Last updated on December 13th, 2025 at 11:48 pm
Nova Island – Card Game Review
Nova Island is a Card/Strategy game from Thirteen Games, LLC, first launched in 5th August 2021.
It’s rated 9+ and currently has 233+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Nova Island Stand Out
Discover friends and card duels in this exciting strategic adventure game!
Nova Island is an anime inspired card game with cute characters, amazing strategy, and an engaging adventure! And totally ad free!
Looking for a unique collectible card game that combines strategy & chance? On Nova Island, you can take on challenges, play quick matches with friends, or compete against players from around the world to climb the leaderboard. Play cards to gain strength, deal damage, plan ahead, and disrupt opponents in ways they’ll never see coming. It’s fun!
Try it out for free and discover its complete strategic freedom!
Alert! A new Nova Researcher has arrived on the island! With your help and the various Pros by your side, collect all of the Friends, Powers, and customizable Skins found on this colorful island. Go out on an adventure of a lifetime and see all of the fun in store for you!
Quick PvP Matches in Every Mode
Compete in fast online Ranked Matches versus players around the world. Try out your strategic thinking in a unique single-player experience with new themes popping in the Daily Challenges.
The Best of Your Favorite TCG and CCG Experiences
Train your skills with the Turbo Chaos Draft Challenge against players around the world in a fast-paced draft mode.
Challenge yourself with a PVE singleplayer journey around the island and tricky limited time game modes.
Level up on Research Road and collect over 100 cards and over 1500 cosmetics, including:
- 8 Pros, each with a thematic soundtrack and unique playstyle.
- Over 70 Friends with cute animations, sound effects, and custom skins to change their look!
So get in there and build your deck with strategy and style!
Pick Your Prize or Try Your Luck: Use your winning Tokens on the Vending Machines to collect rewards, level up your favorite strategies, and unlock new cards.
You’ll learn more about Nova Island, the Pros and Friends inhabiting the districts, and the challenges that await you as you explore!
We have a growing community who love to chat! Discuss tips and tricks with some real Nova Island Pros!
Join in for all fun things NOVA ISLAND!
Discord: https://play.novaisland.com/discord
Need SUPPORT? Visit our Website: https://novaisland.com or Email us: [email protected]
Just some important legal information:
PRIVACY POLICY: https://novaisland.com/privacy-policy
TERMS OF SERVICE: https://novaisland.com/terms-of-service
This Card game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Nova Island is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 4th December 2025
Recent improvements include:
It may be chilly outside but the Friends on the island are having a snowball fight! Collect new winter emotes and an extra fun skin, and in no time a new card will be at the gate.
Download & Availability
Nova Island is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Love this game, so unique , unlike any other card game have played, very fair and based on skill not on other factors.
Will there be an offline version of this game in the future? We enjoy it a lot and would like an offline, paid, and full version of this game in case it ever gets taken off from the App Store in the future.
We are the player named unique we love it because most cards we like Joe the bear.
SUPER FUN GAME. Ive played over 80 hours got all the classes unlocked. Ive noticed that the cyber and distortion is highly abused (ranked matches just ppl spamming the specials not even creative decks just copy and paste) also lets say Im not good at the game Ive made other decks & play all the classes if Im not using the later cards or the later characters the starting three main characters cant keep up. Also it maybe that Im just running into alot of those players they seem to be the two main classes everyone uses.
Ive been playing this game on and off over a few years on our iPad and it always took a while for us to get the hang of it, but we could tell there was something special about it. We recently started again and am surprised at how good its gotten. Great art, music, friendly style and gameplay- unique enough to standout as its own full bodied game to enjoy before bed or commuting .. And there are only 224 reviews??? This game is criminally underrated and we can only hope it gets bigger and better so more people can enjoy it. The tutorial levels are super helpful and we are finally getting into deck building. The UI is great, but could be a little easier to navigate. We would totally put nova island stickers on our laptop and water bottle.
We love playing this a little but we do make kooky sketches of that. One problem is that the people who play this may be threatened because of Executioner the Bird (Parrot?) and Mega Joe the Moxie Teddy holding a knife. Could you please remove the knife on the two? It may make us have some safe and peaceful gameplay without them having that.
