Players: 2-6
Time: 20-30 minutes
Difficulty: 2 (of 10)
The Components
Sneeze contains two decks of cards and a few other bits.
Cards: Sneeze comes with medium-heavy, high-gloss cards that, from what I hear, were actually printed with a business card printer. The result is surprisingly very good. These cards are square-cornered, unlike most gaming cards, but the weight is superb, and the artwork really stands out; the reproduction is some of the brighest and most attractive that I've seen.
All of the cards feature artwork by Ed Carter, which is cartoony, but generally professional, attractive, and good quality.
There are two decks of cards. The "Sneeze" deck mostly features allergies (cats, dogs, dust, pollen, and smog), each of which is clearly marked with an associated color. The "And Now" deck allows players to take special actions, or alternatively play two Sneeze cards. Each possibility is clearly described on each card.
My only complaint on the cards is that, though the two decks feature different card backs, they aren't labeled, and so it's not obvious what's what when you're looking at the draw piles.
Wind: Sneeze also features a large, double-sided "The Wind" card, which just reminds you of which direction the wind is coming from.
Rulebook: Cambridge Games is a small game company, but it only shows at all in the rulebook, which I'd guess was printed on a color InkJet, then hand-cut and stapled into a cardstock cover. Though the rulebook quality is thus a little bit lower than most professional game designs, it doesn't really matter. Inside, the rules are clear, well laid out, and well illustrated, making Sneeze an easy game to pick up. There's even a nice Appendix of cards at the end, one of my favorite features in a good rulebook.
Packaging: Sneeze comes packed in an appropriately sized Ziplock-type bag, with a cardstock sheet forming a "cover" for the package. The cards are stored in sleeves, each of which houses about half of the cards. The packaging is nicely small for transportation, but leaves something to be desired for use, as it's quite hard to repack the cards in their original sleeves. Still, I'm not convinced it's worse than those insidious unseparated double-width tuckboxes that card games so often come in. Still, if I could make one change to the Cambridge Games games it'd be for them to come in actual boxes.
Overall, the components for Sneeze are bright and colorful, and quite possibly the best components I've seen for a small, Indie company of this sort. That actually underrates them, because I think the cards look great, and stand up to any fully professional publication. As such, I give Sneeze a Style rating of "4" out of "5".
The Gameplay
The object of Sneeze is to make the othe players sneeze, so that they get new allergies and you don't.
Setup: Each player is randomly given a starting allergy from the Sneeze deck (cats, dogs, dust, pollen, or smog). The "Sneeze" and "And Now" decks are shuffled and placed in the middle of the table. The "Wind" card is placed to one side to clearly mark an "upwind" allergy area (to one side of the draw decks) and a "downwind" allergy area (to the other).
Order of Play: On his turn a player may:
- Play a Sneeze card; or
- Play an And Now card
Play a Sneeze Card: A player plays a Sneeze card by first announcing which pool it will go into (upwind or downwind), then flipping a card up into the pool. If it's an allergy, that allergy is placed in the appropriate pool. If it's instead a Windy Day card, the wind shifts, and the upwind pool becomes the downwind pool, and vice-versa.
Sneezing. At the end of the turn you check the upwind pool. If the cards in it match all of the allergies of one or more players, those players sneeze. They get a new allergy as a result (to a max of 4) and the upwind pool is cleared of allergies.
Note that the upwind pool has to match all of someone's allergies. This is pretty easy at the start of the game, but the more allergies someone has, the harder it is to match. For example, if a player has allergies of dust-dust-dogs, then the upwind pool must include dust-dust-dogs for that person to sneeze.
If someone sneezes he also gets an And Now card. In addition, the active player (whose turn it is) gets one And Now card per person who sneezed (not including himself).
Play an And Now Card: Each And Now card can be played to flip up two Sneeze cards on your turn.
Alternatively, each And Now card can be played for its a special power. They let you take cards out of an upwind or downwind pool, or double the quantity of a specific type of allergy in those pools, or exchange an allergy with another player, or change the wind direction, or other stuff of that sort. They're what gives the game a slight strategic basis, as you can do clever things, rather than just flipping cards.
End Game Special Rules: There are a few special rules as you approach the end game. First, you max out at four allergies, which means you can't get more at that point. Second, if you have four allergies and you make someone else Sneeze (by flipping an appropriate card on your turn or playing an appropriate And Now card), then you get to give them one of your allergies, rather than them drawing a new one.
Ending the Game: The game ends when there's only one player left with less than four allergies. That player is the winner.
Relationships to Other Games
Sneeze is a pretty simple family game with some strategic elements to keep things interesting for the adults, via those And Now cards. It's sort of pattern matching, ala Set or Abracadabra, though it's simple, without any speed element.
Sneeze is also the first game from Cambridge Games. They put out a series of four games simultaneously, with the others being Splat!, Ice Pirates of Harbour Grace, and Glory to Rome. Notably, these four games cover a lot of different gameplay styles. Sneeze is pretty clearly a kid's game or a family game. I haven't played them yet, but Splat! looks somewhat similar while Ice Pirates of Harbour Grace is definitely a good American beer & pretzels game. Finally, Glory to Rome is clearly serious & Euro-influenced.
That's a fair amount of variety from a couple of designers at one company.
The Game Design
I've played a number of kids' or family games in the last year, and most spanned from uninspiring to boring. Sneeze is neither. Instead it's a fun and colorful game that I enjoyed playing and would play again, despite the lack of any kids in my house.
The overall concept of the game is very simple--allergies make you sneeze--but it's colorful enough to keep you interested. It's the "And Now" cards which allow some real strategy into the game, and will keep other family members interested. I had some concerns that they might be too much for younger players, but the designers already covered that aspect: there's some simpler rules for how to use the "And Now" cards, so that they just have two potential functions, if you want an easier game.
The balance is admirable in this game. The fact that it gets harder to lose ground the more ground you lose helps to keep everyone in the game, and is an important game element for family players. I actually think the design goes a bit far in capping allergies at four, because that increases balance at the cost of elegance, but it's not a terrible issue.
This isn't a serious game; in fact if you get too serious about it you could actually lock yourself up with analysis paralysis. However as a light, family-oriented game this one plays well, quickly, and simply. it earns a high "3" out of "5" for Substance: above average for its genre.
Conclusion
Sneeze is one of four games simultaneously released by newcomer Cambridge Games Factory, and it's their lightest offering, a fun family-oriented romp. Combining bright, glossy, and attractive cards with a fun and simple game system, then adding in just a bit of strategic depth, makes this an early winner for the Cambridge folks, and a good sign of things to come from them.
Although I actually first encountered these games at a local store, they're currently most easily available via their web site.
