Genre: Collectible Card Game
Developer: Three Donkeys LLC
Publisher: Independent

Like Richard Garfield's famous game "Magic: The Gathering", Spectromancer's gameplay is centered around manipulating cards that feature some truly fantastic fantasy artwork; if anything Spectromancer's art is of more consistent quality than MtG's. The menu art is sharp and, if elves were real, would appear to be of elvish design.

Spectromancer's title theme and selection of light fantasy background music is highly reminiscent of another indie fantasy title, "Fastcrawl". And as in the latter game, the soundtrack suits Spectromancer well, although none of the melodies are particularly memorable. The various spell sound effects are of the same polish level as the game's visuals.

Unlike "Magic: The Gathering", Spectromancer does not have the concept of a hand or mana reusable across card colors. Rather, the player is dealt a twenty-card board from their deck consisting of the only cards that will be usable for that match, and a separate, isolated mana pool for each color. This change in dynamic makes for simple yet interesting play mechanics with many of the same play caveats as the aforementioned MtG.

Where Spectromancer falls a bit short compared to similar titles, such as SNK's excellent "SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash", is in its complete lack of a deckbuilding aspect. The matches themselves are highly enjoyable, and the campaign mode does add a slight sensation of card collection, but not to the extent that it should.