You're probably reading this because of some of the new sponsorships for this game, like FryEmUp. Let us tell you, this game is incredibly fun and consumer friendly. We've bounced around so many other card games (Pokemon Duel, Hearthstone, Soul of Eden, PvZH, South Park PD, Marvel Snap) and this hooked us in the fastest out of all of them. First off, despite the low player counts, the game still receives regular and major updates! New cards, balance changes, etc. It's made by a small indie team that still continues even though the game has had little attention for 3 years. Second, there's almost no gambling, lootbox, card pack, rarities, or dupe card mechanics. Once you reach enough player level, you directly buy a card with a plentiful currency. The only random aspect are occasional one time bundles of several different cards that become availible to buy at a level, with the bonus of one of those cards randomly given to you for free. Also, while reading these reviews you see many complaints from years ago. They actually addressed a lot of these in a big rework update in April 2024. For example, they added an entire story campaign with event battles! On a final note, the artstyle, soundtrack, and personality of this game is incredible. Nothing ever feels half-hearted or passionless, which is such a nice change compared to big cashgrabs from big companies. So what are you waiting for? We guarantee that just trying this for a few days will be a great time.
We love this game, got it from a friend and fell in love with it, the gameplay is simple and fun, but its not pay to win and theres no annoying battle passes (keep it that way, plz) but yeah its solid, not a lot else to say other than some balance changes will be needed later down the line but yeah its a great game over all.
So we want to start this out by saying that the character designs, art, concept- its all very cute. We really love the idea of this game! However, the gameplay itself is quite boring. Ive played lots of different card builders, but it doesnt feel as interesting in this game. If we had to guess, its the odd twist where in this game youre racing to charge something to a capacity before your opponent using your cards. Something about this leaves us feeling bored, and left wanting to do something else. If we had a suggestion for this game it would be to overhaul the current battling system. It doesnt feel competitive, and it doesnt feel as though theres any true strategy to it. People need some sort of challenge and this is just leaving us with a hole in our chest from boredom. It may sound harsh, but im writing this review BECAUSE we see the potential for this to become much better than it is now. Its clear theres a lot of love put into it, from the art, animation, and unique designs for each card. If the devs of this game see this, we hope they take this into stride and figure some way to make things more interesting.
More people need to invest their time in this game, ive been having a blast and we hope it gets the attention it needs, would hate to see it die off.
Nice idea and in general fun to play. However, the Boom cards, especially the leader, are way more powerful than the rest (energy and bloom the only other ones we've played so far), and the energy cards are by far the weakest. Also the fact that you have to "activate" cards with a separate and rare currency in order to get to use them is too much – the rate at which you get new cards to play after the initial jump is very slow because it becomes very costly to both acquire and activate them.
Game doesnt load and it keep acting like we dont have an internet connection.
We've been playing Nova Island since the start, and it just keeps getting better and better! There's no longer "too much rng" after the energizing update in Jan 2024 which allows strategically taking advantage of the board setup, and in April the 1.0 release brought a ton of new content and progression, filling out the delightful characters and world of the Island. The core of what we love about the game has been the same from the start – the engaging gameplay with lots of exciting moments and strategic back-and-forth, the supremely charming colorful world and incredible music, the adorable animations bringing the characters and creatures to life. Its clear the game was made with love and playing it never fails to make us happy. We enjoy card games, but we don't like to stress about them, and we find Nova Island's gameplay is very accessible and fun to jump into, while also having plenty of strategic depth to dig into. The way you interact with the board and your opponent changes in interesting ways as you get new cards, and pros' superpowers make each game feel different and exciting. The other games modes like Turbo Draft and Central Circuit are their own fun challenge, too. There's a reason we've been playing Nova Island for years and telling everyone to try it, and recent updates have just made us love it more! We can't wait to see how it grows.
Absolutely love this game! The gameplay is fun and fast with fantastically cute characters that give this game so much unique character! Its also free to play without all the annoying ads that usually come with that. Such a fun deck building game with great strategy and cute characters! Also the music is great.
Dan Perpers creative genius at it again. This app is one of the only games we will use cloud space on. Cant wait for more updates soon.
Can you Guys as customisable characters or at least more characters.
This game is one of the greatest things you can find on the AppStore. Its engaging, strategic, and has something for everybody. There are a lot of reasons on why this game is so amazing, which we will now promptly cover. First of all, many of the reviews shown are very outdated, and most of them address the chance element of this game. However, a while back the devs released a huge update where they adapted the chance element to be more strategic, so take many older reviews with a grain of salt. However, one thing that has also not been addressed by these reviews is that the game now contains micro-transactions. Most of these are purely cosmetic while some will allow players to get ahead of the competition. The game is not pay to win though, due to the many rewards that are given by simply playing the game. The best thing about this game is the gameplay itself. Its something unique that allows players to think strategically while having lots of fun. The animation is great, with a diverse selection of cards and characters to choose from. We recommend this game to any person, no matter what preferences an individual may have, Nova Island is a game made for everyone.
