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Review of The Three Stooges Card Game
More than anything else, this is a game about beating up your friends with happy abandon. To this end, the players take on the role of Stooges in one of their slapstick fights. The game is played entirely with cards, and is fast paced, meaning that it travels well, and would be ideal for a quick game or two at a con. The players will need something to keep track of life scores, though, so remember to bring a pencil. The cards represent a variety of Stooge moves and fighting maneuvers which range from a poke in the eyes to a well-timed reversal. There is no set life score, and the player who has taken the least amount of damage at the end of the game wins.
Game play is fast and furious. In their role as Stooges, players take turns wailing away on the other players with attack cards, until they either run out of attacks, or a defense card is played. Once this happens, play passes to the next player etc. When the deck is exhausted, play ends, and the "Larry, Moe, Cheese" (huh?) phase begins, in which the most-damaged player is allowed to launch all of his remaining attacks. I found this rather like the final strike from a defeated player in Nuclear War.
Once the game gets going, it plays FAST! The game may be simple, but additional concepts that allow players to interrupt attacks with attacks of their own of the same type makes it more interesting. Example: I Poke Ken in the eyes. Yari also can also play Poke-in-the-Eye on Ken because both cards share the word Poke. The same goes for Slap and Big Slap! We had several epic beatdowns in our test games, and this added to the fun. Another fun addition is table talk, which naturally gravitates to "Stoogisms." Everyone in our group got into the spirit, and by the time the game was over, we sounded like an audition for a Stooges revival.
I should probably mention that this game works best with three people, but can support up to six. On the down side,with more than three, you'll have to combine decks. Fortunately, I received two decks, and by combining them played a five player game that was quite enjoyable.
The cards themselves are pretty sturdy, and even after our five player game played at breakneck speed, they seemed to hold up pretty well. The pictures on the cards are in classic black and white, and some of the more complicated cards have a bit of rules text at the bottom. The rules to the game give an overview of every card that could conceivably cause a problem, short-circuiting many arguments. Unfortunately, the rules are printed front and back on a set of cards, making them awkward to keep separate from the game and easy to lose.
On the whole, Three Stooges is a winner. Its simple rules, low price, and light-hearted fare make it a good family game. Best of all, since no one gets knocked out before the end, the game doesn't suffer from "Discouraged Player Syndrome." In one of our test games, Yari and I double-teamed Ken. Ken then came back in the "Larry, Moe, Cheese" phase to play kingmaker by wailing on me until I was the loser. The Three Stooges game may not be Chess or Diplomacy, but it does pass a few minutes pleasantly, and is cheap enough to pick up for the occasional evening of fun.
Note: For this review I received two free test decks from Dynasty Presentations, who have taken over distribution from Archangel. This in no way had any influence on how I reviewed the product.
Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 3 (Average)
