Players: 2-7
Playing Time: 15-30 minutes

The Components

Swat! comes in a tin with a set of 110 cards and a "swat!" mat.

Cards: The cards are all medium to heavy weight and linen-textured. The majority of them feature some sort of insect alongside points showing their value. The art is by Charlie Bikele. It's generally cute and attractive. Beyond that I find the cards somewhat plain, mainly because they have white or gray backgrounds, but I suspect that was intentional, to make it easy to quickly scan the cards in this real-time game.

(Generally, I think a lot of good effort has gone into making the cards quickly scannable, such as having a different color for each different value of cards.)

Swat Mat: A heavy-weight cardstock board with linen-texturing. It exists just so you have something to "swat" (slap) during the game. It's attractively laid out with the game's logo and a bunch of its critters.

Tin: As with the other games in this series, Swat! comes in a sturdy tin which makes it ideal for carrying about.

Overall, the components of Swat! are good quality and the art is attractive, which would probably give it a slightly above average Style rating.

However, I occasionally include other "visceral" elements in a game's Style rating. Viscerally, I find Swat! a tense and exciting game, for reasons I'll discuss below, and that increase its Style rating, so I've given it a solid "4" out of "5".

The Gameplay

Swat! is a simple game of card collection.

Dealing Sets: The dealer deals cards from the draw deck to the table one at a time. When another player decides he wants the set of cards, he swats! the swat mat. That player takes those cards and then becomes the new dealer.

Ending a Round: Each player can only collect 3 sets of cards. When all the players have collected 3 sets of cards or when all the cards have been dealt, the round ends.

Scoring the Round: There are a variety of types of cards:

• Sure Stings. These are cards valued from +1 to +4, plus some -1 and -2.
• Double or NoStings. These are cards valued from +2 to +6, plus from -2 to -4 ... but they only score when you get a pair of the same card.
• Wild Cards. These cards let you complete a double.
• Swat or Not. This set of cards is worth +7 to the player with the most of them and -7 to the player with the least.
• Zapper. These cards are worth between +0 and +40, depending on how many of them you collected.

Ending the Game: The game ends after three rounds. The player with the highest score wins.

Relationship to Other Games

Swat! is a basic speed-based card-collection game that's ultimately derived from classics like Slap Jack. Of course, there's a lot more strategy to it than in Slap Jack. It's been previously released in other forms as It's Mine! and The Simpsons: Slam Dunk.

Swat! is also the third game in Gryphon Games' tin series, the others of which are Desperadoes and Musketeers. They've all been light games that are most intended for casual or family games.

The Game Design

Swat! isn't just a game of quick reactions. Knizia has done a good job of offering up different sorts of cards that will have different values to different players. You may really want or really not want to grab the +/-7 "Swat or Not" cards, for example, while singleton "Double or NoSting" cards might increase the value of a lot to you (if you've already got one of them and it's positive) or decrease the value of a lot to you (if you've already got one of them and it's negative).

On top of that individual valuation there's also some good brinkmanship in Swat!, as you try and press-your-luck as far as you can to get the largest set of cards possible ... just before someone else grabs those cards.

The result is a game that's very viscerally enjoyable. It's fun to play at a simple level. However, the game is also pretty shallow: there's not a lot to figure out beyond your one choice.

I think Swat! is quite well suited for family play, as kids will "get" it and adults will still enjoy it. More serious gamers should assess whether a game of this weight will work as a filler.

The visceral fun of Swat! has already been accounted for in its Style. Its Substance, which is more a rating of its depth, comes in at 2.

Conclusion

A fun and simple game of adrenaline-pumping card collection: good for families and casual play.