The rng can be a real pain sometimes but its just your luck stop crying about it and accept that this is a pretty good game, our only thoughts is the devs should add more professionals and a lot more cards.
We have tried a lot of mobile games and this is our favorite. We enjoy the strategy, fun, and competition.
We enjoy the gameplay and its super fun and addicting all it need is a way to play with friends so we can enjoy this game with our friends.
We just played a game that had us in the lead with units in the 60, 80 and 90 slot all amounting to 25 points. Our opponent had units on the low rate slots like 30~ which anointed to 10 but of course rng decided that all of his units got energized while non of ours did and that was the second time that happened in the same game. The previous theme shouldve been our win but again our opponent got the rng.
Usually with card games like this there is always some form of RNG involved which is fine, as thats the nature of card games. This game decides to take it to the extreme and make EVERYTHING RNG! This is literally just gambling, the card game Meaning we can already predict this game doesnt survive long at all. Theres no way to express skill once you get to a certain level. Once you have a good deck it turns into picking four cards and hoping you get lucky simulator every single game.
We hate this game because its unbalanced and the transform ability is very annoying and we cant use certain cards and so we die because we give them a free turn and most of the fights Im up against are people who are professionals with op cards.
Entire game based off of rng if you have one really bad round you lose the entire game.
Cute graphics and aesthetics, but the gameplay is horrible. RNG ruins the game. Also it is extremely unbalanced. Dev team clearly doesn't play their own game. Until major changes are made, the game is unenjoyable and therefore not worth playing.
RNG square activation makes for a terrible card game. To have 15 points on the board and get 9 points over two rounds and lose to someone with 10 points on board in lower percentage squares is garbage.
This is the new PVZ heroes for multiple reasons: Free-to-play Free-to-win PVZ heroes does not even have new content now so theres now point in playing PVZ heroes Concept is almost the same as PVZ heroes Stop posting about among us [UPDATE] [KRIS GET THE BANANA].
We see many people complaining about RNG. While it is annoying to not land the 90% lobby tile, it is necessary to make this game very unique by making it fast paced and surprisingly strategic. -Avoiding RNG: Id figure most people could understand that RNG can be avoided. The Lobby and Basement environments both equal 100% per column; in other words, its guaranteed that one card can energize per column. Simply put, place a card in both the lobby and Basement to ensure one card energizes. -Use of RNG in placement: You need to understand that RNG does play a role in placement, just not always on the 90% tile. The following cards: -Destroyer -All Penthouse spawning cards -Bloomshooter -Snapper -Bruiser -Bomber -Beebie -Ray -Seedlt Are NOT always meant to be played on the highest percent tile, but rather the leftmost tiles. For example, if you have a Titan on the 90% tile, it is best to play a destroyer on the 75% tile rather than the 80% or 85% tile. This is to have the best chance to kill the Titan with the Destroyers energizing ability before the Titan can gain novas. Our point being, stop complaining about the game. Its free to play, free to win, nice graphics, and its a new game with potential so play before the game gets big. Because we think they know what theyre doing as far as advertisement and progression of the game.
Fun little game..like the concept. But its very unbalancednot fun.
We cant even get past picking a pro before the game crashes.
Scoring 20 points to win is way too low. The rng determines almost every match. Certain heroes powers are useless in the short time it takes to win. Hopefully another dev uses this idea better because the idea is good but the delivery is bad.
- Unique deck building/ card placement strategy – Draft mode – play against other others for ranking – play challenge mode against computer to earn more currency (to buy cards) – no in app purchases, truly free! – art and animations are a joy to look at Seriously, how is this game free.
Not often do you find a fun game that is play to win. Really enjoyed playing.
We love the game mechanics and concept! Its cool. But in every time us or the opponent movesthe game interrupts to reconnect. It breaks our concentration and takes away from experience.
RNG is a huge part of this game and it honestly never seems to be on our side which kinda kills the game for us. Looks like its a common complaint too. While we wont be continuing with the game right now, Ill def keep it on our radar and will check it out after a few updates.
