Title: Gudetama The Tricky Egg Card Game Holiday Edition
Designed By: Ben Eisner and Steve Ellis
Art by: Derek Charm and Wook-Jin Clark
Published By: Renegade Game Studios
Released: Original version in 2020, Holiday Edition 2021
Player Count: 2-7
Time to Play: 20 Minutes
Ages: 10+
Gudetama is back with a super festive retheme that we absolutely adore. For those unfamiliar with the original version of the game, Gudetama: The Tricky Egg Card Game (referred to as Gudetama from here on out), is a trick-taking game based on the European game Cucumber. Gudetama is a cute little egg who is the star of the game. In the holiday edition, Gudetama makes houses out of gingerbread and bacon, builds snowmen out of eggshells, and gets turned into eggnog. It is truly a delightful holiday game, that is easy enough that all of your family can play it.
How to Play:
The goal of Gudetama is to have the least amount of points at the end of the game. The rules are short, simple and straightforward.
To get started, shuffle all of the cards and deal each player 7 cards. These will be the only cards in play this round. Each round will consist of 7 tricks (in each trick players will get rid of one card, thus the round ends when everyone runs out of cards).
During the first turn of the game, a random player is selected to go first, but for all future tricks or rounds, the player who took the last trick will start the new trick.
On a player's turn, they have two options, play a card that is equal to or higher than the card that was just played. (If starting the trick, the leading player can pick any card). If a player cannot or does not want to play a card that is equal to or higher than the card in play, they also have the option of playing their lowest valued card. Once everyone has played their card for the round, the trick ends and the next trick begins. The person who played the highest card that trick will lead the next trick. There are also two special cards that can impact tricks and scoring in a fun way. 1's impact scoring if they are the last card played in a round and 14's impact who starts the new trick.
While for most rounds, winning the trick is helpful since it allows you to start the new trick, if you win the final trick of the round, you lose and have to score the amount of points played on your card. If a player ever meets or exceeds 21 points the game end is triggered nd whoever has the lowest total points wins.
What's purr-ty cool:
Gudetama is a small footprint game that is so easy to set up, teach, and play almost anywhere that it makes a purrrfect game to take with you for holiday gatherings. While we have not played the original version of the game, to our understanding the holiday version is the same just with alternate art. We love a seasonally appropriate game and the art for this edition definitely leaves us feeling festive. How can you not love an egg yolk who sleds on a piece of bacon?
One of my favorite things about Gudetama is that you do not need to be familiar with trick-taking games in order to learn and enjoy Gudetama. Our first introduction to trick-taking games was only last year when we played Macaroon for review, this makes Gudetama our second ever trick-taking game that we have played. We have discovered that trick-taking is a really easy mechanic to learn and teach. Even newer gamers can understand the concept of play a high or low card and don't play the highest card the last turn of the trick.
Gudetama is great for gamers who enjoy games where you only need to do a single action on your turn. A lot of light-weight games still involve multiple steps each turn, which is not always what new gamers are looking for. Having to only make a single choice each time it is your turn makings the entry-point to playing Gudetama really great!
Lastly, there are two small things I really like about Gudetama. First is that each card is marked with small black dots underneath the number. These dots indicate how many of that card are in the deck. This helps you figure out if the odds of someone playing a higher card are good or bad.
Second, is in the rulebook where they address how people can technically cheat by saying a card is their lowest card, even if it is not. I will leave the wording a surprise for you, but go check it out. It will make you laugh.
If you are looking for a quick, cute, portable game, that you can play with a fairly wide player count Gudetama will fit your needs!
The cat's meow:
"Just like Gudetama, I too love bacon. I try to steal it from mama whenever she has any. I would also want to keep bacon if I were giving it as a present. As I don't have any bacon, I am going to chew on this card instead" - Pudgy Cat
Disclosure: Pudgy Cat Games was provided a copy of this game in exchange for a review, however, this review reflects the honest thoughts of the author.
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