Shiba Eternity: Shiba Inu’s free-to-play game in Top 10 Games on Apple Store

Newly released NFT games are following one trend: to release games for non-crypto native players first. Shiba Eternity is no different. Additionally, most games created in 2021 and 2022 are free-to-play, with little to no gas fees, and play-to-earn is optional.

The long awaited Shiba Inu Game, Shiba Eternal, came out in October 2022.

Does it live up to the hype?

Key Takeaways

• Shiba Eternity is a collectible NFT card game for Android and iOS.
• The game is developed by Playside Studios.
• Shiba Eternity is part of a wider Shiba Inu crypto ecosystem currently under development.

Introduction to Shiba Eternity

Shiba Eternity is yet another strategy battle card game.

NFT card games are all the rage for blockchain game developers due to their tradability and collectors value. Shiba Eternity is yet to announce a blockchain version of the game.

The battle card game is a classic 1v1 duel player game, with the aim to reduce your opponent’s mana to zero. Nothing new for avid card game players such as myself.

They’re over 10,000 cards or Shiboshi heroes to lead players to victory. Players can also use spells, other fighters, and fighters’ items, to win.

As expected, the graphics are adorable, and arguably the best part of the game — that, plus it’s exclusively available to play on mobile devices, Android and iOS.

Shiba Eternity’s development team led by William Volk, raised the games expectations to an all-time-high when it was first announced in November 2021.

The gaming industry veteran has over 25 years of experience with top-tier companies like Activision and ROKiT Games. With such an esteemed name behind the Shibu Eternity game, and the rising popularity of the Shiba Inu cryptocurrency SHIB, fans kept tabs on the game’s development.

At the time of the game’s announcement, the market capitalization of SHIB was over $40 billion.

Read on to find out where it’s at now.

Shiba Eternity Gameplay

Shiba Eternity is a free-to-play mobile card game with an anime look and feel. The 2D and 3D renders and custom animations borrow from the SHIB coin, bringing the cute canine to life.
A great card game for beginners, the game starts off with a detailed guide/tutorial led by Ryoshi (conveniently named after the pseudonymous Shiba Inu founder).

Ryoshi, pronounced (Rai-oshi and not Ri-oshi as it is popularly pronounced in the anime world) is a ninja warrior — dogjo (not a typo) master with a heavy rustic ‘Anthony Hopkins’ voice.

Once you get the hang of things, players select their four starting cards, and toss a SHIB coin to decide who goes first. Every player has a turn, summoning their Shibs or fighters (cards) of choice to the arena and attaching spells to attack an opponent. The fighters are tied to their Shiboshi heroes for maximum damage.

You gain “barks” (XP) when your turn starts. Each Shib uses a different number of barks, so strategy is required to achieve victory. The Shibs only get stronger, requiring more barks as players progress through the levels.

Shiba Eternity’s story is a raging war between the ShibArmy and ShadowCats, set in a galaxy far far away.

We have reviewed multiple NFT card games here so feel free to play them as well and let us know how they compare to Shiba Eternity. Some of these mechanics of strategy or battle NFT card games have become a universal standard, with the tokenomics, graphics and animation being the remaining original concepts of the game.

Also, Shiba Eternity is a little more fast-paced and intuitive compared to their OGs like Hearthstone and Legends of Runeterra. However, it doesn’t match up to Marvel Snap which was also released in October 2022.

I am on the edge of my seat waiting for the fandoms to grow and see who takes the crown.

Copy and pasted, even the negative parts

Just like its counterparts both in Web2 and Web3, Shiba Eternity also has negative aspects.
The overpowering Shibs and Shiboshi Heroes make the card game redundant and boring.

There are plenty of reviews on YouTube, on their Discord Community page, on reddit and Twitch, where other players have created strategic ‘unbeatable’ decks. Sadly, instead of creating original Shiba decks, it’s a copy-paste scenario that defeats the purpose of playing a strategy card-game.

Frostfire Blast Deck is currently the most ‘overpowered’ deck used by high-level players.
The complaints are valid, but since Shiba Eternity has steady plans to become a play-to-earn game, it is still a win for many players.

Unfortunately, this is common even in Hearthstone and Legends of Runeterra.

There’s a hostage situation

Apart from the card’s gameplay, Shiba Eternity has an in-built quest where players accomplish in-game tasks, like using an epic rarity card ten times during battle, to receive kibble tokens that unlock Shiboshis.

The catch is, in some cases, players are required to keep their opponents waiting, held against their will, with only one mana left, and continue to play the cards to meet the quest requirements. Harsh. If it were to happen to me, I would surrender and count my losses.

Honestly, it’s in bad taste and ruins the comradery of the game.

The Shibs all kind of look alike, with minor differences in accessrories, but the Shiboshi heroes truly take the spotlight are sure bets for collectible NFTs.