Played Initial D and HumAliens at the AEG booth. Both card sets look pretty final, although the games don’t come out until September or so. D is definitely the better game of the two from what I saw – the street racing mechanic is very pretty without sacrificing speed. Lots of numbers are flying around – all the maneuvers have three kinds of maneuvers they have different skills at responding to, one number your car has to live up to, and three different numbers your opponent might have to deal with depending on the race course. In the thick of it, you only have to deal with two numbers at a time – I got very fast at dealing with this and I expect others will too. My only real worry is that this will be a bonanza for whoever has the most cards, but that’s almost thematic; the guy whose car is cheaper goes first, there’s a “Ridiculous Spoiler” card… the Asian street racing culture is pretty thick here.
HumAliens doesn’t fare as well from what I saw – basically a slightly more mature Pokemon. Some of the art is decent, so it has that advantage over the clean but boring car stuff in D. Next stop, Creepy Freaks. Or lunch, or a haircut. Who knows.