Video game legends trump cards

Along with marbles, Lego, roller boots, Star Wars toys and Rubik's Cube/Snake/Magic, Top Trumps were one of the defining play experiences of my childhood. In fact, my brother and I spent so long playing with one particular deck (cars), that I even composed an ode to my favourite card (the Ford Thunderbird), which I sang in a triumphalist fashion whenever victory looked assured.

Another source of defining childhood play experiences came from the virtual realm of computer games. From not getting enough forward momentum in Microsoft Decathlon on my American cousins' Apple II in the mid-Eighties, to the happy weeks and months spent puzzling my through LucasArts' adventure games in my teens, computer games sucked up even more hours than those beloved trump cards. Mercifully, the two diversions never collided.

Until now, that is...

Above and below are photos of the first few packs of my homebrew 'Video game legends' trump cards, which arrived from the printers this morning. They feature 32 of the most seminal characters in video game history, which can now be pitted against one another on the basis of age (number of years since first appearance), number of game appearances (according to the interweb), estimated height (surprisingly difficult to guesstimate), speed (on a scale of 1 to 10) and special ability (which introduces scope for an entirely subjective argument over how Luigi's Thunderhand would fair against Kratos' Blades of Chaos...)

I've done a modest first print run of five decks - mail me if you'd like one. Also feel free to drop me a line / comment below if you think I've made any major character omissions, so I can include them in the next deck.

The full list of character cards (in no particular order):
- Mario
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Link
- Lara Croft
- Master Chief
- Pac-Man
- Solid Snake
- Guybrush Threepwood
- Donkey Kong
- Sackboy
- Agent 47
- Crash Bandicoot
- Lemmings
- Buzz
- Bomberman
- Sam & Max
- Kirby
- Luigi
- Ryu
- Gordon Freeman
- Diddy Kong
- Ratchet
- Big Daddy
- Marcus Fenix
- Niko Bellic
- Cloud Strife
- Rayman
- Kratos
- Fox McCloud
- Pikachu
- Samus Aran
- Dante

(It hopefully goes without saying that these are intended as an affectionate fan tribute rather than a copyright-infringing invitation for Nintendo to sue my ass... :)