Top Trumps is a
classic card game, launched in 1977, by
Dubreq with 11 packs of 36 cards. The game was a phenominal success in the UK in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Dubreq was acquired by
John Waddington Limited in 1982, Waddington continued to sell and market the game but they shelved it in the late 1980s. The rights to Top Trumps was aquired by
Winning Moves in 1999, since then this company has been actively marketing and selling the game.
The game is played by two to eight players. In this game you have a deck of 36 (or 52) cards of a specific type such as "Ultimate
Military Jets." On each card are various categories with stats such as top spead. A player, when it's their turn, chooses a particular category on their top card that they forsee to 'beat' the other players same category. The player with the winning stats in that category collects all of the oppenents cards. The game continues until one player has all the cards. When down to your last three cards you have the option to choose which card to play with.
Part of the fun of this game
of course, was in collecting the packs, and arguing over the various 'stats'.
There are many different different categories of Top Trump cards including:
- Film cards (Angel, The Simpsons, etc.)
- Sports cards (World football stars, Snow Boarders, Motorcycles, etc.)
- Animal cards (Sharks, Spiders, Dinosuars, Predators, etc.)
- Music cards (Smash hit pop stars, etc.)
- Famous people cards (Movie stars), etc.
This game was the grand dadddy of future games such as "
Magic: the Gathering" - I have to wonder why it did not take off in the U.S? I suspect it might have to do with conflicts over it's similiarities to
TOPPS Trading cards. The orignal Top Trump packs are of course a
collectors item and many are very rare.
You can also play Top Trumps online, although it didn't impress me much (not enough variety). Perhaps as the game takes off again there may be better versions online?
(see: http://www.nineiron.co.uk/tramptext.htm)