Game deciding too level RNG is quite offputting, and results in games coming down to an explicitly signaled coin flip. High cost cards are unsubtle stronger then cheap, and progression involves losing to them repeatedly in a gauntlet mode that forces you to win.
This game is genuinely riggednot hyperbole. Its not just poor RNG; it is NOT random at all. The pattern we have observed is that tile hits are more favorable to the higher ranking player. The odds of the 75% tile not hitting for 7 rounds in a row and the 90% tile not hitting 4 rounds in a rowwhile dancing around every single character we have on the board is a ridiculous way to lose. If youve got a character on the 90% tile that when energized snipes a random enemy character, but it doesnt hit for 4 rounds in a rowand you lose the gamethats more than suspicious. Aside from the impossible RNG and seemingly bot-like players, some of the actual deck types and cards are simply frustrating to play against. The pirate trainer can kill any card you play. Ive played matches where the opponent sniped every character and we ran out of cards. Its frustrating to put a card down and it being instantly destroyed by a seemingly unending chain of spell cards. Whats fun about that? The only good things we will say about this game is that it is free, ad-free, and the card characters are well drawn. Thats it.
The RNG is abhorrent and the games ai may seem balanced at the start but becomes game breaking later. DO NOT DOWNLOAD UNLESS YOUR LOOKING FOR A BAD TIME.
We LOVE THIS GAME BECAUSE we CAN WATCH MATCHES AND PLAY WITH OTHER PEOPLE ON THE GAME.
Very sticky, unique gameplay with awesome style. What more could we ask for.
The bots are Ridiculously overstacked as a new player it doesnt make us want to play the game when the bots are so perfectly stacked we cant even play a card let alone enjoy ourselves.
Missed on the 90% chance block 4 turns in a row. Not sure why the game would ever be able to do that but _()_/.
Free game, no iaps. Fun, pretty quick battles. The rng that reviewers are talking about we think they dont understand. Each square where you can choose to put a card has a percentage chance of activating for points each round. So theres a good tension in the game between whether to choose a high percentage space, or a space you prefer but the chances may be lower. Its part of the game! You can see all of the percentages when you are moving your card to choose a space. Its not a hidden rng. You build a deck, but its chance/luck which cards are drawn from your deck. Its fun to discover new cards by playing others who have them. And it doesnt hurt too bad to lost. Games are quick, and the main currency you still get some of it even when you lose.
We see other people complaining about the RNG, but we honestly dont have a problem with it as its very consistent. If you play your cards in the right places at the right times, you win. Plain and simple. We honestly have more of a problem with the character balancing than anything, as some abilities can be pretty op, but theyre kinda compensated by equally op abilities..? Other than that, the art style is sublime and the card choices have wide variety to accommodate any play style. Very addictive game. 10/10.
This has to be one of the best games Ive ever found on the App Store. We know that sounds exaggerated but with the current landscape of mobile gaming, Nova Island is of much higher quality than anything we see ads for in other games and Im honestly surprised that its free. Its clear that a lot of love and effort went into the art, animations, UI, and character designs. Like literally none of the character designs are bad we love ALL of the cards, theyre so awesome. The game itself is really fun once you get the hang of it! Ive been battling our boyfriend a bunch via queue sniping and we love experimenting with new cards and builds, we really hope an in game friends system is introduced later! The only bug Ive run into is the game occasionally hard crashes but it doesnt hinder the game at all because you can easily reconnect to the battle you were last in! We have very high hopes for this game and wish the dev team nothing but luck! We look forward to future updates, hopefully new cards or professionals or anything really.
Im not a huge CCG fan but this a surprisingly great game. Im looking forward to seeing how this game develops. Keep up the great work.
This game is an amazing game. Love the progression. We only wish there was a way to help support the devs.
If you like strategy games that are quick, fun, and unique, youll love this game. If you are just scrolling through the App Store and want to try out a new game, choose this one. We downloaded this game 2 days ago and Ive played it everyday since. We are thoroughly enjoying this game and we suggest that you should give it a try.
We love this game it is our favorite card game to play right now! The concept and action is amazing! A question we have is if there is a possibility of friending and playing matches with friends in the future.
Im a big fan of cars games, and this one really hits the mark. Great game, great art, great vibes. Definitely check this one out.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.8.6
- Size: 284.24 MB
- iOS: 14.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Loot Boxes, Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
- Developer: Thirteen Games, LLC
Last updated: 4th December 2025 | Genre: Card, Strategy | Developer: Thirteen Games, LLC