Mythalix

If you’ve ever studied Greek mythology, you know that the gods and demi-gods are always fighting each other. Now they’ve been removed from Mt. Olympus, but they’re still at war!

Mythalix is a game for 2-4 players, ages 14+, from Sunrise Game Studio, published in the United States by Grand Gamers Guild. It takes about an hour to play.

How to Play

The goal of Mythalix is to capture four elements. You can get these elements by defeating a challenge at one of the altars on the board, or by defeating a god (played by another player) and taking an element from them.

To do this, you’ll need to acquire cards. And do to THAT, you’ll need some gold.

Gather and Spend Resources

You start your turn by collecting any bounties you get from cards or board locations you control. Then, spend that gold on more cards for your player board.

There are four kinds of cards you can buy. There are one time use Power cards, like the Fire Axe, which allows you to attack the same tile a second time if you use. Then there are Mythical cards, which are also single use cards, but WAY more powerful.

There are also Army cards, which provide upgrades as long as they are on your player board.

The most expensive cards are the Warrior cards. These are also cards that go onto your player board, and all of them let you upgrade one of your 6-sided dice to a bigger one (8, 12, or 20).

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Attack!

After you buy cards, you’ll move your god standee (based on their movement number) to a hexagon within range to attack a player or attack a challenge.

First, play Power or Mythical cards from your hand to boost your potential attack power. Then you’ll roll your dice. Each player starts with two D6’s as their attack pool, but Warrior cards can enhance those dice to better types.

Strongholds can also increase your god’s base power, the value of your attack before adding dice and card buffs.

If your attack is successful, you get a benefit. For challenge locations, that means putting a stronghold over the location to claim it and get its benefit every turn – but for other locations, you might get a one-time reward. If you attacked an Elemental Altar, you can gain an Element if you beat its defense.

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Of course, it wouldn’t be a battle game if you couldn’t attack each other. You can attack a player’s god to steal one of their elements in the same way you would attack a location or altar. If you win, you get to steal an element from them.

All successful attacks also reward you a single coin.

The first player to acquire four elements wins!

Impressions

Mythalix starts as an all-out rush to get the best stronghold spots and card upgrades, and then becomes a classic beatdown where you’re trying to pummel the other gods for possession of the elements.

Based on our conversation with Kyri, the creator, I expected a lot of fighting and a lot of leveling up. I did not expect to have a lot of travel back and forth across the board.

This is a very different game with more than two players. At the higher player counts, you must attack other players to get enough elements. But when there are only two of you, it’s possible to focus on merely attacking the board spaces.

The randomness in the card draws can also make the game feel unbalanced and frustrating. We once played a game where Anitra kept building up resources, only to repeatedly draw the weakest cards, while other players were rewarded with powerful cards from their very first draws.

Art

The art in Mythalix is amazing, but not without some drawbacks. Honestly the art on the front of the box might be some of the worst in the game, it’s that good.

Mythalix uses gorgeous acrylic standees, showing off the same detailed artwork as on the cards. In my opinion, these are so much better than minis. There are also acrylic platforms, which allow players to show they have claimed a space on the board without obstructing the values underneath. The use of acrylic with two-sided artwork on them is absolutely spectacular and makes the game look great.

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Unfortunately, most of the female characters have been drawn in a fantasy “chainmail bikini” style, so I’m not thrilled with playing this with kids. Even though Greek mythology is full of child-unfriendly themes, we still wish the female characters could have been drawn in a less sexualized way. The art in general looks awesome, so this was a real downer.

Who is Mythalix for?

All of this combines to show us that unfortunately, despite the incredible art and table presence of Mythalix, at the end of the day it felt like a shallower game experience. This fell a little flat for us as more experienced gamers, but it might be good for the right group. The play style Mythalix encourages feels like a great fit for pre-teens and teenagers, for example. There’s lots of attacking and cool power-up features, but a ton of randomness.

But let’s not forget about our art concerns. Parents are going to want to make sure they’re comfortable with the art in the game if they’re letting their kids play this. There’s no nudity and nothing overtly sexual, but these are “classic” oversexualized female characters.

It’s a beat-em-up, plain and simple. There’s a lot of chance, and a lot of randomness, but for the right crowd, it can be a lot of fun.

If you’re into Greek Mythology, you can find a copy on the Grand Gamer’s Guild website, or at Amazon.

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The Family Gamers received Mythalix from Grand Gamers Guild for this review.