Magic: The Gathering has been trying to break into the video game market for many years. There has been numerous action games trying to capitalize on the popularity of the card game franchise. Fortunately for those who love the card game, this Live Arcade release doesn’t try to be anything but exactly what the source material is. For the rest of us, it’s still too complicated and boring to be much fun.

The presentation of Magic: The Gathering for XBLA works well enough for what it is — a card game. One of the points that has always dragged down the series has been the point of entry. This entry tries its best to bring in new players, with plenty of text to read, a tutorial before playing and even a “Mentor” mode where an online veteran can help show players the ropes. Unfortunately, it’s still not nearly enough for someone to become good at Magic. That requires hundreds of rounds of practice and card memorization.

I’m going to do my best, as a novice, to explain the gameplay of Magic: The Gathering. The gameplay in Magic is simple – two to four players face off their card decks against one another in a turn based manner. Each card has its own ability and there are plenty of different types of cards. Most cards cost a certain amount of mana, which is earned by also placing a card down. An attack on an enemy can only be done with creature cards, and only deal a set amount of damage. It works, and could potentially be fun against friends, but the game lost me due to its strategic nature.

There really isn’t much more to say about Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers. If you’re still a fan of the series, chances are you’ve probably already bought this game. I just couldn’t feel compelled to play it for much longer than I could. The game requires a lot of practice and deck making to get good, so it is in no way beginner friendly.

While functional, the game is only worthwhile if you stick around long enough to read the enormous amounts of text to learn the game and the additional time to master the ridiculous learning curve.

Verdict: 5/10