Review of Piñata Loca

Blurb from the publisher: 'Fill up the piñata with toys, candies and... useless objects! Try to guess what other players have secretly stuffed in and... break the piñata! Your intuition, observation, strategy and logic skills will guide you to the most Piñata Loca!'

What you get: Your EUR 15 or equivalent will buy you Piñata Loca, a light, abstract card game that accommodates two to six players in around thirty minutes. The rulebook contains the Greek, English, German and French Rules of the game, while the box also contains 96 Game cards and 4 Ability Reference cards. The game is colourblind-friendly.

Gameplay: The cards come in four colours which are visible from both sides. Each colour has 10 positive cards, 7 negative cards and 7 Ability cards. Each player starts with five cards, while four cards are placed face up on the table. The first player changes each round; it is always the lowest scoring player that goes first. In a round, a player has to play at least one card, or more of the same colour, into one of the four piñatas on the table. After doing so, he refills his hand back to five cards. If he can't play a card, a player passes. Cards are placed with an alternate facing in any given piñata. In other words, the odd cards in a piñata will be revealed to all players, while the even card in it will be hidden, showing their back. The seventh card in a piñata must have the same colour as the sixth one, and breaks the Piñata. The player then collects all the cards from that Piñata as points.

Ability cards are activated only when the card is played face up, not when it is played face down. Abilities, amongst others, include forcing a player to pass, removing the cards of a particular colour from the piñata and breaking the piñata irrespective of the number of cards.

The players decide at the beginning when the game will end. This can be either after three rounds, or when a player exceeds 60 points at the end of a round. The player with the most points is the winner. A round ends when all the piñatas have been broken or the last card of the deck has been drawn.

Two variants allow Piñata Loca to be played as a team game, or as a simpler game with younger audiences in mind (namely, by removing the ability cards).

The strong points: Piñata Loca resembles a traditional card deck game and is as straightforward as they come: gather the most positive points possible. There are only two rules to remember, meaning that the game can be either learned or taught in less than a single a minute.

This however does not mean that it is not addictive, or that it lacks tactical thinking. One's cards colours are visible during the game. Yet, if you are not paying attention you might lose high-valued piñatas due to a player placing multiple cards in succession because they belong to the same colour. The precise contents of a piñata are always a surprise. Do your opponents try to decrease the value of high valuing ones through the hidden cards, or are they bluffing you while they claim the prize? If you have many cards of the same colour, you can DIY your piñata as desired if you can afford to hit it in one round, knowing its pros and cons. It would be fair to say that there are multiple layers of deception, and even more so when more than two or three players fuel the same piñata. Memory skills are also of particular help.

The Ability cards work well. They feel balanced, taking my non-statistically relevant number of plays at hand. I would not however remove them from the game even when younger kids participate. The game becomes too much like a traditional card game otherwise and in some ways loses its appeal.

As much as it might not be the evening's attraction for committed gamers, I can easily see how it can become an evening's principal game for non-gamers or those who get obsessed with deduction, bluffing and games based on traditional decks of cards. It is definitely addictive. I wouldn't be so surprised if it is also used for some harmless betting.

The game is colourful and has art and looks that I can only characterize as very kid-friendly. The box is ultra sturdy. Seeing how it is only hosting cards, it is quite a surprise.

The weak points: Piñata Loca is unapologetically a filler, even though one that lasts a bit longer than usual. It is not that likely that a committed gamer will become engrossed by it, unless he decides to take it easy and relax with the family.

Like with any abstract game, there is practically no theme. Cute as the art might be, there is literally no piñata around.

Conclusion: I enjoyed Piñata Loca. It has a strong appeal to those versed in traditional card games yet who are not necessarily into gaming. Were I a couple decades younger, I could have seen myself playing it continuously.

For more info on Piñata Loca and Desyllas Games visit its website at http://desyllasgames.gr.

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