Players:3+
Time: 60-90 minutes
Difficulty: 3 (of 10)

The Components

Spooks comes with a deck of 56 cards and a rulesheet in a small cardstock box.

The Cards: The cards are slightly smaller than regular card-size (perhaps a quarter-inch narrower than normal), printed on a sturdy card stock with rounded corners. The cards are all four-color, though in actuality the cards use very monochromatic pallettes (to good effect, as it happens).

Each card features a piece of art specific for its suit (of which there are five: goblins, spooks, spiders, bones, and bats) laid out in the specific color for the suit (green, light blue, dark blue, and two fairly indistinguishable shades of red). There's also an icon for the suit and a number for the card printed at each of the four corners. The "M"aster cards for each suit are the only ones with different artwork.

Visually, the cards are striking. The artwork is nicely moody, and shades within the monochromatic coloring are used to good effect.

However, the cards are notably lacking in the fact that they feature no explanations for how they work. Each of the three colors has a different playing style; each of the two red suits has a different penalty; and each of the five Master cards has a different special power using the advanced rules. None of this is reflected on the cards. Even if Steve Jackson Games had wanted to internationalize these cards, they could still have conveyed this information with icons. Determined players will pick up all the variants as they go along, but as the game stands it's literally a nightmare to teach, and not a lot of fun for new players.

The Rules: The rules comes on a single sheet of paper, folded into six panels, and printed black-and-white front and back. They do a fair job of teaching the rules and include a helpful summary of the various suit special effects. Some space is also spent on rule variants, which is a nice addition.

The Box: The box is a flimsy cardstock container that fits the cards. It's a two-deck box, with space for half the cards on either side, and there's no divider down the middle, so the cards not surprisingly are a pain to put away.

On the basis of the mood of the cards alone, I would have rated Spook's style above average. Unfortunately, because of the layout & design decisions made, Spooks is one of those games where the games actually deter the playing of the game rather than improving it. I've thus given Spooks an average rating of "3" out of "5" on Style. I would have gone even lower if I didn't think the deficiencies in the components would slowly fade away through continued play.

The Game Play

In Spooks your ultimate goal is to get rid of all your cards. This is done by following the rules for play determined by the last played card.

The Cards: There majority of the cards in Spooks are divided up into five different suits. There are two blue suits: Spiders and Spooks; two red suits: Bones and Bats; and one green suit: Goblins. Each suit includes 11 cards, running from 1 to 10 plus a Master card.

There's also one special card, the Black Cat. It's a sort of wild card, and can be played at any time.

Playing the Cards: Game begins with the player holding the 1 of Spiders putting it out. Afterward each player plays one card in turn, passing if he can't legally play a card (or chooses not to). What cards can be legally played are determined by the color of the last card played, as follows:

• Blue (Spiders or Spooks): Player must play a card with the next number in sequence (e.g., if there is a "2" of Spooks up, the player may play a "3" of any of the 5 suits). If a Blue Master is played, the sequence reaches its limit, and that player then gets to lead a new card to the discard pile.
• Red (Bones or Bats): Player may play any card in the current suit or any card matching the number of the last play (e.g., if there is a "4" of Bones up, the player may play any Bones or a "4" in any of the other four suits).
• Green (Goblins): Players play a "trick", with each player putting a card face down, then all revealing them. Players may play whatever card they want, but the player with the highest Goblin wins, and thus gets to lead the next card to the discard pile.

Not Playing the Cards: As noted above, players can pass if the are unable or unwilling to play. If play is currently "blue", there's no result--play continues as normal. However if play is currently "red", there's a special effect, depending on the current suit:

• Bones: The player who laid down the last red card gets to discard a numerical sequence from his hand (e.g., 2-3-4-5, with no concern about what colors or suits make up the straight). The player who didn't or couldn't play then gets to lead a new card to the discard pile.
• Bats: Every player gives one card to the player who could not play. That player then leads a new card to the discard pile.

Playing the Masters: In the advanced rules, the Masters also have some special powers which come into effect when they're played. They're a weird conglomeration because some benefit the player who played the Master and some are largely arbitrary:

• Spider: Can be played on any Spider card, regardless of number.
• Spooks: Everyone passes a card to the right.
• Goblins: Whomever plays this Master also passes one card to the player with the fewest cards.
• Bones: Reverses direction of play.
• Bats: Reverses order in which blue cards are played.

We didn't use these rules in our playtests because they seemed just one more thing to remember in a game that was already poorly documented by its components. Now, having really considered how arbitrary the rules are, I think it's just as well we didn't.

Winning the Game: A round of play ends when someone plays his last card. At that point all other players tally all points of cards still in their hands, with "M"s being worth 20 and the Black Cat being worth 30.

The game continues until one player reaches 200, at which point the player with the least points wins.

Relationships to Other Games

If you've read over The Game Play, you'll probably have recognized a very Uno-like game. At first I thought Spooks was a more strategic version of Uno, but after several rounds of gameplay I came to the conclusion that it wasn't more strategic, just differently strategic. There seemed to be some fairly general rules of strategic gameplay (e.g., "keep a good spread of numbers", "discard blues before greens before reds") that could be repeatedly used.

Of some interest is the fact that Spooks contains gameplay elements of many different classes of card games. At the heart is Card Matching play, like Uno or Crazy Eights, where the last played card sets the rules for the next played card. the red suits maintain that pattern well. However the blue cards mimic Climbing gameplay, as you'd find in Gang of Four, Golden Deuce, and many other Oriental card games. Finally, the green cards permit traditional Trick Taking play, just like Contact Bridge, Hearts, and most other games played in the Western World. That this single game combined all these forms of card gameplay is quite interesting, though in all honesty the connections are clunky.

The Game Design

Spooks is ultimately an interesting variant of Uno. The different rules for different suits produce some interesting variety. Beyond that, it's not very deep, and I think the strategy will quickly become stagnant.

My only real complaint with the game has already been expressed in the Components section. The game seems difficult, and is definitely hard to explain, and that's because of bad choices made when producing the cards.

With so little to say, it seems obvious that Spooks comes in with a totally average rating: "3" out of "5" for Substance.

Conclusion

If you like Uno and other family/casual card games, Spooks isn't at all bad once you get past the steep learning curve. It plays well and it'll probably introduce some variety to your card playing.

As a Halloween game, Spooks will also work well, because its nicely thematic and filled with spooky art.

However, if you're looking for more serious or strategic fare, you'll probably need to look elsewhere.