Unmatched: Lee vs Ali Review

When we were teased Lee vs Ali, there was an hum of excitement: Bruce Lee's original single box release has become nigh-impossible to find, and both of them being famous punchbois gave the set a strong theme out the gate. All I could do was wait until the box was in my hands and tell y'all how it wound up.

Bruce Lee's game is still the same: drop as many chaining attacks as possible in one turn to simply overwhelm how many defenses someone can reasonably hold in hand between turns. Sure, it's optimal to hit a nunchuck to boost his otherwise chippy attacks into something with a bit more heft behind it, but there's enough recursion that dropping 4 attacks  any time you can is value. Strong Kung Fu "flurry of attacks" vibes.

Ali, on the other hand, is the most thematic stance fighter we've seen. He also feels the best to play, but that isn't exactly a high bar to clear, given the competition. You'll spend most of the game in the "Float Like a Butterfly" stance; nominally, it gives extra reach on attacks, but you care more about the card effects that only come online while in the stance, like boosting attacks, drawing cards, and peeking at your opponent’s hand. Come in for a successful attack, and he switches to "Sting Like a Bee," which gives him +2 on attack, setting up a cavalcade of damage if you can trigger The Greatest's 2 bonus actions. The emergent gameplay is naturally evocative of the heavyweight champion's weaving and probing, trying to bait out big defenses and feints with a quick two hits back into his own defense until you can go in for a decisive exchange. Did he become my favorite fighter? Well, the Leshen, Genie, and Weird Sisters still exist, so that's a high bar to clear. Top 5? Sure.

Mapwise, I'm underwhelmed. At least we're firmly back in the two maps era, but I feel the absence of even a simple gimmick on either. At least Thrilla in Manilla's ring zone is thematically evocative, but it could have had some sort of entry/exit shenanigans to really spice it up.