Simpler than it looks (Skip-Bo)

Name: gingerlicious

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Product:	Skip-Bo
Date:	29/05/08 (49 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Can adjust how long the game takes to play

Disadvantages: Looks hard to learn

This game looked awfully complicating when glancing at the instructions, and because of this, this birthday gift was left in the corner for quite a while, but eventually something inspired my sister and I to give it a try. This game first became commercially available in Texas in the 1960s, and is based on the old card game 'Spite and Malice' (also known as Cat and Mouse).

There are 162 cards, 18 of which are 'SKIP-BO' cards which the player can use to represent any number, the rest of the cards are numbered 1 to 12.

Each player has a stock card pile which contains either 30 or 20 cards depending on how many people are playing, and the aim of the game is to get rid of the cards. The rest of the cards form the 'draw pile'. The top card of a players stock pile is put face up. The first person takes 5 cards from this pile, and can place these cards down in up to four piles on the playing table. To start a pile the payer must put down a 1, and ony a 2 can be placed on top of that, and a 3 on top of that and so on. A players aim is to get rid of their stock pile by using the top card to create one of the piles, e.g. if your top stock card was a 5, and one the piles had a 4 on top of it, the 5 could be placed on the pile. If the player is able to put down their stock card, then they turn over the next top stock card and if possible put this down. If a player uses all five cards in their hand, they draw a further five cards from the draw pile and continue. A player's turn finishes when they have no possible moves left. When their go is done, they can put any cards from their hand down in four discard piles- piles where they can store cards for later use (in future goes, cards can only be put down if they are at the top of their discard pile). When it is the player's next go, they draw enough cards from the draw pile to make up the five.

This game, once learnt, is very enjoyable and is good for the rainy days. You can adjust the time the game takes to pay out by changing the number of cards in the stock pile, and this is a nice feature of the game.

Summary: Fun card game for two or more players