogames.

The first expansion for the game will be released next March.

A new 3D film, Resident Evil: Afterlife, will be released on September 10th, providing addition exposure for the franchise. 

Bandai expects to announce additional deckbuilding games in the future, noting that it has many opportunities to produce licensed games.  Most are not suitable for TCG treatment but could support a deckbuilding game format.