Game review: Axie Infinity currently rules the Pay-to-Win-to-Earn roost

The Pokemon-inspired Axie Infinity has grown to become the number one nonfungible token, or NFT, game on the Ethereum blockchain, with over 7,000 on-chain active monthly users.

This week saw the launch of its $2.97 million Axie Infinity Shards governance token sale on Binance Launchpad, so Cointelegraph got deep down and dirty with the game to see what all the fuss was about.

This will mean that you currently need to spend as much to play Axie Infinity as you would to buy a next-gen console game.

Instead, Axie Infinity belongs to a new breed of games only made possible with blockchain technology.

Developer Sky Mavis kindly donated three Axies so that I could test the game.

Play order is determined by the Axies' speed stats, and the target of each card is generally the closest Axie to the attacker.

Each Axie may breed a maximum of 7 times, with an increasing number of love potions needed for each subsequent procreation attempt.

Virgin Axies require just 100 SLP to breed, whereas the seventh son of an Axie comes at a cost of 1,300 SLP. Note that this is per parent, and you need two parents to tango as it were.

Axie Infinity is that most curious of things, in that it feels like the start of a truly new paradigm.

Blockchain gaming is growing up, and Axie Infinity gives us a tantalising glimpse of what it could become.