Something is amiss in the Animal Kingdom and Pet Detective Ace Ventura is nowhere to be found. That, of course, is where you come in. In “Face to Face”, a game that’s coming to Kickstarter on Monday, November 5th, 2018, tasks players with finding missing animals and putting them back in the environment to which they belong. The game supports 2-4 players and ages 4+, with an average play time of about 30-45 minutes. It’s important to stress that I received a prototype copy for preview purposes and as such, everything that you’re about to see and read about is subject to change. I should also note that (per FCC regulations) I was paid to cover this game, however my opinions are my own.
My prototype came with 120 face cards, 20 place cards, and 4 player cards.
Face cards show either the left or right half of a specific animal and depicts their native environment in the background. They also have stars in their upper corners (gold or silver) to indicate how many points they’re worth. There are some special cards in the face deck that allow players to perform special actions. For example, there are wild cards that take the place of any half of an animal, but it has no stars associated with it. The rat, on the other hand, is a bit more malicious in that you can place it on an opponent’s completed animal in order to reduce the points they’ve earned. Place cards come in four types: Pasture, Savannah, Jungle, and Arctic. Each is home to a total of four animals.
To set up the game, both decks are shuffled separately. Each player receives four face cards and one place card to form their starting hand. Hands are kept secret throughout the game. The player with the most pets becomes the first player.
A player will perform a total of two actions on their turn. They may A) Draw a Card, B) Play a Card, C) Trade a Card, D) Discard a Card, and E) Pass. Players can perform the same action twice if they wish and there is no particular order that needs to be observed.
Draw a Card – The active player may draw a card from either of the two decks, however they must observe a seven card hand limit at all times.
Play a Card – The active player may place a card down onto the table. Place cards must be put down first before any of its four respective animals can be placed onto them. Face cards must be placed as a pair…that is, you cannot place one half of an animal onto a place card without its other side. Place cards can hold a maximum of two animals.
Trade a Card – The active player may offer a trade. Trades are completely voluntary. Special cards may not be traded, and requesting a specific card with a specific star is prohibited. Rather, the request must be general along the lines of, “I’ll trade one penguin for a savannah card”. This still counts as an action if no one agrees to the trade.
Discard a Card – The active player may discard a card. This usually happens when a player’s hand limit is reached and they don’t have what they need to play anything.
Pass – The active player may pass one or both of their actions.
Scoring is fairly easy in that the stars determine the number of points earned for a completed animal. If both sides of the matching animal have gold stars, then the player earns three points. If both sides of the matching animal have silvers stars, then the player earns two points. No/Mixed stars earn the player one point. Wild cards, if used, have no stars and result in the matched pair being a maximum of one point, regardless of the color of the star on the other card.
The game ends when a player has earned 10 points or when the last face card is drawn signaling the final round of the game. All players in the latter case have one more turn and after that, the player with the most points wins.
Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you a good idea as to how the game is played.
You may have noticed that the recommended age limit was 4+ as stated in my opening paragraph. You’re also probably wondering how a four-year old is supposed to maintain a hand of cards and play somewhat strategically. Never fear. There’s a listed variant in the rulebook that turns this all into a simple matching game. That is, you’ll take the face cards of one environment and lay them out face-down. As you may have guessed, matching two halves will earn you points, though the stars score the same way here as in the original rules. Players may also opt to play the normal game and end the game at five points instead of ten for a quicker experience.
While not in the rulebook, you could also remove all of the special face cards from the game to eliminate some of the more aggressive plays. For example, one special face card has a player take a card from the player on their left or right. The rat card is also a bit aggressive and may result in some kids ganging up one on individual. I recommend a special rule that limits a player’s rat count to one…meaning if they have one already then they can’t be given any more. You just remove the rats altogether. The extra action card and the take any card from the discard pile card are obviously a bit more passive and of course, I leave it up to you as to whether or not to keep them in play.
“Face to Face” is as casual as they come and thus best enjoyed by casual gamer families with young children. There are plenty of choices on the market for the more experienced crowd, though I could easily see this being played in an elementary classroom setting of sorts. Preschoolers and kindergarteners would enjoy the simple matching variant while grades 1 and 2 would probably enjoy the base game. While the luck of the draw does play a heavy factor in whether or not you win, card counters will have the upper hand as it’ll help them decide which cards to discard when they’ve reached their hand limit.
You can learn more about “Face to Face” by visiting its Kickstarter page here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1892422115/face-to-face?ref=project_build#
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