Robot Quest Arena Unboxing

A few months ago, I remember seeing the Kickstarter campaign for Robot Quest Arena, and as much as I wanted to back the project, I was swamped in board game work already and wasn’t sure I would find time to get it onto the table after it arrived. The Kickstarter finally delivered this month, and when I saw it was an option for us to review, I reached out hopeful that we could take this game for a spin after all. Although this isn’t an impression article or a review, I can tell you after a few plays that I’m disappointed I didn’t pull the trigger on the Kickstarter version, which comes with a LOT more content in the box. To that end, join me as I unbox the Retail Version of Robot Quest Arena.

Robot Quest is a 2-4 player deck-building board game of robot battles! Your battery cards give you the energy to move, power your weapons, and buy powerful new cards for your deck. Navigate around the hazards of the arena, and blast your opponents to score points. Destroyed bots respawn each round, so you’re never out of the action! Alliances are made and broken! The robot pilot with the most points at the end of the game wins!

The retail version of Robot Quest Arena comes with a good amount of content, and if you didn’t realize what you all missed had you backed the Kickstarter campaign, I think you would be very happy about what you get in the box. I’m a big fan of almost all of the components, but there is one negative I want to touch on now – I wish the card quality was a bit better. As you are shuffling these cards a lot, and handling them constantly, a higher quality card would have been preferable. For your average gamer, they may not think to put these cards in sleeves (regardless of the initial quality, I ALWAYS sleeve deck building games). I’m here to tell you that these are cards you definitely need to sleeve. On the plus side, there is PLENTY of room in the box to hold your sleeved cards, so don’t worry about that.

Other than the cards, the rest of Robot Quest Arena is phenomenal! The miniatures are nice and chunky, highly detailed, and very colourful. It is obvious from the nice, thick cardboard character cards that the development team wanted each robot to have a unique feel, and some actual character that you might care about. The detail in the miniatures brings the words to life. These are REALLY cute robots, and I think a small part of you will die on the inside when your robot is taken out!

The cardboard quality is top notch, and everything is very large. I think this was a very wise move as this is probably what most would consider an introductory deck building experience. This is an easy game to teach, which means even my younger kids (8 years old) will be able to enjoy the game. The cartoony and colourful art style will also lend itself well to a younger audience. That being said, this is a game that adults will very much enjoy!

I am a huge fan of game boards that accommodates almost everything you need to put on the table. There is no, “Shuffle the deck and place it near the game board.” Nope, not here. Slots for all the shop items, the shop deck, supply decks, and even health cubes is all on the board. The only things you are putting on the table is your personal deck, discard pile, and victor point cubes. That’s insanely impressive, and such an amazing feature. The Witcher: Old World was the most recent game to do this (and I loved it), and I hope more companies do this in the future. It makes for a cleaner play area, and easier setup.

Almost everything here deserves top marks, and Wise Wizard Games should be happy with the product they have released. Better cards would have been nice, but as I will sleeve the cards anyways, it isn’t the biggest problem. In fact, you can get Robot Quest Arena sleeves for the cards should you desire! We will have more on Robot Quest Arena soon, so stay tuned!