Tricky Kids Board Game Review
Trick taking games are generally not my thing, but when they are either A) cooperative, or B) unique, I’m interested in what they offer. Tricky Kids is tricky but is not for kids, as you’ll be using a dry erase marker to add your own number to cards. That is definitely unique, so it was something I really wanted to try out!
There are three suits in Tricky Kids, but none of the cards have numbers on them. That is where you come in, adding numbers prior to playing the hand. The catch here is that across your 7 cards, you can only have a total value of 21. So yes, you could technically put a 21 on one card, and 0 on the other six. I’m not sure that’s a good way to win, though.
Tricky Kids is pretty easy to understand, but counting cards and determining how many of a specific card type you have in your hand is pretty important. If you have a lot of one suit you might get away with winning a lot if you can lead, so you can save your high numbers to be the player to lead. Each hand, points are earned based on the next scoring tile; scoring tiles have all three suits listed on them, but different values of points. So one hand, blue might be worth the most points, while another hand red might be worth the most points.
There is a lot of interesting ideas here that I haven’t really seen before. I love the idea of using my own numbers, and taking into consideration how many of a single suit I have. It felt good to read the room and realize that I could lead a few 0 value cards, knowing my opponents had no matching cards to win the hand. It was a strategy I wasn’t expecting to enjoy so much, but it felt so good when it happened.
There are included cards to increase the complexity of the game, and while I appreciate having them in the box, our group has preferred to play without them. They seemed, in my opinion, to add to a game that actually didn’t need anything added to it. That said, they are an optional add-in so whether I like them personally doesn’t really matter – this is legitimately a to-each-their-own situation!
If you enjoy Trick Taking games and want something that feels a little unique, try out Tricky Kids – I think you’ll enjoy this one!
Article By Adam
