Sometimes, what your heart needs isn’t the latest andgreatest video game; instead, it needs to go back to the basics with a fantastic card game. Go Fish is a great game and all, but with a few minor tweaks, some of your favorite video games could manage to be some of the most exciting card games around.

Related:Digimon Card Game: The Best Cards Of 2022

There are plenty of unique ways to craft a card game. Some people prefercollecting Pokemon cards, while others turn to the newest game that lets them build a deck to play against friends in a single play session. Whatever your preference is, more than a few games are missing out on a fantastic opportunity.

9Castle Crashers

At first, the cartoonish side-scrolling beat ‘em upCastle Crashersmay seem like a strange pick for a card game. To best adapt the game to cards, it would work as a kind of deck-building adventure that can be played with anywhere from one to four players. Keeping the same art style, this game could be hilarious even with the change in mediums.

Players canmove through fantastic “levels”as a group, collecting new weapons, power-ups, and animal companions that can all have unique gameplay effects. When it comes to combat, use a simple dice system to keep things exciting. At the end of each level, players can battle with the decks they’ve built to see who wins the affection of one of four princesses before beginning again on the next stage.

Castle Crashers with fighting Elemental Knights

8Fallout

AFalloutboard game may exist, but a dedicated card game could also be a ton of fun. Rather than going for a hyper-serious experience, it could have a fun twist by playing off of Fallout Shelter. Mixing the adorable art style with an in-depth card game could be a hit.

It’s another game that could be played alone or with friends, and it could either see players working together to run a vault or each maintaining their own vaults. Of course, they’d all have to deal with the dangers that event cards could bring, as well as the dangers of attacks from other vaults or settlements.

Fallout New Vegas a person in a gas mask holding up a gun in front of a flag and looking at the viewer

7Bioshock

The great thing about aBioshockcard game is that it could be themed around either Rapture or Columbia. Players working together to either survive the dangers ofthe famous underwater hellscapeor once again working together to escape the city in the sky has the potential to be a blast.

Related:One Piece Card Game: Every Starter Deck, Ranked

At the same time, the game could function as a simple matching game similar to Exploding Kittens. Matching various Plasmids for varying effects on other players while trying to avoid holding a splicer in your hand, something that could mean impending elimination from the game.

6Worms

Tons of people have fond memories of gathering around a computer to play a couple of hectic rounds ofthe great co-op/versus gameWormswith their friends. The strategic game could be shifted into a card game format for the most diehard fans of the franchise.

Being able to play a free for all or on teams, players could take turns outfitting their worms for combat, with a set of dice acting as an accuracy and damage check. Drawing pairs of certain cards could serve to upgrade something like a simple grenade into a holy hand grenade or even a banana bomb.

Big Daddy attacking in Bioshock

5Undertale

Considering fans of the game have apparently made their own fanmade card game, it really only makes sense that those behindUndertalego ahead and make one themselves. Considering how beloved the series has become and with the world seemingly expanding, it could function as a kind of collectible game.

It likely wouldn’t be able to rival the depth of something like Magic The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh, but it could make up for that with plenty of humor, bringing player physicality into the world of the game as well.

Worms Holy Hand Grenade damage

4Mass Effect Legendary Edition

Like many others, there are so many different ways to make aMass Effectcard game. The two most obvious would both be deck builders. One would see you building up your deck in a solo game to see if Commander Shepard and whatever companions you gather survive the suicide mission from Mass Effect 2.

The second would be to build up a deck ofwar assets to take on the reaperswith a group of friends. With plenty of wrenches thrown into the mix, collecting different levels of assets could have different outcomes, especially with a turn or time limit on the actual game.

Undertale: Asgore, Undyne, Toriel, Sans, Alphys, And Papyrus

3LittleBigPlanet

SinceLittleBigPlanetis a game in which you can create just about anything you can think of, a card game that goes along those lines could be fascinating. Playable with a minimum of two and up to five people, one player could craft the “level” while the others attempt to make it through it.

Related:The Best Card-Based Games On The Nintendo Switch

One player can take some time to carefully craft a draw pile of cards full of hazards, with a specific card presenting some kind of bonus or drawback. The remaining players can take turns drawing and trading various cards and hazards to hope that at least one of the players will be able to make it through the twisted level that’s been secretly created.

2The Last Of Us

It kind of just makes sense that a card game based onThe Last Of Uswould be some kind of survival affair. Set in the world of the game, players could be tasked with either surviving out in the world or running some kind of settlement.

Obviously, things like bullets and food could be beneficial for players, but the health level, rancidity of food, and whether or not the ammo collected fits your available weapons would all need to be kept in mind for when the clickers inevitably find you.

Mass Effect 3 Screenshot Of Garrus Shepard and Tali huddled up.

1Persona 5

The team behind the Persona series has recognized that a card game could be a blast, so one is already in the works. Considering the game’s details are nonexistent, a solid guess would be that players could work together to steal various bosses' hearts.

Various pitfalls and traps could be seenthroughout the intricate palacesas they are in the game, and things would only get more exciting if you could collect and use your very own Persona to battle enemies in random encounters.

LittleBigPlanet explosion

joel carrying ellie in the last of us

Persona 5 Royal cover image