A genre of video game that is essentially an electronic Collectible Card Game. It may be an exact conversion of a real-world game, or it may be something entirely new. If it's a new game, there will probably be rules and game mechanics that wouldn't be possible in a real-world game. If the game has a plot, of course, you can expect the card game to be Serious Business, maybe even not being considered a "game" despite the obvious rules workings.
To simulate real Collectible Card Games, you'll have to get cards randomly rather than choosing the ones you want (though in real life, you can usually find single cards in game stores), either by receiving them after battles or by buying booster packs at an in-game shop.
A Sister Trope to Fight Like a Card Player.
Examples:
- 100% Orange Juice!, combined with a board game
- Alteil
- Angel Master
- Ayakashi Ghost Guild (defunct)
- Bahamut Brave
- Baten Kaitos, combined with RPG.
- BattleForge
- Battle G.Girls
- Battle Girl High School
- Bungo to Alchemist
- Calculords
- Caller's Bane (previously titled Scrolls)
- Card City Nights
- Card King: Dragon Wars
- Card Wars - Adventure Time and Card Wars Kingdom, based on Adventure Time
- Chao Island Tranquil Corrupt Genocide
- Chronicle: Runescape Legends
- Clash Royale
- Culdcept, combined with a board game
- Dark Summoner
- Bandai's Data Carddass (you can stop snickering now) arcade games all feature collectible cards that can be scanned in to play. among them are Ganbaride, Dice-O, and others that tie into anime like Dinosaur King, One Piece, and Dragon Ball Z
- Deck Dragon
- Deckstorm: Duel of Guardians
- Deity Wars (The Code of Truth: Deity Wars)
- Devil Maker: Tokyo
- Digimon Digital Card Battle
- Digimon Heroes!
- Dragon's Shadow (Dragon's Shadow: The Beginning)
- Duel Masters, three for Gameboy Advance, one for Playstation 2.
- Duel Masters: Entry Gate of Dragon Saga, a Mobile Phone Game
- Earthcore: Shattered Elements
- Eigou no Venus Gear (Venus Gear or Gear Venus)
- Electro Girl (defunct)
- Elements
- Ensemble Stars!
- Epic Cards Battle
- Eldhelm
- The Elder Scrolls Legends
- Elemental Kingdoms
- Eredan Arena
- Eternal Card Game
- The Eye Of Judgment uses actual physical cards which are scanned with a video camera. Its PSP spinoff, The Eye of Judgment Legends, (obviously) doesn't.
- Fable Fortune
- Falkyrie no Monshou (Emblem of Falkyrie)
- Fate/Grand Order
- Galaxy Saga (defunct)
- Gensou no Minerva Knights
- Gwent: The Witcher Card Game
- Hearthstone, which is a derivative (i.e., simpler version) of the paper World of Warcraft TCG which got discontinued in 2013.
- HellFire: The Summoning
- Heroic Armies Marching, combined with Turn-Based Strategy.
- Hex
- THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls
- THE iDOLM@STER: SideM
- Infinity Wars, a game developed by Australian-based studio Lightmare notable for its fully-animated cards.
- Junketsu Duelion
- Kamen Rider
- Taken literally with several series including Kamen Rider Ryuki and Kamen Rider Blade, where the characters draw their powers from cards. Kamen Rider Decade takes it a step further, since Decade and Diend use cards directly modeled off of those used in Ganbaride (see below).
- Kamen Rider Battle: Ganbaride, later upgraded into Ganbarizing.
- Kantai Collection
- Kemono Collection
- The Key of Avalon, a Japan-only series of arcade games where players had to use actual physical cards
- Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and its Updated Re-release, Kingdom Hearts: Re: Chain Of Memories.
- Kiss of Princess
- Kongai
- Kung Fu Panda: Battle of Destiny, based on Kung Fu Panda
- Legend of the Cryptids
- Lies of Astaroth (Elves Realm)
- Lost Crusade
- Lost Kingdoms
- Mabinogi Duel
- Makai Touitsu Chaos Blade (defunct)
- Marvel: War of Heroes
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha INNOCENT, a web-based card game accessible via mobile phones. Similar mobile phone card games have appeared for several franchises, including Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
- Magic: The Gathering adaptations, the best of which is probably Micropose's one, set on Shandalar and tying up some lose ends from the storyline.
- Magic Online is a direct simulation of the tabletop game, to the end that the client is actually free, and you have to buy digital cards through the game just as you would buy physical cards to play normally. Furthermore, if you complete a set of digital cards, you can exchange them with Wizards for a physical copy of that set.
- Duels of the Planeswalkers (and the current version, Duels... 2012) is a more limited simulation; the full ruleset is supported, but the controls are simplified (for example, available lands are automatically tapped for mana when you cast a spell) and instead of building decks from scratch, you use one of several preconstructed decks, for which you can unlock additional cards to add to (in the original) or swap in (in 2012).
- Magic 2015 is a Mobile Phone Game adapatation of Magic: The Gathering
- The Mega Man Battle Network series is basically one of these, except the cards are "chips".
- Played more straight with the Gaiden Game Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge, which plays much more like an actual Card Battle Game than its parent series.
- Played semi-straight with Mega Man Star Force, where Battle Chips are now Battle Cards.
- Metal Gear Ac!d
- Might and Magic: Duel of Champions, a game developed by Ubisoft based on Heroes VI.
- Monster Battles
- Monster Maestro (defunct)
- Monster Paradise
- Monster Rancher Battle Card Game
- Monster Summoner
- Moriah Saga
- Order & Chaos Duels
- Otogi: Spirit Agent, the successor to Ayakashi Ghost Guild
- Patriotism of War 2
- Phantasy Star Online Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution
- Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes
- Pokémon Trading Card Game (a video game based on a card game based on a video game (from a company that once made card games)!)
- PoxNora
- Quad Clash
- Qurare: Magic Library
- Rage of Bahamut a simple CCG that focuses on deck building, enhancing, and evolving cards rather than battling strategies. The English version has since shut down, leaving the game Japan-only.
- Reign of Dragons
- Samurai Princess Muramasa
- Senran Kagura: New Wave
- Senran Kagura: New Wave G Burst
- Shadow Era, a cross-platform, free to play CCG that was designed to be easy to pick up on and play.
- Shadowverse
- Shikihime Garden, which combines elements from this genre with garden simulation and Raising Sim gameplay.
- Shinki Kakusei Melty Maiden
- Sid Story (Magic School Lussid)
- SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash
- Sol Forge
- South Park Phone Destroyer is a mobile game that combines this with Real-Time Strategy. The player makes a deck of 20 cards that they use to summon units to the battlefield and cast spells.
- SpellStorm
- Suikoden Card Stories
- Super Sentai Battle Dice O
- Sword Girls where CBG meets cute girls. (defunct except Korea)
- Star Era
- Tekken Card Tournament, a spinoff of the fighting game.
- Tokyo Afterschool Summoners
- Touken Ranbu
- Transformers Legends (defunct)
- Transformers Rising (China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan)
- Tyrant: A spin off of (and sequel to) the game War Metal.
- Urban Rivals, a browser based card-battle with the characters from their Web Comic.
- Valhalla Gate of Kamigoku
- Valkyrie Crusade
- Valkyrie Drive: Siren
- Venus † Blade
- War of Omens
- Warship Girls
- Wars of Seraphine
- Warstorm (defunct)
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories
- Yu-Gi-Oh! The Sacred Cards
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories
- Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists Of The Roses
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Nightmare Troubadour
- Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Spirit Caller
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Tag Force Series
- Yu-Gi-Oh! BAM and Yu-Gi-Oh! BAM Pocket (defunct)
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Generation, a Mobile Phone Game
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links
- Zombie Jombie
Games with Card Battle elements:
- 7th Legion, a 1997 RTS that uses cards to boost units.
- Age of Ishtaria is an RPG with characters represented as cards.
- Anti-Idle: The Game has one of these in the form of the TukkunFCG mode.
- Captain Heroes: Pirate Hunt is a shooting game with characters represented as cards.
- EA Sports' FIFA and Madden NFL series have a mode called Ultimate Team, in which players manage a team using virtual trading cards.
- Divine Girls is a strategy game with characters represented as cards.
- Dungeon Trackers is an RPG with characters represented as cards.
- Elemental Wings is a Vertical Scrolling Shooter, with characters represented as cards that can be upgraded.
- Fantasica is a tower defense game where units are represented as cards.
- Final Fantasy VIII. Due to balance issues with the game's level scaling system, gaming the Triple Triad card battle mini-game and junction system while keeping your characters low-level is often the preferred playstyle.
- Game of Dice is a Monopoly clone with abilities represented as cards.
- Girls X Battle (Sexy Academy, Ninja Girls: Moe Moe Moe) is an RPG with characters represented as cards.
- Hero Manager is an idle RPG with characters represented as cards.
- Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has a new mode called "Heroes and Heralds" in which there are multiple collectible cards that can be used in normal gameplay; they add many kinds of Status Buff such as speed boost, super armor, new combo strings, and many more.
- Monster Avenue has a board game layout with card collecting.
- Rise of Mythos is a strategy game with characters represented as cards.
- Soccer Spirits is a Captain Tsubasa-style soccer simulator, with characters represented by cards that battle each other.
- Soul Guardians is an action RPG with character abilities represented as cards.
- Soul Rage is a Vertical Scrolling Shooter with ability cards.
- Spirit Stones is a tile matching game with characters represented as cards.
- Summoners War is an RPG with monsters represented as cards.
- Super Robot Wars Original Generation Gaiden has as bonus mode that tries to distill the classic Turn-Based Strategy formula into Card Battle Game. It doesn't work all that well, since it requires cards with amounts of text that would be impossible in real life and rolling huge numbers of dice to determine damage, but it's still a good Guilty Pleasure.
- Sword of Chaos is a 3D action game where cards are used for minor upgrades.
- Tale Seeker is a tile matching game with characters represented as cards.
- Xenosaga had a complete card game called "Xeno Card" as a minigame. Unlike other role playing game card games (such as Triple Triad and Tetra Master), Xeno Card was a complete Card Battle Game, complete with boosters, rarity, card types, stack rules, phases, and such.
